Latest news with #RajnathSingh-led
Time of India
25-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
With Rs 44,000 crore, India to revive minesweepers plan amid China threat
NEW DELHI: India has revived its long-pending case for the indigenous construction of 12 specialised warships to detect, track and destroy underwater mines laid by enemy forces to choke harbours and ports, disrupt shipping and maritime trade. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Defence ministry sources said the procurement case for the 12 advanced minesweepers or mine countermeasure vessels (MCMVs) for the Navy, at an estimated cost of around Rs 44,000 crore, will soon be placed before the Rajnath Singh-led defence acquisitions council for the grant of "acceptance of necessity (AoN)". The "open tender" or RFP (request for proposal) will then be issued for Indian shipyards to submit their techno-commercial bids. "It will take at least seven to eight years, if not more, for the first MCMV to roll out after the contract is inked," a source said. MCMVs are crucial in the backdrop of Chinese nuclear and conventional submarines, which can quietly lay mines, regularly coming to the Indian Ocean Region. Pakistan, too, is rapidly adding to its underwater combat fleet, with eight new Yuan-class diesel-electric submarines to be delivered by China. Indian Navy, alarmingly, does not have a single MCMV at present, with its earlier six Karwar-class and two Pondicherry class of minesweepers having progressively retired several years ago. The force is making do with "clip-on mine countermeasure suites" mounted on some ships to plug the critical capability gap when it needs 24 MCMVs to guard the country's 7,516-km long coastline with 13 major ports and over 200 minor ones. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Both state and non-state actors can choke harbours and ports by planting underwater mines, which are cheap and relatively easy to use, to blow up warships, merchant vessels and tankers. The acquisition case for 12 MCMVs had begun way back in July 2005, which eventually led to Goa Shipyard tying up with South Korea firm Kangnam to build the specialised vessels. The negotiations, however, remained deadlocked on the costs, technology transfer and build strategy. The Rs 32,000-crore project was finally scrapped by the ministry of defence in 2017-2018. With a displacement of around 900-1,000 tonne, MCMVs have non-magnetic hulls and high-definition sonars, acoustic and magnetic sweeps to detect marooned and drifting mines. The vessels then use remote-controlled systems like small underwater vehicles to detonate the mines at safe distances. The force currently has 60 warships and vessels under construction in Indian shipyards while it will also commission its second 3,900-tonne multi-role frigate built in Russia as INS Tamal at Kaliningrad next month.
Time of India
17-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
With Operation Sindoor still on, military gets emergency purchase powers
NEW DELHI: With India making it clear that the cessation of hostilities under Operation Sindoor is only a 'strategic pause' if Pakistan does not mend its ways in fuelling cross-border terrorism , govt has granted emergency procurement (EP) powers to the armed forces with an overall outer limit of around Rs 40,000 crore. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The EP-6 approval for Army, IAF and Navy to further boost as well as replenish their arms stockpiles was granted by the Rajnath Singh-led Defence Acquisitions Council just a few days ago, officials told TOI on Saturday. The first four EPs were granted during the military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh, while the fifth was for counter-terror operations. Under EP-6, the armed forces can fast-track multiple contracts, each worth Rs 300 crore, under both capital and revenue heads instead of following the normal long-winded procurement procedure. 'The contracts have to be finalised within 40 days, with deliveries to be completed in one year. The powers will be exercised by the three Service vice chiefs,' an official said. This will allow the armed forces to quickly build their arsenals of missiles and other long-range weapons, loiter and precision-guided munitions, kamikaze drones and counter-drone systems, among other weapons and ammunition. There is a 15% cap each on the total capital and revenue procurements of the overall defence outlay earmarked for the ongoing fiscal. 'All EP-6 purchases have to take place with the concurrence of the financial advisors, while special permission is needed for imports,' the official said. 'While the actual expenditure is likely to be less than the overall 15% outer limit, it gives the Services the requisite flexibility to meet urgent operational gaps and replenish their ammunition stocks depleted in the four days of intense hostilities from May 7 to 10,' he added. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now IAF jets, for instance, used BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, which are jointly produced in India with Russia, the Israeli-origin air-to-ground Crystal Maze-2 and Rampage missiles and Spice- 2000 precision-guided bombs, and French-origin Scalp cruise missiles and Hammer air-to-ground precision-guided munitions, for their precision strikes, as earlier reported by TOI. IAF also used Israeli Harop and Harpy kamikaze drones. Similarly, Army units launched loitering munitions like SkyStriker as well as fired 'smart' extended range artillery shells like Excalibur to hammer specific targets. The armed forces also used a wide array of weapons as part of the multi-layered air defence network. They included the Barak-8 medium range surface-to-air missiles, jointly developed with Israel, and the indigenous Akash missiles.
Time of India
03-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
More man-portable air defence missile systems coming soon amid rising India-Pakistan tensions over Pahalgam attack
NEW DELHI: The Army is going in for the procurement of another lot of man-portable air defence missile systems , which can intercept and destroy hostile fighter jets, aircraft, drones and helicopters at ranges up to 6-km, amid the ongoing tensions with Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror massacre. The defence ministry-Army on Friday issued the tender or RFP (request for proposal) for 48 launchers, 48 night-vision sights, 85 missiles and a missile test station of the very short-range air defence system-new generation ( VSHORADS-NG ). Vendors have been told to submit their bids by May 20. "The fire-and-forget VSHORADS-NG, based on infra-red homing technology, are needed by Army to meet the evolving dynamic air threat. There are major shortages in such man-portable systems for terminal and point defence against all types of aerial threats," an officer said. The RFP said the all-weather air defence system, which should have anti-jamming characteristics and be capable of being para-dropped, will be employed across all kinds of terrain, ranging from plains and deserts to high-altitude areas of around 4,500-metres. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Scarlett Johansson Shows Off Her Jaw-Dropping Figure - See Photos 33 Bridges Undo The indigenous VSHORADS being developed by DRDO is still not ready for production and induction, with the latest set of trials being conducted in Feb this year. Consequently, the Army and IAF had earlier also inducted a limited number of such systems under emergency provisions due to the military confrontation in eastern Ladakh with China. They included the Russian Igla-S man-portable air defence systems, assembled in India by Adani Defence. While the Army and IAF have the old Igla-1M systems since 1989, the shoulder-fired Igla-S is an improved variant with a longer interception range of up to 6-km. Now, the tense situation with Pakistan seems to have triggered a fresh round of procurements. A tri-Service case for acquisition of 5,175 VSHORADS and associated equipment was initiated way back in June 2009, which eventually led to the Igla-S system being selected over the French and Swedish systems in the fray. But the major project, which was to include an initial off-the-shelf purchase followed by technology transfer to Bharat Dynamics for subsequent production, did not take off. In Jan 2023, the Rajnath Singh-led defence acquisitions council had accorded "acceptance of necessity" for procurement of the infrared-homing VSHORADS missiles under design and development by DRDO at a cost of Rs 1,920 crore, as was then reported by TOI
