Navy chief docks in Nagpur to inspect defence manufacturing units
1
2
3
Nagpur: Navy chief Admiral Dinesh Kumar Tripathi camped in Nagpur for two days, visiting both govt and private defence manufacturing setups and carrying out detailed inspections of the facilities.
The visit assumes importance as the armed forces are eyeing production of long-range missiles and even drones and counter-drone systems. The visit was significant in the backdrop of Operation Sindoor, said sources. It also followed a visit by Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) chairman, Samir Kamat, to the defence manufacturing establishments at Nagpur, a fortnight ago.
Tripathi, who reached Nagpur on Wednesday, first inspected the BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited (BAPL) unit in the city.
This was followed by a visit to Solar Defence and Aerospace Limited (SDAL), which makes ammunition and UAVs, and then JSR Dynamics on Thursday. An air bomb-making unit, the latter is promoted by the former vice-chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF), Air Marshal (retd) Shirish Deo.
BAPL, which is a joint venture between India and Russia, has a key unit at Nagpur apart from Hyderabad. The propulsion systems of BrahMos missiles are supplied by SDAL, which is also making the Pinaka rockets for the armed forces, apart from Nagastra loitering munition and other types of ammunition.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025
Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List
Undo
Nagastra was used in Operation Sindoor.
It was learnt the naval chief wanted to inspect the manufacturing facilities in the country, especially for making long-range missiles that can be fired beyond 400 km. Several variants for drones and even anti-drone mechanisms are being considered, said sources.
JSR Dynamics, which is the youngest among the three entities visited by Admiral Tripathi, is into development of air-launched glide weapons, miniature ground launch decoys, loitering munitions, long-range guided munitions, and rocket launch systems of different types.
Nagpur has emerged as a hub of ammunition manufacturing. Apart from defence PSUs carved out of ordnance factories, which have seen a major increase in its order book, even private sector industries have checked in to make high-calibre ammunition.
Follow more information on
Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad here
. Get
real-time live updates
on rescue operations and check
full list of passengers onboard AI 171
.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
14 minutes ago
- Indian Express
After all-party teams abroad, govt considers ‘Parliamentary Friendship Groups'
The government is deliberating forming multi-party 'Parliamentary Friendship Groups', which will interact with their counterparts abroad, following the success of similar delegations sent for global outreach in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor against Pakistan. Discussions in this regard will be held with all parties in the forthcoming session of Parliament, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said Monday. 'Several countries have such multi-party parliamentary groups, and they keep asking us to form them. These groups will regularly interact with their counterparts abroad and articulate House best practices and maintain communication between our and Parliaments of other countries,' Birla said on the sidelines of a conference in Mumbai. In a nearly two-hour meeting he held on June 10 with the delegations of MPs after they had returned from their tours regarding Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed pleasure at the 'success' of the endeavour and suggested that this could be institutionalised. The seven delegations that were part of those tours included members from all parties, and articulated the government's stand on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, rising above ideological differences. The heads of these delegations included Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, the JD(U)'s Sanjay Kumar Jha, the BJP's Baijayant Panda and Ravi Shankar Prasad, the NCP (SP)'s Supriya Sule, the Shiv Sena's Shrikant Shinde and the DMK's Kanimozhi. Birla is in Mumbai for a two-day National Conference of Estimates Committees of Parliament and State/UT Legislative Bodies. The event is being held after 23 years, and the discussions on Monday were held at the Maharashtra Assembly, and attended by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, Speaker Rahul Narwekar and Estimates Committee Chairman Sanjay Jaiswal, among others. The Estimates Committees of Parliament and state Assemblies examine government Budget estimates and prepare a report. Their recommendations are adopted by the government to prepare the Budget. So Estimates Committees examine government proposals for spending in advance, which is different from Public Accounts Committees, which audit government spending. Addressing the gathering, Birla said the conference was an attempt to bring greater transparency to government budgeting and spending. 'Parliamentary committees work as mini Parliament… The Estimates Committees essentially engage in monitoring of finances, in correct use of funds, and the evaluation of their use for public interest… This conference will share best practices of Estimate Committees of Parliament and various Assemblies,' he said. The Speaker said the conference would also focus on use of technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI). 'We will also organise training for members. The more we use AI and data analytics, the more transparent things will become,' Birla said. On the sidelines of the event, Birla said while almost 90% of the recommendations of the Parliament Estimates Committee are accepted by the government, in many states, such as Himachal Pradesh, only 15% of the recommendations are accepted. He said the two-day conference will look at how to bridge such gaps. 'Committees should not be criticising. They should be concerned with bringing transparency and accountability through discussion and production of evidence,' Birla said, while also calling for better coordination between the Estimates Committee and the PAC. In his address, Fadnavis said the committees work through the year and keep a check on the government, ensuring it is accountable to the House. 'The Estimates Committee is more dynamic as it is a panel that examines spending in advance. Whether the budget estimate is correct… whether it is even needed. It ensures accountability … In Maharashtra, about 65-70% of recommendations are implemented,' he said.
Indian Express
14 minutes ago
- Indian Express
When PM Modi went to Cyprus: A Mediterranean push, a buffer against Turkey
Written by Shairee Malhotra On June 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in the island nation of Cyprus on a two-day visit, marking the third by an Indian PM after Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2002, as a key stopover on his way to the G7 summit in Canada. This marked Modi's first foreign tour since Operation Sindoor against the backdrop of escalating tensions in the Middle East and volatile global developments. As evident in Modi's visit in February to the port city of Marseille in France, which also recently hosted the inaugural edition of Raisina MED — an extension of New Delhi's flagship Raisina Dialogue — India is keenly watching and investing in its outreach to the Mediterranean. With its strategic location in the Eastern Mediterranean at the crossroads of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Cyprus is positioning itself as a key partner and important node towards realising the India-Middle East-Europe-Economic Corridor (IMEC) linking India to Europe. This convergent outlook on connectivity underpins the two countries' interest in expanding ties. Modi's visit focused on boosting avenues for India-Cyprus bilateral collaboration across a range of sectors from trade and investment to innovation, security and connectivity, and mobility and tourism. Referring to Cyprus as the 'gateway into Europe' for Indian companies, President Nikos Christodoulides and Modi addressed economic stakeholders at the India-Cyprus CEO Forum in Limassol, pitching greater business linkages in the areas of civil aviation, shipbuilding, startups, infrastructure and innovation. Bilateral trade in 2023-2024 was valued at $136.96 million, and a newly launched trilateral India-Greece-Cyprus (IGC) Business and Investment Council is likely to accelerate this. Already, Cyprus, with a population of only 1.3 million, is among the top 10 sources of Foreign Direct Investment into India due to its friendly taxation regime and the routing of various European investments via Cyprus. Freshly signed MoUs between NSE International Exchange Gift City and Cyprus Stock Exchange will bolster financial ties. Moreover, Cyprus may become the second European country after France to adopt India's UPI for cross-border transactions. In tandem with recent custom, Modi also interacted with the 11,000-strong Indian diaspora in Cyprus, with plans for direct air connectivity and enhanced people-to-people ties on the radar. As the India-EU entente strengthens across multiple sectors from technology and trade to security and defence, this outreach to Cyprus forms part of a robust and expanded Indian footprint in Europe, moving beyond traditional power centres and tapping new geopolitically significant geographies. In recent years, New Delhi has deepened its engagement with the Central and Eastern Europe region, the Nordics, the Baltics and now increasingly the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, Cyprus's upcoming six-month Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2026 is an opportunity to shape narratives at the EU level and progress towards concluding the India-EU Free Trade Agreement, already touted as a priority by the Cypriot government. The visit was strategically timed on the heels of rising Indian tensions with Turkey that provided overt political and military support in the form of drones, cargo planes and a warship to Pakistan during clashes following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam. Since then, India has attempted to galvanise countries to unify against terrorism and consolidate global support following Operation Sindoor and its targeting of Pakistan's terrorist infrastructure. Both India and Cyprus have historically reinforced each other's positions in their respective regional disputes on Kashmir and Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus. Considered amongst India's most 'time-trusted and dependable friends', Cyprus has supported a permanent seat for India on the United Nations Security Council, and its entry into the Nuclear Suppliers Group. To counter a belligerent Turkey-Pakistan-Azerbaijan axis, India has systematically deepened relations with Greece, Cyprus and Armenia, which have their own troubled histories with this alignment. Against this backdrop, Modi's visit to the Green Line, the demilitarised buffer zone between Cyprus and the Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, was a symbolic act of solidarity with the former. The India-Cyprus joint declaration devoted a substantial section towards counter-terrorism efforts, including dismantling of terrorist infrastructure and safe havens, coupled with strong Cypriot condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist attack. The two countries are aiming to expand defence ties, building upon a previous MoU signed in 2022 and a Bilateral Defence Cooperation Programme (BDCP) in 2025, through greater defence industrial cooperation, new dialogues on maritime security and cybersecurity, and cooperation on crises responses and emerging technologies. Renewable energy is another area of convergence, given Cypriot efforts in gas exploration in the resource-laden Eastern Mediterranean and India's quest to diversify energy imports. As New Delhi and Nicosia upgrade their partnership and deliberate on the formation of a five-year roadmap for the future, harnessing economic and geopolitical synergies will pave the way for a promising, fresh era in Indo-Cypriot relations. The writer is Deputy Director and Europe Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation
India Gazette
25 minutes ago
- India Gazette
Indian Army places order of 450 NAGASTRA-1R loitering munitions from SDAL
New Delhi [India], June 23 (ANI): The Indian Army has placed an order on Solar Defence and Aerospace Limited (SDAL) for procuring around 450 NAGASTRA-1R loitering munitions, as per the statement by Solar Defence and Aerospace Limited. The Nagastra-1R is a cost effective system with full re-usability of launcher systems. The advanced Loitering Munition System with 360 gimbal camera with the option of putting thermal camera option for night operations, the statement further read. The systems has a proprietary encryption for both video and Telemetry communication and comes with high precision targeting system with 2 metres CEP and has more than 80% indegenous content. The systems have been tested at various locations, including Ladakh and Babina near Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, the statement added. Earlier on June 12, the Solar Defence and Aerospace Limited (SDAL) successfully completed the trial of its Hybrid VTOL UAV Rudrastra at the Pokharan Firing Range. The trial was conducted in accordance with the Indian Army's performance parameters, including vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), high endurance, precision targeting, and mission flexibility. The UAV demonstrated robust operational capability, covering a mission radius of over 50 km with a stable real-time video link and successfully returning to the original launch point. The total range, including loitering at the target area, exceeded 170 km, with an estimated endurance of approximately 1.5 hours. A significant highlight of the trial was the successful deployment of a precision-guided anti-personnel warhead. Dropped from medium altitude, the munition executed an airburst detonation at low height, achieving a lethal effect over a wide radius, meeting tactical effectiveness benchmarks. This successful demonstration marks a major milestone in India's pursuit of indigenized defence technologies and is a strong step toward Aatmanirbhar Bharat. In a related development, SDAL had earlier tested a new low-cost counter-drone solution in hard-kill mode, named 'Bhargavastra'. Designed to neutralise hostile drone swarms, the system employs micro-rockets to deliver rapid and effective responses. The trials were conducted at the Seaward Firing Range in Gopalpur on May 13 and 14 under the observation of senior Army Air Defence (AAD) officials. (ANI)
