Indian Military

NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force has bagged the 'Best Marching Contingent' award amongst the three Services at this year's Republic Day Parade while the Indo-Tibetan Border Police has been adjudged the best amongst the paramilitary.
More than 10 contingents of the three Services marched on the Rajpath and included horse-mounted columns of Army's 61 Cavalry, Punjab Regiment, Grenadiers Regiment, Rajputana Rifles Regiment, Rajput Regiment, Sikh Light Infantry Regiment, Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, 3 Gorkha Rifles and the Territorial Army along with a column each of the navy and the Air Force.
The marching contingents of paramilitary and other auxiliary civil forces included Border Security Force, Assam Rifles, Coast Guard, Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force, Sashastra Seema Bal, Railway Protection Force, Delhi Police, National Cadet Corps and National Service Scheme.
Among the 23 tableaux showcasing their respective states and ministries, the tableau from Delhi, with its theme of cultural and religious harmony in the national capital, has bagged the coveted first prize.

[Stratpost]

India has denied accreditation to members of the Chinese media for reporting the air show, Aero India 2011, beginning in Bangalore next week. This came out at the press conference held by the Secretary for Defense Production, Raj Kumar Singh to brief the media on the show. A Chinese journalist present at the conference complained that he and his colleagues had been unable to register for accreditation as the online registration form did not provide China as an option.

Singh was seen consulting his colleagues seated with him on the issue and as it turned out, they informed the media present that this was done on the direction of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, which has approved the list of countries from whom participation has been invited.

Besides China, Pakistan and Iran are also missing from the list of approved countries, both in terms of media accreditation as well as participation from vendors. “China was sent an invite for the last edition, but it did not participate.

New Delhi – The Indian Army can finally boast a stronger helicopter in its fleet with an upgraded version of the ‘Dhruv’ Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) which was handed over to them recently. These new helicopters incorporate a new powerful engine which will enable take-off and landing at a high altitude with ease and help to carry operations in the mountainous terrains of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), five new ‘Dhruv’ ALH developed by them were handed over to the Indian Army. The upgraded ‘Dhruv’ ALH Mark III have a stronger ‘Shakti’ engine developed by HAL and the French firm Turbomeca. The five new helicopters will be used for varied operations in the Siachen area of Jammu and Kashmir. Since the current fleet of Chetak and Cheetah helicopters are being overworked and cannot withstand the altitude and weather posed by Siachen, the ‘Dhruv’ ALH Mark III is the need of the hour for the Indian Army.

The Dhruv ALH is a multi-role helicopter developed and manufactured by HAL and has also been exported to Nepal, Peru, Ecuador and Israel, and is on order by several other countries for both military and commercial uses.

NEW DELHI: The Army suffers from acute gender bias to deny permanent commission to women officers who work shoulder to shoulder with male officers to assist and support troops in combat zones, Major Seema Singh has told the Supreme Court.
"The policies for women in Army not only discriminate her against male officers but also lower her status to that of a jawan/junior commissioned officer, whom she has been leading for 14 years," Major Singh said.
"They work for the Army for 14 years, which is neither pensionable nor gives her any retirement benefits. She is simply thrown out of the organization after 14 years and that too not on the basis of poor performance but due to her gender and left to fend for herself. The Army is using the policy of use and throw while dealing with its trained women officers," she said.
Women officers were not treated equal to gentlemen officers rendered unfit to serve the fighting arm of the Army -- infantry, armed corps, aviation, artillery and mechanised infantry.

JAMMU: China's presence in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is "increasing steadily" and its troops are "actually present" along the Line-of-Control, a top Army commander said, adding the Chinese footprints are "too close for comfort" for India.
"Chinese presence in Gilgit-Baltistan and the Northern Areas is increasing steadily... There are many people who are concerned about the fact that if there was to be hostility between us and Pakistan, what would be the complicity of Chinese. Not only they are in the neighbourhood but the fact that they are actually present and stationed along the LoC," Northern Army commander Lt Gen KT Parnaik said here last week while addressing a seminar.
He said China's links with Pakistan through PoK "lends strength" to the "nexus" between the two countries which is a cause of "great security concern" for India.
"As part of (China's) 'strings of pearls' policy, Chinese footprints are too close for comfort," Parnaik added.

BEIJING: China on Wednesday avoided giving a clear commitment to amend its system of giving stapled visas to people born in Jammu and Kashmir during a 50-minute talk between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese President Hu Jintao. The Chinese president said the matter was still being examined.
Talking to newsmen at Sanya in China's Hainan province, the venue of the meeting, national security adviser Shiv Shankar Menon said the issue of stapled visas was not discussed during the meeting as "work" is in progress in this regard. New Delhi is obviously heartened by China's decision to give normal visas to four journalists born in J&K, who are accompanying the Prime Minister.
On its part, India demonstrated its generosity by lifting the deadlock on defense exchanges that it had imposed last year after Beijing refused visa to an Indian general posted in J&K. National security adviser Shiv Shankar Menon announced in Sanya, the venue of the meeting, that defense exchanges will be resumed shortly.

JODHPUR: Strengthening its presence along Pakistan border, the Indian Air Force will deploy two squadrons of its frontline air superiority Su-30MKI fighter here.
"We have decided to deploy two squadrons of Su-30MKI fighter squadrons in Jodhpur in next two years," South Western Air Command chief Air Marshal A K Gogoi told reporters here.
Gogoi is on a three-day visit to the air force bases in and around Jodhpur.
Jodhpur will be the first Su-30MKI base along the Pakistan border. Till now, the IAF has deployed its main strike fighter in Lohegaon near Pune, Bareilly, and Tezpur and Chabua in Assam.
IAF also plans to deploy the aircraft at its Halwara air base in Punjab.
IAF has started operating Su-30s in high-altitude areas too and its squadrons on a regular basis practice flights from the Leh air base in Jammu and Kashmir.
Talking about strengthening air surveillance capabilities, Gogoi said medium power radars have been deployed under the command, which will be the first one to use them.

SRINAGAR: The Army on Saturday said Pakistan may sneak in more militants into Jammu and Kashmir to divert attention from its "internal problems" after the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
"It is quite likely that Pakistan under pressure, because of so many questions being asked (about Osama), could adopt a strategy of diverting attention which they have always done," General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Army's northern command Lt General KT Parnaik told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
He said as one of the tactic, Pakistan can send an increasing number of militants to Jammu and Kashmir.
"And one of the ways is to push in more people (militants) into J-K so that the attention gets diverted from their internal problems to external areas," Lt Gen Parnaik said.
The senior Army commander, however, said it is "not likely" there will be any "direct immediate fallout" of Bin Laden killing on India.

BEIJING: An eight-member Indian military delegation arrived in Beijing on Sunday on a week-long goodwill visit to China, marking the resumption of defence ties between the two Asian giants that were frozen for a year.
The multi-command delegation is headed by Maj Gen Gurmeet Singh of the Northern Command.
During the tour, the delegation will visit Chinese military units and hold talks with their counterparts in Beijing, Xinjiang and Shanghai, official sources in Beijing said.
This is the first Indian military delegation to visit China in about an year as an earlier delegation to be headed by the then Northern Command chief Lt Gen BS Jaswal cancelled its tour last year after China declined to provide regular visa to him.
This prompted India to put off the military exchanges until China changed its policy of issuing visas on stapled paper to residents from Jammu and Kashmir, being followed from 2008 on the ground that it was a disputed territory.
The issue, however, was resolved after China started issuing regular visas to several Jammu and Kashmir residents including some journalists who covered Sanya in China this year to report on the BRICS summit.

SRINAGAR: Police in Jammu and Kashmir have registered a complaint of abduction and rape based on allegations by a woman against two Army personnel.
Rukaya Bano, a woman in south Kashmir's Kulgam district, has alleged that two Army men raped her after abducting her when she came out of her home on Tuesday.
"She had gone out for ablutions at about 7 pm on July 19 and after that she did not return home. She came back July 21," her relatives told police.
They also said Rukaya had been forcibly detained by the two Army men in a meadow hutment for two days.
"We have registered an FIR (First Information Report) based on allegations of abduction and rape by the women. The guilty, whosoever it may be, will be brought to book," said a senior police officer here.
Massive protests broke out in the area following the woman's allegations. Minister of state for home Nasir Aslam Wani and Director General of Police (DGP) Kuldeep Khoda visited the area on Thursday when the statement of the woman was recorded in Damhal Hanjipora police station there.