Presenting a blueprint to the government on integrated theatre commands and creating them will now be a key priority, Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan said on Sunday, days after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh declared 2025 as the 'year of defence reforms'. Gen Chauhan also said that making a joint planning and operation room to help enable the three services to conduct integrated operations will be another focus area for the military under organisational and structural reforms. In a podcast, the CDS said joint doctrines are being prepared on subjects like multi domain operations, airborne and heliborne operations, network centric warfare, joint communications, conventional missile force, space, joint staff work, joint logistic architecture, etc. Work is underway on a 'Vision 2047' roadmap for the armed forces and it will be released in middle of this year, he said. The defence ministry's aim on theatre commands assumes significance as it virtually indicated a resolve to unve
Taiwan on Thursday demonstrated its sea defences against a potential Chinese attack as tensions rise with Beijing, part of a multitiered strategy to deter an invasion from the mainland. The island's navy highlighted its Kuang Hua VI fast attack missile boats and Tuo Chiang-class corvettes in waters near Taiwan's largest port of Kaohsiung, a major hub for international trade considered key to resupplying Chinese forces should they establish a beachhead on the island. The Kuang Hua VI boats, with a crew of 19, carry indigenously developed Hsiung Feng II anti-ship missiles and displayed their ability to take to the sea in an emergency to intercept enemy ships about to cross the 44-kilometer (24-nautical mile) limit of Taiwan's contiguous zone, within which governments are permitted to take defensive action. China routinely sends ships and planes to challenge Taiwan's willingness and ability to counter intruders, prompting Taiwan to scramble jets, activate missile systems and dispatch .
In a year bookended by intractable conflicts and geopolitical fragmentation, India focused on ramping up military prowess by broadly firming up defence procurement worth Rs 4.22 lakh crore even as Indian and Chinese militaries completed pulling back their troops from border face-off points in eastern Ladakh. The disengagement of frontline forces at the last two friction points of Demchok and Depsang along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) following an understanding reached on October 21 marked a major thaw over four years after deadly clashes between the two nations' troops in the Galwan Valley severely strained the bilateral ties. At the same time, the Indian military guarding the nearly 3,500 km LAC maintained an assertive approach, and bolstered its overall surveillance mechanism to closely track activities by People's Liberation Army (PLA) on the Chinese side of the de-facto frontier. The year also saw India expanding its strategic heft in the key maritime domain with the Indian
Indian Air Force's active squadrons have fallen to 31 against the authorised 42, with an ageing fleet and delayed inductions exacerbating the issue
Burkina Faso's ruling military junta issued a decree on Friday dismissing Prime Minister Apollinaire Joachim Kyelem de Tambela and announcing the dissolution of the national government. The military's leader, Ibrahim Traore, said officials in the dissolved government will continue to perform their duties until a new government is formed. No reason was given for the move. The junta in Burkina Faso seized power in September 2022 by ousting the military rule of Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba about eight months after it staged a coup to remove democratically elected President Roch Marc Kabor. The country is one of several West African nations where the military has recently taken over, capitalising on popular discontent with previous democratically elected governments over security issues. However, since its inception, the junta has struggled to end Burkina Faso's security challenges the very reason that it claimed had prompted it to take power. Growing attacks by extremists lin
Admiral Miao Hua, a member of China's highest military body chaired by Xi, is under investigation for 'serious violations of discipline'
Reports of a prototype reactor in Sichuan shed light on Beijing's long-term ambitions to expand its naval power
Myanmar's desperate military junta is ramping up attacks on villages that have fallen to opposition groups, carrying out beheadings, gang rapes and torture, with women, children and the elderly among the victims, the UN independent human rights investigator for Myanmar said in a new report. Thomas Andrews, a former US congressman from Maine, said in the report to the UN General Assembly circulated Friday that the junta has responded to military defeats and the loss of territory by using sophisticated weapons against civilians and seeking to destroy towns that it cannot control. Calling Myanmar an invisible crisis because the world's attention is focused elsewhere, he said, Escalating atrocities against the people of Myanmar are being enabled by governments that allow, or actively support, the transfer of weapons, weapons materials, and jet fuel to junta forces. Andrews didn't name the governments. But he praised Singapore for cracking down on weapons transfers that has led to a 90 p
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa witnesses fierce gunfights, a suicide bombing, and mortar fire as militants attack, leaving widespread damage and sparking calls for peace
Akash surface-to-air missile system battery being exported to 'friendly foreign country', widely speculated to be Armenia, though not officially confirmed
Indian Navy also conducted dual-aircraft carrier operations in June last year, involving INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant
UPSC CDS I 2024 Final Results have been released by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). A total of 237 candidates are named for various defence forces, in INA, IMA and Air Force
MOFA also thanked its allies for addressing China's provocations and showing concern for Taiwan in recent weeks
Chinese President Xi Jinping has inspected a brigade of the military's strategic missile force that underwent a massive purge of officials for corruption in recent years, according to a media report on Saturday. Xi on Thursday visited at Hefei the Chinese People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Rocket Force, a key arm of the military operating the missiles, including nuclear weapons, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. He urged the strategic missile troops to strengthen their deterrence and combat capabilities and resolutely fulfil the tasks entrusted by the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the people, the report said. The Rocket Force, established in 2015 as part of Xi's military overhaul, has been at the centre of the latest anti-corruption campaign targeting the military. Besides heading the ruling CPC and the Presidency, 71-year-old Xi also heads the Central Military Commission (CMC), the overall high command of the Chinese military. His visit to the Rocket Force, which operates
Dong's remarks come as communications ease between the US and Chinese militaries
Total of 10 Chinese aircraft and 6 Chinese vessels were detected operating in proximity to Taiwan
The move comes after Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu, a pro-China leader, insisted on the withdrawal of Indian military personnel by May 10
The United Nations' top court is ruling Tuesday on a request by Nicaragua for judges to order Germany to halt military aid to Israel, arguing that Berlin's support enables acts of genocide and breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza. Nicaragua's case is the latest legal bid by a country with historic ties to the Palestinian people to stop Israel's offensive. Late last year, South Africa accused Israel of genocide at the court. The cases come as Israel's allies face growing calls to stop supplying it with weapons, and as some including Germany have grown more critical of the war. On Monday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Israel must still do more to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into the besieged Gaza Strip. At hearings early this month, Nicaragua's Ambassador to the Netherlands Carlos Jos Argello Gmez told the 16-judge panel that Germany is failing to honour its own obligation to prevent genocide or to ensure respect of international humanitarian .
India was the fourth largest military spender globally in 2023 with an expenditure of USD 83.6 billion, behind the US, China and Russia, according to a report by an independent international think-tank. The report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) shared on its website in April also said the "rise" in global military spending last year can be attributed "primarily to the ongoing war in Ukraine and escalating geopolitical tensions in Asia and Oceania and the Middle East". The military expenditure went up in all five geographical regions, with major spending increases recorded in Europe, Asia and Oceania and the Middle East, it said. The report comes amid ongoing conflicts in various parts of the world such as the ones involving Israel-Hamas, Iran-Israel, Russian-Ukraine besides volatility in the Red Sea region. "World military expenditure increased for the ninth consecutive year in 2023, reaching a total of USD 2443 billion. The 6.8 per cent increase in 202
The UK on Tuesday pledged an additional $620 million in new military supplies for Ukraine, including long-range missiles and four millions rounds of ammunition, at a time when Ukraine is struggling to hold off advancing Russian forces on the eastern front line of the war, now in its third year. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday morning to confirm the assistance and "assure him of the UK's steadfast support for Ukraine's defence against Russia's brutal and expansionist ambitions, Sunak's office said. Sunak was travelling to Warsaw later Tuesday to meet with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for talks about further aid for Ukraine. Ahead of the visit, the UK government said Sunak would announce 500 million pounds ($620 million, 580 million euros) in new British military supplies, including 400 vehicles, 60 boats, 1,600 munitions and 4 million rounds of ammunition. The shipment wi