Indian Military

NEW DELHI: India and the United Kingdom will embark on their annual joint naval exercise 'Konkan' off the coast of Goa starting Saturday keeping the focus on submarine operations including nuclear underwater vessels.
India will field its Shishumar Class INS Shankush HDW submarine and the British will have one of their Trafalgar Class nuclear submarines on show during the week-long exercise, Navy officials said today.
Though India has held a number of joint exercises with other countries where nuclear submarines were involved this would be the first time when the focus would be on operation of submarines, they said.
The exercise will help the Navy to hone its skills in operating nuclear submarines as it is expected to get the Nerpa K 152 nuclear submarine on lease from Russia and is also planning to induct the indigenous INS Arihant submarine in the near future.
During the exercise, the Indian crew will also get to visit on board the British nuclear submarine.
The British vessel will be supported by 'RFA Diligence', a dedicated nuclear submarine support vessel.

[Stratpost]

The Indian Navy has issued a Request For Information (RFI) for the procurement of a Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).

The RFI, issued earlier this month, is for the procurement of, presumably, Naval Rotary UAVs (NRUAV). While there has been talk, recently, of the possibility of Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout being procured by the Indian Navy, especially in light of the delays in the conversion of the Chetak helicopter into an unmanned platform, the navy’s stand is all vendors will have to go through this process begun with the RFI.

Besides Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout, the other contenders could be EADS’ Orka 1200, Boeing’s Hummingbird and Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) Malat’s NRUAV. But besides the Fire Scout, the navy understands the others to be still under development. The navy had a chance to consider the Austrian Schiebel’s Camcopter but has deemed it to small to match its requirements.