Defence Current Affairs
· Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh has dedicated to the nation, the indigenously built Coast Guard Ship ‘Vigraha’ in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. According to the defence ministry, the 98-meter vessel will be based in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam (Vizag) and will be operated by a company of 11 officers and 110 sailors. The ship has been designed and built indigenously by Larsen & Toubro Ship Building Limited. With the joining of this ship, the Indian Coast Guard now have 157 Ships and 66 Aircraft in its inventory.
· The Indian Navy and the German Navy carried out a joint exercise in the Gulf of Aden near Yemen, in the Indian Ocean leg of Indo-Pacific Deployment 2021. The Indian Navy was represented by frigate “Trikand” while the German Navy was represented by frigate “Bayern”.
· The Indian Naval Ship, INS Tabar, is on her goodwill visit to the number of ports in Africa and Europe since June 2021 till September 2021. As a part of this visit, INS Tabar took part in the Maiden Maritime Partnership Exercise with Algerian Navy, off the Algerian coast, in the Mediterranean Sea. The Algerian Naval Ship ANS Ezzadjer participated in the exercise.
· Indian Army will participate in Exercise ZAPAD 2021, a Multi Nation exercise being held at Nizhniy in Russia from 3-16 September. ZAPAD 2021 is one of the theatre level exercises of the Russian Armed Forces and will focus primarily on operations against terrorists. Over a dozen countries from the Eurasian and South Asian Regions will participate in this signature event.
· The next Defence Expo will be hosted by Gujarat in 2022. This was announced by chief minister Vijay Rupani. The Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the Department of Defence Production and the Gujarat Government in this regard. About 100 countries are expected to participate in this biannual event. Defence Expo-2022 will be held in Gandhinagar from 10th to 13th March next year.
· India’s first nuclear-missile tracking ship, named INS Dhruv, has been commissioned from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The 10,00 tonnes satellite and ballistic missile tracking ship has been built by the Hindustan Shipyard Limited in collaboration with the DRDO and National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO).
· The Indian military contingent comprising of an all arms combined force of 200 personnel is participating in the Exercise PEACEFUL MISSION -2021, a Joint Counter Terrorism Exercise between Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states.
· The 8th edition of the Indian Army Chief’s Conclave, a gathering of serving and former Chiefs of Army Staff of the Indian Army, organised at New Delhi from September 16-18. The highlight of the three-day event will be the invite extended to former Chiefs of the Nepali Army, who were also Chiefs of the Indian Army.
· The 15th edition of Indo–Nepal Joint Military Training Exercise Surya Kiran will be held from September 20, 2021, at Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand. The previous edition of the Exercise Surya Kiran was conducted in Nepal in 2019. The exercise was called off in 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
· The 28th edition of the Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercise (SIMBEX) took place from September 02 to 04, 2021. The SIMBEX-2021 annual bilateral maritime exercise was hosted by the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN) in the southern fringes of the South China Sea.
· The 4th edition of AUSINDEX, a bilateral navy exercise between the Indian Navy and the Royal Australian Navy has begun from September 06, 2021, and will continue up to September 10, 2021. Indian Navy Task Group comprises INS Shivalik and INS Kadmatt. This edition of AUSINDEX includes complex surface, sub-surface and air operations between ships, submarines, helicopters and Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft of the participating Navies.
· Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria attended a three-day-long Pacific Air Chiefs Symposium 2021 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. The event themed ”Enduring Cooperation towards Regional Stability” was attended by air chiefs from countries in the Indo-Pacific region. Bhadauria was nominated as the Dean for the symposium.
· President Ram Nath Kovind has awarded the President’s Colour to the Indian Naval Aviation at a ceremonial parade held at the INS Hansa base near Panjim in Goa. The president was given the guard of honour by the Indian Navy on the occasion. The President’s Colour is the highest honour bestowed on a military unit in recognition of its exceptional service to the nation.
· The 3rd edition of Bilateral Exercise ‘Samudra Shakti’ is scheduled from September 20 to Sep 22. Indian Naval Ships Shivalik and Kadmatt had already arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia in the preparedness of this one of a kind exercise aimed at improving bilateral ties between India and Indonesia. The Indian navy will be participating in Samudra Shakti with the Indonesian navy to enhance mutual understanding and interoperability in maritime operations between the two navies.
· Indian Army will organize “Bijoya Sanskritik Mahotsav” from 26 to 29 September in Kolkata. This Mahotsav will be observed to mark the golden jubilee of the India-Pak war 1971. The event will be inaugurated by Lieutenant General Manoj Pande, Army Commander, Eastern Command.
· Ministry of Defence will procure 118 Main Battle Tanks, MBTs Arjun Mk-1A for the Indian Army. The order was worth Rs 7,523 crore with Heavy Vehicles Factory, Avadi to sharpen the army’s combat edge. It will support the Make in India initiative in the defence sector and it will help in achieving the goal of Aatmanirbhar Bharat.
· The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has carried a successful maiden test flight of a new version of the Akash Missile named ‘Akash Prime’ from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, Odisha.