Indian Military

New Delhi– India’s ‘Nishant’ Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is finally ready for the Indian Army after a series of successful flight trials in Rajasthan recently. The Indian Army has taken the delivery of four Nishant UAV’s with ground systems and expects to order more in the near future.

The Nishant UAV has been indigenously designed and developed by the Defence Research & Development Organisation’s (DRDO) Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) laboratory. ADE specialises in UAVs, flight control systems and simulators.

The Nishant UAV will give a decisive edge to the Indian Army in the area of day and night battle-field reconnaissance, surveillance, target tracking and correction of artillery fire. The UAV can also be used for anti-insurgency operations in critical times. The electro-optical, electronic intelligence and communication intelligence payload on-board the Nishant UAV will enable it for an array of operations such as the above-mentioned ones. The Nishant UAV does not need a runway and can be launched from a hydro pneumatic launcher.

NEW DELHI: Sneha Shekhawat from Sikar in Rajasthan on Thursday created history when she led the Air Force contingent at the 63rd Republic Day parade becoming the first woman pilot to do so.

Flight Lieutenant Shekhawat was assisted by three other women Flying Officers Heena Pore, Anupam Chaudhary and Pooja Negi as the 144-strong Air Force contingent marched to the tunes of 'Air Battle'.

She was cheered by thousands of spectators as the commentator mentioned that she is the first woman to lead an Air Force contingent in the 63-year-old history of the parade.

Shekhawat is at posted with the IAF squadron at Hindon air base.

She was the face of elegance and confidence as she led the 144-member strong Air Force contingent marching to the tunes of its band playing 'Air Battle'.

The Agni-IV, successfully flight tested last November, stole the limelight as people cheered when the missile which can carry nuclear weapons was rolled out on the majestic Rajpath.

The Intermediate Range Surface-to-Surface Ballistic Missile mounted on a road mobile launcher was paraded by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

There’s no telling what hobbies can turn into, for obsessed-enough people. Apple’s Steve Jobs often refers to some of his company’s lower key projects as hobbies, which seem to be part technology-demonstrators, part proofs-of-concept and all meant to answer a what-would-happen-if technological inquiry, with the idea that if you build it, maybe they will come.

Augmented reality, now available on many smartphones, is a way of instantly contextualizing visual inputs, with sound or graphics. The idea being, holding up your cellphone camera up against a building, storefront or maybe even person and getting more information thrown up for it, listed on the internet.

Fabien Blanc-Paques in his lab.

New Delhi — In a first of its kind move, the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has decided to include the private sector for the ‘Rustom’ Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) project.

The Rustom UAV project is spearheaded by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), part of the DRDO and the private aeronautical firm Taneja Aerospace & Aviation has been selected for the development of advanced critical system technologies pertaining to the ‘Rustom’ UAV.

The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been significantly contributing to the ‘Rustom’ UAV and private firm Taneja Aersoapce & Aviation has already contributed to the prototype of the ‘Rustom’ UAV which is slated to fly in October. The areas wherein the private sector firm will contribute includes airframes and avionics. The ADE has just done the design and integration in the ‘Rustom’ UAV and other technologies and equipment have been outsourced through private firms.

The ‘Rustom’ UAV prototype can fly at an altitude of 25,000 feet for 12-15 hours at a speed of 180 kilometres per hour.

Minister of State for Defense Mallipudi Mangapati Pallam Raju, Minister of Communication and Information Technology Andimuthu Raja, Defense Minister Arackaparambil Kurian Antony, Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik and Minister of State for Communications Sachin Pilot.

The gigabyte digital information grid of the Indian Air Force (IAF), AFNET (Air Force Network) went live after Defense Minister Arackaparambil Kurian Antony inaugurated it in New Delhi on Tuesday.

A demonstration of the capabilities of the network was conducted with ‘a practice interception of simulated enemy targets by a pair of MiG-29 fighter aircraft airborne from an advanced airbase in the Punjab sector, neutralizing intruding targets in the western sector’, according to a statement issued by the IAF.

Network Centric Warfare ability was also demonstrated with video feed generation from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and pictures from an AWACS aircraft.

New Delhi — Indo-Israeli ties are expected to get another boost as the Indian Naval chief Admiral N.K.Verma is currently in Tel Aviv for a four day visit. Admiral Verma will be holding talks with Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak, chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi and Navy chief Eliezer Marom. The nature of defence talks will revolve around joint development projects including the potential sale of the jointly manufactured defence equipments to other countries.

India and Israel have been building up strong military ties and the current focus will be to collaborate on research and development (R&D). The areas where both countries could collaborate include Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), submarine based cruise missile, precision-guided munitions (PGMs) and third-generation night-vision devices amongst others.

According to sources, the growing Indo-Israeli  cooperation in crucial military equipment can be seen in the upcoming $2.2 billion deal between the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israeli Aircraft industries (IAI)  to develop a MR-SAM (medium-range surface-to-air missile), capable of detecting and destroying hostile aircraft at a range of about  70 kilometres.