While addressing a seminar on Rafale aircraft in the national capital, Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Between 2014 and today, in the purchases (in defence), including the ones done by Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, we deliberately not had any middleman coming into the corridors of South Block. She also spoke about how the opposition called the Indian Air Force Chief a ‘liar’ for calling Rafale a ‘good aircraft’. (Hindustan Times)read more

An Air India flight to Chandigarh from Pune along with the incoming flight from Hyderabad was also delayed read more

Training of pilots to fly the Tejas is now restricted to simulators and a couple of so-called “instrumented aircraft” with the Bengaluru-based Aeronautical Development Agency. read more

In a video posted on Twitter by the IAF, the Mumbai engineer narrated the episode and thanked the air force for saving him. read more

HAL’s finances have come under scrutiny after the defence minister listed orders that had been given to the public sector company and which are in the works and will soon be given to the aircraft manufacturer. read more

The Delhi High Court sought the response of the Anglo-Italian firm while stating that the “question as to whether the arbitration agreement stands nullified in the present case, owing to the allegations that there are allegations of corruption and fraud,... read more

In a blistering attack on the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that the party’s desperation was visible in their attack on a woman defence minister. Modi’s attack came hours after Congress president Rahul Gandhi had claimed at a rally in Jaipur that the PM had run away to Punjab and had left a woman to defend him in the Rafale debate in Lok Sabha. “On Rafale, when we raised questions in the Lok Sabha, we asked the PM to answer some questions. The PM didn’t come to the Lok Sabha for even a minute. Nirmala Sitharaman spoke for two and a half hours, but couldn’t answer our questions. We demolished her arguments. But the PM couldn’t show his face in Lok Sabha even for one minute,” he said. “He asked a woman to defend him, and you saw how for two and a half hours, she couldn’t defend him,” Rahul Gandhi said. Responding to Rahul Gandhi in Agra, Modi lauded Sitharaman and said it was the first time that a woman was holding the office of Defence Minister.read more

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Wednesday issued a notification announcing date and procedure for applying for National Defence Academy and Naval Academy Examination (I) 2019. read more

The contracts worth Rs 73,000 crore are for 200 Kamov 226T choppers for the Indian Air Force and army, 83 LCA Mk 1A aircraft for the IAF and 15 light combat aircraft for the IAF and the army. read more

Majority of the hardened shelters will be designed to house the Russian made Su-30MKi jets – the mainstay of IAF’s fighters. In 2016, a parliamentary committee on defence pointed to the fact that IAF did not have protective shelters to keep the Su-3... read more

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman slammed Rahul Gandhi for calling her ‘liar’. Minister was speaking in Lok Sabha today on Rafale fighter jets deal. Niramala said, “Even I have my respect, why should I be called a liar or the PM for that matter. I was insulted in this house. We come from an ordinary background.”read more

The fiery debate over the Rafale deal in Lok Sabha ended on Friday after a detailed response by Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. She not only attempted to poke holes in the Congress’s campaign alleging corruption in the Rafale deal but also accused the Congress-led government of keeping the on hold “over money”. But an unimpressed Congress President said that the minister did give a long reply but did not answer the basic questions that he posed. “You spoke for 2 hours but did not clarify that who decided to take contract away from HAL and give it to Anil Ambani or how did the price of the deal increase?” said Rahul Gandhi.read more

A HAL spokesperson said that to get the final operational clearance, the aircraft must have battle-time capabilities of mid-air refuelling, AESA radar, electronic warfare suites, a variety of bombs and weapons, among others. read more

“Give me 20 minutes,” Congress President Rahul Gandhi said at a press conference on Wednesday, challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a one-on-one debate on the Rafale row. The press conference came after a heated debate on the Rafale deal in the Lok Sabha. The Congress president also accused the Prime Minister of hiding from the uncomfortable questions that he had posed. He also used the occasion to brush aside strong denials from Panaji and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley about the audio tape that the Congress released today. The Congress says that the audio recording is of a Goa minister quoting Manohar Parrikar as saying that files related to the Rafale jet deal were “in his bedroom”.read more

Congress president Rahul Gandhi mounted a sharp attack on the government during the Rafale debate today, triggering a sharp back-and-forth between him and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Lok Sabha. Arun Jaitley refuted allegations that the government had not followed the due process in signing the Rafale deal and launched a stinging counter attack of his own on the Congress and Rahul Gandhi’s family. Jaitley also cited the Supreme Court’s refusal to order a probe into the deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter jets before rejecting the demand for a joint parliamentary panel to look into the deal.read more