India — Milestones in Indigenous Defence R&D during the YEAR 2011

Agni-IV &Shourya Mis­siles and IOC for LCA (TEJAS)
Capac­i­ty Build­ing: C‑130J, INS Sat­pu­ra, Fleet Tanker Deep­ak and 3G Net­work for IAF

Step­ping Stones: New OTA in Gaya and Foun­da­tion Stone Lay­ing for Coast Guard Acad­e­my and Nird­esh Ship Build­ing Insti­tute
2011, The Deci­sive Year for the MMRCA
Event of The YEAR: President’s Fleet Review of The Indi­an Navy
&Finally
Non-Event of The Year: IAF Chop­per Strays Across Loc and Returns hours Lat­er
 
(A)   NEW WEAPONS
1.     The suc­cess­ful test launch of the 3,500 km range Agni-IV Bal­lis­tic Mis­sile on Tues­day, Nov 15, 2011 was the high­light of the year.  A press con­fer­ence was organ­ised the next day, viz Wednes­day, Nov 16, 2011 for DRDO chief Dr. VK Saraswat, which was wide­ly cov­ered by the media, on the launch of Agni-IV from Wheel­er island off Oris­sa coast.
2.     Sixth suc­cess­ful test launch of Agni-AI Bal­lis­tic Mis­sile from WheelerIs­land on Thurs­day, Dec 1, 2011 by Armed Forces.
3.     Suc­cess­ful launch of Dhanush and Prithvi Mis­siles by the Strate­gic Forces Com­mand from Inter­im Test Range, Chandipur, Oris­sa and a war­ship off Oris­sa Coast on March 11, 2011.
4.     Suc­cess­ful launch of new Sur­face to Sur­face Tac­ti­cal Mis­sile ‘PRAHAAR’ by DRDO on Thurs­day, July 21, 2011.
5.     Suc­cess­ful flight test­ing of Sur­face to Sur­face Strate­gic Mis­sile AGNI (A‑II) on Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 30, 2011, from Inte­grat­ed Test Range, Chandipur, Oris­sa Coast.
6.     Suc­cess­ful flight test­ing of Sur­face to Sur­face Strate­gic Mis­sile PRITHVI (P‑II) on Mon­day, Sep­tem­ber 26, 2011, from ITR, Chandipur.  In col­lab­o­ra­tion with DRDO, DPR also organ­ised a press brief­ing on the strate­gic sig­nif­i­cance of the event on the same day.
7.     Suc­cess­ful flight test of the 700- km range SHOURYA Mis­sile from Launch Com­plex III of Inte­grat­ed Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off Oris­saCoast on Sat­ur­day, Sep 24, 2011.
8.     Suc­cess­ful launch of Prithvi (P‑II) mis­sile on Thurs­day, June 09, 2011
9.     The DRDO con­duct­ed the 5th suc­cess­ful flight of UAV ‘Rus­tom I’ near Hosur, Kar­nata­ka on Fri­day, Nov 11, 2011.
10.  Ini­tial Oper­a­tional Clear­ance Cer­e­mo­ny to LCA (Tejas) at Ban­ga­lore on Jan­u­ary 10, 2011.  Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony for­mal­ly hand­ed over the release to ser­vice cer­tifi­cate of Tejas Air­craft to the chief of Air Staff, Air chief Mar­shal PV Naik.
11.  Suc­cess­ful Engine Ground Run of LCA Tejas (Navy) at Ban­ga­lore on Tues­day, Sep 27, 2011.
12.  Kaveri engine being devel­oped by the DRDO for the indige­nous Light Com­bat Air­craft suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed the first phase Fly­ing Test Bed tri­als mount­ed on a mod­i­fied IL-76 air­craft in Rus­sia dur­ing April.
13.  Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony inau­gu­rat­ed the DRDO’s state-of-the-art com­pos­ite pro­pel­lant pro­cess­ing facil­i­ty – ACEM (Advanced Cen­tre for Ener­getic Mate­ri­als) at Nasik in Maha­rash­tra on Wednes­day, Jun 29, 2011.
14.  Indi­an Naval crew began train­ing in Rus­sia in April aboard the new Air­craft Car­ri­er Admi­ral Gor­shkov, being rechris­tened INS Vikra­ma­ditya, to be induct­ed into the Indi­an Naval fleet.
(B)   EXPORT ORDERS / ACQUISITIONS / CAPACITY BUILDING / OPERATIONS
1.     Chief of Naval Staff Admi­ral Nir­malVer­ma com­mis­sioned INS Sat­pu­ra, the sec­ond in the Shiv­a­lik class of war­ships, at a func­tion at the Mazagon Dock Lim­it­ed (MDL) in Mum­bai on Sat­ur­day, Aug 20, 2011.
2.     Com­mis­sion­ing of Fleet Tanker “Deep­ak” at Mum­bai by the Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony in Jan­u­ary, 2011.
3.     Induc­tion Cer­e­mo­ny of C‑130J ‑30 Super Her­cules Tac­ti­cal Air­craft at Air­force Sta­tion, Hin­dan on Feb, 05, 2011.
4.     The down select of two aero­space com­pa­nies for the MMRCA con­tract was the high­light of the last week in April.  Com­mer­cial bids were opened on Fri­day, Nov 04, 2011 for the con­tract relat­ed to pro­cure­ment of 126 Medi­um Mul­ti Role Com­bat Air­crafts (MMRCA) for the IAF.
5.     Smt. Mamatha, wife of Min­is­ter of State for Defence Dr MM Pal­lam­Ra­ju, launched the sec­ond indige­nous ‘Anti Sub­ma­rine War­fare’ (ASW) corvette ‘Kad­matt’ at a func­tion at the Gar­den Reach Ship Builders & Engi­neers (GRSE) in Kolkata on Tues­day, Oct 25, 2011.
6.     Com­mis­sion­ing of Indi­an­Coast Guard Sta­tion at Mundra in Gujarat by Vice Admi­ral Anil Chopra, Dir Gen, Indi­an­Coast Guard on Thurs­day, May 19, 2011.
7.     Foun­da­tion stone lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny of Indi­an­Coast­GuardA­cad­e­my at Azhikkal in Kan­nur dis­trict of Ker­ala by Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony on Sat­ur­day, May 28, 2011.
8.     Foun­da­tion stone lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny for the Nation­al Insti­tute for Research and Devel­op­ment (NIRDESH) in Defence Ship­build­ing at Kozhikode, Ker­ala by the Defence Min­is­ter, Shri A K Antony on 4th Jan­u­ary 2011.
9.     The new Offi­cers Train­ing Acad­e­my (OTA) at Gaya, Bihar was inau­gu­rat­ed by Lt Gen K Suren­draNath, GOC-in‑C, Army Train­ing Com­mand on Mon­day, July 18, 2011 and lat­er by the Army Chief Gen VK Singh on Mon­day, Nov 14, 2011.
10.  Com­mis­sion­ing of a Fast Attack Craft, INS Kabra,  at Naval Base Kochi by Vice Admi­ral KN Sushil on Wednes­day, June 08, 2011.
11.  Com­mis­sion­ing of Indi­an Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) C‑152 by Dr Vijay­alak­sh­my K Gup­ta, Sec­re­tary (Defence Finance) at Okha, Gujarat on Sat­ur­day, June 18, 2011 and lat­er ICGS C‑153 at Por­ban­dar, Gujarat by Direc­tor Gen­er­al, Indi­an Coast Guard Vice Admi­ral Anil Chopra on Sat­ur­day, Oct 22, 2011.
12.  Com­mis­sion­ing of the two Indi­an Coast Guard Ships C‑150 and C‑151 by Vice Admi­ral Anil Chopra, Direc­tor Gen­er­al Coast Guard at an impres­sive cer­e­mo­ny in Kochi on Mon­day, March 28, 2011.
13.  Com­mis­sion­ing of hi-tech 3G con­nec­tiv­i­ty ser­vices in the Air Force in March for enhanced oper­a­tional effi­cien­cy.
14.  Re-induc­tion of upgrad­ed AN-32 tac­ti­cal trans­port Air­craft into IAF in June, after the air­craft under­went total tech­ni­cal life exten­sion (TTLE), over­haul and re-equip­ment at Ukraine.
15.  Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Sci­en­tif­ic Advis­er to Rak­shaMantri, Sec­re­tary, Depart­ment of Defence R&D and DGR&D, inau­gu­rat­ed an inte­grat­ed microwave tube devel­op­ment unit in Ban­ga­lore on Sat­ur­day, April 09, 2011.
16.  DRDO ded­i­cat­ed Inte­grat­ed Ther­mal­ly Reg­u­lat­ed Shel­ters for use of the Indi­an Army in Leh, Ladakh on Thurs­day, June 16, 2011.
17.  Indi­an Army intro­duced in April bet­ter habi­tat for its per­son­nel at high alti­tudes.
18.  A US-based firm signed a licens­ing agree­ment in New Del­hi on Mon­day, April 25, 2011 with the DRDO to acquire the tech­nol­o­gy of Explo­sive Detec­tion Kit devel­oped by the High Ener­gy Mate­r­i­al Research Lab (HEMRL), Pune.
19.  An inten­sive anti-pira­cy oper­a­tion was launched by Indi­an Navy dur­ing the week end­ing Fri­day, March 18, 2011.
20.  Indi­an Navy war­ships appre­hend­ed an Iran­ian boat 400 nau­ti­cal miles off Lak­shad­weep, res­cu­ing 12 Iran­ian and 4 Pak­istani crew and detain­ing 16 pirates in a dar­ing oper­a­tion on Sat­ur­day, March 26, 2011.
21.  A Press Release and Pho­tos were released to the media on Fri­day, May 6, 2011 on the Indi­an Navy foil­ing a pira­cy attempt on a Chi­nese ship in the Ara­bi­an Sea, 100 NM off Kar­war.
22.  On March 11, 2011 Indi­an Navy War­ships assist­ed a dam­aged Egypt­ian reg­is­tered Ship take to the sea again that was released by pirates off Soma­lia
©   SECURITY ISSUES / POLICY / PROCEDURES
1.     For­mal unveil­ing of Defence Pro­duc­tion Pol­i­cy and Defence Pro­cure­ment Pro­ce­dure – 2011 by Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony on Jan­u­ary 13, 2011.
2.     Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony con­vened a high lev­el meet­ing of all stake­hold­ers on Coastal Secu­ri­ty in New Del­hi on Wednes­day, Aug 10, 2011 and anoth­er on Mon­day, Aug 29, 2011.  Shri Antony called for con­cert­ed efforts to avoid inci­dents like the ground­ing of MT Pavit on July 31 and MV Rak a week lat­er off Mum­bai coast. He also reviewed oper­a­tional­is­ing Phase-II of Coastal Secu­ri­ty.  
3.     Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony vis­it­ed the Desert sec­tor (Rajasthan) of South­ern Army on Mon­day, May 2, 2011 to review the oper­a­tional pre­pared­ness of the Indi­an Army.
4.     Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony vis­it­ed the North East on Feb­ru­ary 18–19, 2011.  He reviewed the secu­ri­ty sit­u­a­tion dur­ing his vis­it to Mil­i­tary instal­la­tions at Chabua in Assam, Ran­ga­pa­har in Naga­land, Kibithu in Arunachal Pradesh and Leimakhong in Manipur.
5.     Defence min­istry ordered a real­i­ty check on all defence land at the ground lev­el, to be under­tak­en by the Direc­torate Gen­er­al of Defence Estates.  In this con­text, a CD con­tain­ing data­base on all defence land records was for­mal­ly released by the Defence Min­is­ter at New Del­hi on Wednes­day, July 13, 2011.
6.     Min­istry of Defence decid­ed to go for open bid­ding to select an event man­ag­er for the Sev­enth edi­tion of Land, Naval and Inter­nal Secu­ri­ty Sys­tem Exhi­bi­tion (Def-Expo India 2012) sched­uled to be held in Pra­ga­ti­Maid­an, New Del­hi from March 29 to April 01, 2012, says press release on Mon­day, Oct 10, 2011.
7.     Improve­ment of rations sup­plied to the Junior Com­mis­sioned Offi­cers and oth­ers in the army, says a press release on Tues­day, July 12, 2011.
(D)   VISITS / OFFICIAL TALKS
1.     Defence Sec­re­tary lev­el talks between India and Pak­istan on the Siachen issue con­clud­ed in New Del­hi on Wednes­day, May 31, 2011.  A joint state­ment was issued at the end of the two-day talks.
2.     Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony went on a two-day offi­cial vis­it to Rus­sia to attend the 11th meet­ing of India-Rus­sia Inter-Gov­ern­men­tal Com­mis­sion on Mil­i­tary Co-oper­a­tion (IRIGC-MTC) on 4–5th Oct, 2011.  Defence Min­is­ter had stopovers at Dushanbe and Khu­jand in Tajik­istan dur­ing onward and return legs respec­tive­ly.
3.     The two-day vis­it of Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony to Kyr­gyzs­tan on July 4–5, 2011. Major devel­op­ments in bilat­er­al rela­tions includ­ed a con­tin­gent of Indi­an Armed Forces would leave for Kyr­gyzs­tan to impart train­ing to Kyrghz forces in UN Peace­keep­ing and impart Eng­lish lan­guage skills and Shri Antony inau­gu­rat­ing the Kyrghyz-Indi­an Moun­tain Bio­med­ical Research Cen­tre (KIMBMRC) in Bishkek.
4.     Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony vis­it­ed Japan from 01–03 Nov, 2011.  ADG(M&C), who was part of the high lev­el del­e­ga­tion accom­pa­ny­ing the Defence Min­is­ter, issued a press release and four pho­tographs from Tokyo despite the hec­tic sched­ule dur­ing the day long stay.
5.     Six day vis­it of Min­is­ter of State for Defence Shri MM Pal­lam­Ra­ju to Min­sk, Belarus in May, 2011.
6.     Defence Sec­re­tary Shri Pradeep Kumar and Mr Rudi­ger Wolf, Sec­re­tary of State, Min­istry of Defence, Ger­many led the respec­tive del­e­ga­tions at the 5th India-Ger­many High Defence Com­mit­tee (HDC) Meet­ing in New Del­hi on Wednes­day, April 06, 2011.
7.     Con­fer­ring of “US Army War Col­lege Hall of Fame” hon­our on the Chief of Army Staff Gen­er­al VK Singh dur­ing his vis­it to US, the first by an Indi­an Chief of Army Staff in the last two years to the Unit­ed States, from Mar 07–12, 2011
8.     Chief of Naval Staff Admi­ral Nir­malVer­ma par­tic­i­pat­ed in the 20th Inter­na­tion­al Sea Pow­er Sym­po­sium at New Port, Rhode Island, USA in Octo­ber, 2011.
9.     Chief of Naval Staff Admi­ral NirmalVerma’s vis­it­ed Rus­sia in July.
10.  Chief of Naval Staff Admi­ral NirmalVerma’s offi­cial vis­it to Indone­sia from Jan 10- 13, 2011.
11.  Chief of Army Staff Gen­er­al V K Singh went on a three day vis­it to Mon­go­lia in ear­ly Sep­tem­ber.
12.  Chief of Naval Staff Admi­ral Nir­malVer­ma went to Bangladesh in April fol­lowed by the Army Chief Gen­er­al VK Singh from 19–23 June, 2011.
13.  Gen Abdul Rahim War­dak, Min­is­ter of Nation­al Defence of Afghanistan, paid a three-day vis­it to India from Tues­day, May 31, 2011.
14.  Ger­man Defence Min­is­ter Karl zu Gut­ten­berg vis­it­ed India in Feb­ru­ary dur­ing AeroIn­dia and lat­er in May as part of Ger­man Chancellor’s del­e­ga­tion.
15.  Kyr­gyz Defence Min­is­ter Maj Gen Abibil­laKubaderdiev  vis­ite­dIn­dia in ear­ly Sep­tem­ber.
16.  Sin­ga­pore Chief of Defence Force (CDF) Lt Gen Neo Kian Hong vis­it­ed India from Nov 07–09, 2011.
17.  Maj Gen (Res) Ehud Shani, Direc­tor Gen­er­al Israeli Min­istry of Defence called on Chief of Army Staff Gen VK Singh in New Del­hi on Wednes­day, March 30, 2011.
18.  Com­man­der-in-Chief of the Viet­nam People’s Navy vis­it­ed India in late June, 2011 fol­lowed by a del­e­ga­tion led by Lt Gen Nguyen Chi Vinh, Vice Min­is­ter of Defence of the Social­ist Repub­lic of Viet­nam, called on the Min­is­ter of State for Defence Dr MM Pal­lam­Ra­ju in New Del­hi on Wednes­day, Oct 12, 2011.
19.  A five mem­ber Sri Lankan del­e­ga­tion vis­it­ed India for the inau­gur­al Indo-Sri Lankan Army to Army Staff Talks held in New Del­hi on Wednes­day, Jun 29, 2011.
20.  Lt Gen HlaH­tay Win, Joint Chief of Defence Ser­vices of Myan­mar called on Chief of Army Staff Gen VK Singh in New Del­hi on Fri­day, Oct 14, 2011.
21.  Mr Noh Dae-Lae, Com­mis­sion­er of Defence Acqui­si­tion Pro­gramme Admin­is­tra­tion (DAPA) of the Repub­lic of Korea, called on the Min­is­ter of State for Defence Shri MM Pal­lam­Ra­ju in New Del­hi on Mon­day, Sep 19, 2011.
22.  A del­e­ga­tion from Oman head­ed by Defence Sec­re­tary HE Mohammed Nass­er Mohamed Al Ras­bi vis­it­ed India from Mon­day, Sep 26, 2011.
23.   Vis­it of Mozam­bique Defence Min­is­ter Mr Fil­ipe Jac­in­to Nyus­si to India from Jun 27 to July 1, 2011.
24.  Gen of Army Ameri­coS­al­vadar de Oliveira, Com­man­der of Ground Oper­a­tion of Brazil, called on the Army Chief Gen VK Singh in New Del­hi on Mon­day, Sep 26, 2011.
25.  Vis­it of Defence Min­is­ter of Mal­dives Mr Thol­hath Ibrahim to India from Sep 11- Sep 15, 2011.
26.  Vice Admi­ral Nguyen Van Hein, Deputy Min­is­ter of Defence and Com­man­der-in-Chief of the Viet­nam People’s Navy, called on the Chief of Naval Staff Admi­ral Nir­malVer­ma and Chief of Army Staff Gen VK Singh on Tues­day, Jun 28, 2011.
27.  Vis­it of Gen Sir Peter Wall, Chief of Gen­er­al Staff, UK to New Del­hi on Thurs­day, May 19, 2011.
28.  Vis­it of Gen­er­al Elri­clras­torza, Chief of Army Staff of France, dur­ing Feb­ru­ary.
(E)   EXERCISES / INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
1.     The Army con­duct­ed a major exer­cise with the Indi­an Air Force in Thard­esert in Nov-Decem­ber. The army’s South­ern Com­mand and IAF’s South West­ern Air Com­mand are par­tic­i­pat­ing in the month long exer­cise ‘Sudar­shan Shak­ti’, dur­ing which Net­work Cen­tric War­fare and oth­er assets such as satel­lites, UAVs and HUMINT (Human Intel­li­gence) were inte­grat­ed and val­i­dat­ed. Pres­i­dent, Shri­matiPrat­i­b­ha Devis­ing Patil will wit­ness the exer­cise on Decem­ber 05, 2011.
2.     Joint Army-Air Force Exer­cise ‘Vijay­eeB­ha­va’ in North Rajasthan in May.
3.     The 8 day long  Joint Indo- US Sal­vage Exer­cis­es (SALVEX) of Naval divers off Port Blair coast began on 05 Jan­u­ary.
4.     Joint Indo-French naval exer­cise ‘VARUNA ‑10’, com­menced on Jan­u­ary 07, 2011 in Ara­bi­an Sea off Goa, with par­tic­i­pa­tion of air­craft car­ri­ers, destroyers/frigates, tankers and sub­marines from both sides.
5.     The Indo-French Army joint Exer­cise ‘Shak­ti’ at Chauba­tia, Ranikhet in Uttarak­hand con­duct­ed between Oct. 10–21, 2011.
6.     Turk­ish Naval war­ship vis­it­ed Mum­bai for joint exer­cis­es with the Indi­an Navy in the mid­dle of July, 2011.
7.     The Indo-Oman Air Exer­cise ‘East­ern Bridge-II’ con­clud­ed at Jam­na­gar, Gujarat on Sat­ur­day, Oct 22, 2011.
8.     SIMBIX 2011, the annu­al India-Sin­ga­pore bilat­er­al Naval exer­cise, con­duct­ed in March.
9.     Indo-Sin­ga­pore Armed Forces con­duct­ed joint train­ing in March.
10.  Vajra Corps con­duct­ed its annu­al exer­cise Pine Pra­har in May, in which over 200 tanks, ICVs and 12,000 men par­tic­i­pat­ed.
11.  Flag­ging-in cer­e­mo­ny of the joint Indo-Nepal Army Women Offi­cers Eco-Himalayan Trek in Nepal was held in Del­hi on Fri­day, Oct 28, 2011.
(F)   RESCUE & RELIEF
1.     Res­cue and relief oper­a­tions car­ried out after an earth­quake hit areas of Sikkim and North-East on Sun­day, Sep. 18, 2011. With­in hours of the dev­as­tat­ing tremors, the Armed Forces swung into action to reach out to the peo­ple in the affect­ed areas. DPR air­lift­ed 45 jour­nal­ists from New Del­hi to Bag­do­gra (for the first time by a C‑130J Super Her­cules air­craft, recent­ly induct­ed into IAF) on Sun­day, Sep 25, 2011 to have a first-hand expe­ri­ence of the dif­fi­cul­ties being faced by the Armed Forces due to freaky weath­er in car­ry­ing out res­cue and relief oper­a­tions in quake-hit areas of Sikkim and North-East. ted areas.
2.     Res­cue and relief oper­a­tions car­ried out by IAF in the flood affect­ed areas of Oris­sa in response to the call of the State gov­ern­ment. Atleast 26 peo­ple were killed and 1,200 vil­lages and 14 lakh peo­ple affect­ed as waters in Mahanadiriv­er rose in spate.Specialised UH3H Heli­copters air­dropped 30 tons of relief mate­ri­als.
3.     IAF evac­u­at­ed 181 Indi­an nation­als from Libya on board IL-76 air­craft on March 10, 2011.
(G)   SEMINARS, EXHIBITIONS, INITIATIVES, WELFARE MEASURES etc
1.     India’s pres­ti­gious Aero India-2011, the biggest of its kind in Asia, held from Feb.9–13, 2011, was the show­piece media event of the year.
2.     The 5th South Asia Con­fer­ence on Coop­er­a­tive Secu­ri­ty inau­gu­rat­ed by Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony on Tues­day, Nov 15, 2011.
3.     Inau­gu­ra­tion of the 13th  Asian Secu­ri­ty Con­fer­ence by the Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony on Feb. 16, 2011.
4.     Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony inau­gu­rat­ed the two-day ‘HydroIn­dia-2011’ an Inter­na­tion­al Hydro­graph­ic Sem­i­nar-cum-exhi­bi­tion, in New Del­hi on Thurs­day, March 03, 2011.
5.     Min­is­ter of State for Defence Dr. MM Pal­lam­Ra­ju inau­gu­rat­ed the two-day ‘Def­com India-2011’ in New Del­hi on Wednes­day, Nov 02, 2011.
6.     Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony inau­gu­rat­ed a joint ven­ture project between Indi­an Army and Indi­ra Gand­hi Nation­al Open Uni­ver­si­ty (IGNOU) ‘Gyan­deep Cen­tre of Excel­lence’ on Wednes­day, Sep 14, 2011.
7.     Navy Chief Admi­ral Nir­malVer­ma and Vice Chan­cel­lor of IGNOU signed an MOU on Fri­day, Jun 24, 2011 on IGNOU-Navy Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege Scheme ‘Sagardeep’.
8.     The Min­is­ter of State for Defence Dr M MPal­lam­Ra­ju launched a com­pos­ite herbal for­mu­la­tion named ‘Per­fo­max’, devel­oped by DRDO, at Leh, Ladakh on Fri­day, Sep 23, 2011 to improve phys­i­cal and men­tal per­for­mance of per­son­nel deployed in High Alti­tude and Hypox­ic Con­di­tions.
9.     Con­troller Gen­er­al of Defence Accounts (CGDA) launched a soft­ware project ‘SANGAM’ for Defence Pen­sion­ers on Wednes­day, July 20, 2011.
10.  For­mal hand­ing over of license to issue Dig­i­tal Sig­na­tures Cer­tifi­cates by the Con­troller of Cer­ti­fy­ing Author­i­ties (CCA) Dr. N Vijay Aditya to Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Mar­shall NAK Browne on Mon­day, Aug 29, 2011.  The IAF thus became the first defence organ­i­sa­tion and sec­ond gov­ern­ment body to receive the cov­et­ed license.
11.  Defence Min­is­ter com­mis­sioned two phas­es of the infra­struc­ture mod­erni­sa­tion project for Defence PSU Goa Ship­yard Ltd in Goa and lat­er inau­gu­rat­ed a hous­ing project at the Kar­war Naval Base in Kar­nata­ka on Sat­ur­day, May 21, 2011.
12.  NAC Chair­per­son Smt Sonia Gand­hi laid the Foun­da­tion Stone for the BasohliB­ridge, near Jam­mu, on Mon­day, 23 May 2011 in the pres­ence of Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony, State Chief Min­is­ter Shri Omar Abdul­lah and a galaxy of dig­ni­taries.
13.  Launch of a toll-free helpline for Ex-Ser­vice­men Con­trib­u­to­ry Health Scheme (ECHS) mem­bers in April.
14.  Shri Arvin­d­Kaushal, Prin­ci­pal Con­troller of Defence Accounts (Research & Devel­op­ment) hand­ed over to Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat, Sci­en­tif­ic Advi­sor to Hon’bleRakshaMantri, Secre­atary, Deptt. Of Defence R&D & Direc­tor Gen­er­al, DRDO, his  GPF State­ment for the Finan­cial Year 2010-11, at  a func­tion in New Del­hi on Thurs­day, March 31, 2011. This for­mal­ly marked the deliv­ery of G.P.F. Accounts State­ments to almost 20,000 sub­scribers of the DRDO locat­ed at such far-flung places as Leh in North and Tezpur in East, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment over the posi­tion in past years when these Accounts were giv­en to the sub­scribers in July and August 2010.
15.  In the mid­dle of July the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, in a his­toric judge­ment, recalled its direc­tions giv­en to MoD in which it had direct­ed MoD to set up a Com­mis­sion to look into the griev­ances of serv­ing and for­mer sol­diers of the Armed Forces.
16.  MoD’s deci­sion set­ting at rest the con­tro­ver­sy of the age of Chief of Army Staff Gen­er­al VK Singh was promi­nent­ly car­ried by the media in July.
(H)   CEREMONIALS, APPOINTMENTS & OTHER SIGNIFICANT EVENTS
1.     Gold­en Jubilee cel­e­bra­tions of the Lib­er­a­tion of Goa was cel­e­brat­ed through a series of func­tions from Dec 16, 2011 onwards at Pan­jim and oth­er places.  Chair­per­son of Nation­al Advi­so­ry Coun­cil Smt. Sonia Gand­hi in the pres­ence of Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony and oth­er high dig­ni­taries vis­it­ed Goa on Dec 17, 2011 and laid the foun­da­tion stone for the ‘Vijay Smarak’ being built in the hon­our of valiant free­dom fight­ers and sol­diers who laid down their lives dur­ing the oper­a­tion Vijay.  Lat­er Smt Sonia Gand­hi and Defence Min­is­ter attend­ed a thanks­giv­ing cer­e­mo­ny to record the grat­i­tude of the nation to our armed forces who freed Goa from Por­tuguese rule by suc­cess­ful launch­ing of ‘Oper­a­tion Vijay’.  In this solemn func­tion 15 offi­cers and per­son­nel of Indi­an armed forces who took active part in the Goa lib­er­a­tion were felic­i­tat­ed.
2.     The pres­ti­gious Pres­i­den­tial Fleet Review (PFR), a cel­e­brat­ed event held once in the tenure of the Supreme Com­man­der of the Indi­an Armed Forces, was held off Mum­bai coast on Dec 20, 2011 where the Indi­an Navy dis­played its naval might before the Pres­i­dent and the Supreme Com­man­der of Armed Forces Shri­matiPrat­i­b­haDe­vis­ingh­Patil.  Alto­geth­er 54 war-ships of Indi­an Navy par­tic­i­pat­ed in the review.  Pres­i­dent Shri­mati­Patil was giv­en a cer­e­mo­ni­al Guard of Hon­our on board INS Sub­hadra.  On this occa­sion a num­ber of pro­grammes includ­ing Navy Band dis­play, mar­itime exhi­bi­tion, release of com­mem­o­ra­tive stamp and release of a Cof­fee Table Book were also organ­ised.  Hon’ble Pres­i­dent for­mal­ly released the com­mem­o­ra­tive stamp and the cof­fee table book in cer­e­mo­ni­al func­tions.  Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony and many top dig­ni­taries of state and cen­tral gov­ern­ment also graced the occa­sion.
3.      Air Chief Mar­shal NAK Browne took over as the Chief of Air Staff from Air Chief Mar­shall PV Naik at a cer­e­mo­ny at the Air HQrs, VayuB­hawan on Sun­day, July 31, 2011.
4.     Shri ShekharA­gar­w­al, a 1977 batch IAS offi­cer, assumed charge of Sec­re­tary, Depart­ment of Defence Pro­duc­tion on Thurs­day, July 7, 2011.
5.     Smt. Vijay­alak­sh­my K Gup­ta took over as the Sec­re­tary (Defence Finance) on Fri­day, April 01, 2011.
6.     Pres­i­dent and Supreme Com­man­der of Armed Forces Smt. Prat­i­b­ha Devi Singh Patil award­ed Pres­i­den­tial Stan­dards to 31 Squadron and 9 Base Repair Depot of Indi­an Air Force for their out­stand­ing ser­vice to the nation at a cer­e­mo­ni­al func­tion at Pune in Jan­u­ary, 2011.
7.     Army Chief Gen VK Singh pre­sent­ed Stan­dards to 85 Armoured Reg­i­ment at a cer­e­mo­ny in Roor­kee on Fri­day, Sep 30, 2011.
8.     Cen­te­nary Cel­e­bra­tions of the Corps of Sig­nals on 17th  Feb., addressed by the Defence Min­is­ter, Min­is­ter of State for Defence Shri MM Pal­lam­Ra­ju and Chief of Army Staff Gen­er­al VK Singh.
9.     10th Rais­ing Day of Andaman and Nico­bar Com­mand (ANC), the first tri-Ser­vices Com­mand, cel­e­brat­ed on 10th Octo­ber, 2011.
(I)     SPORTS, ADVENTURE, CELEBRITIES etc
1.     Indi­an Navy’s San­jiv Rajput achieved dis­tinc­tion at the World Shoot­ing Cham­pi­onship in April.
2.     Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony Flagged in the ‘First Skii Expe­di­tion to South Pole’ at a func­tion in South Block, New Del­hi on Tues­day, March 01, 2011.
3.     Crick­eter MS Dhoni, Shoot­er Abhi­navBindra and Dr Deep­ak Rao were grant­ed Hon­orary Com­mis­sion in the Ter­ri­to­r­i­al Army.  Pip­ping cer­e­mo­ny was held on Tues­day, Nov 01, 2011.
4.     Defence Min­is­ter Shri AK Antony flagged in a 20-mem­ber IAF moun­taineer­ing team that suc­cess­ful­ly scaled the Mount Ever­est, at a cer­e­mo­ny in New Del­hi on Fri­day, June 10, 2011.
5.     Sum­mit­ing of Moun­tKamet by Corps of EME Team led by Major Vishal Ahlawat in June.
6.     Three women offi­cers of the Indi­an Air Force sum­mit­ing Mt Ever­est, press release on May 25.
7.     Pho­tographs and Press Release were issued on Mon­day, 09 May 2011 on an Indi­an Army Moun­taineer­ing Team sum­mit­ting­Mount­Manaslu, the eighth high­est peak of the world.
(J)    MISHAPSetc
1.     An Indi­an chop­per acci­den­tal­ly land­ed in PoK on Sun­day, Oct 23, 2011. The mat­ter was ami­ca­bly resolved the same after­noon and the chop­per returned to Kargil.
2.     In Octo­ber the IAF under­took exten­sive search and res­cue efforts in the high­er reach­es of Himachal Pradesh for a miss­ing Mig-29 air­craft that crashed dur­ing a night sor­tie on Tues­day, Octo­ber 18, 2011.  The wreck­age was sight­ed in a remote snow cov­ered area of Lahaul dis­trict.
3.     An Indi­an Air Force Mig-21 Bison air­craft crashed near Ambala Air Field on Sep 6, 2011.
4.     An IAF Mig-21 Fight­er Jet crashed at Nal Air­base in Rajasthan on Tues­day, Aug 02, 2011.
5.     An IAF Jaguar Fight­er Jet crashed near Gorakh­pur in Uttar Pradesh on Thurs­day, Aug 04, 2011.
6.     IAF pressed Sukhoi-30 MKI & heli­copters to trace the miss­ing chop­per of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Min­is­ter in May.