Defence Current Affairs And Updates 26th June 2020

Hemanth Kasturi
June 26, 2020
536

Raksha Rajya Mantri Shri Shripad Naik inaugurates two-day Defence Conclave 2020 Gujarat

Raksha Rajya Mantri Shri Shripad Naik has said that India has emerged as a key global power driven by the impressive economic growth backed by its longstanding moral leadership on core humanitarian and geographical issues. He was addressing a two-day digital conference on the defence & aerospace manufacturing sector ‘Defence Conclave 2020, Gujarat’ via video conferencing, which is being jointly organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Gujarat and Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM).
Raksha Rajya Mantri emphasised that the huge opportunity and clear vision of Central Government for the defence sector today has attracted the attention of not only a few large players but also a large number of Micro, Small and Medium sized enterprises, which visualise this unprecedented opportunity as a gateway towards entering into the domain of defence production. He said, “The slowing down/ saturation of markets in other sectors has also been responsible for directing their interest towards the unexplored defence sector which promises sustained business opportunities. I have been informed that there are already over 8,000 plus MSMEs who serve this strategic sector as tiered vendors to Ordnance Factories and Defence Public Sector companies. There is a need to expand this base by hand-holding more and more MSMEs to participate.”
Pointing out significance of Gujarat, Shri Shripad Naik said, “Gujarat has emerged as a State with excellent infrastructure facilities and can offer both forward and backward supply chain linkages to the Defence & Aerospace manufacturing sector. The growth drivers for Gujarat include its vast coastline of 1,600 kilometres with well-connected ports, the MSME [Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises] engineering companies proving entire supply chain for defence sector, premier educational institutes in management, engineering, design, R&D and infrastructure planning and world class ship building and repairing facility.” He said that to capitalise on the emerging opportunities and for providing a thrust to the defence sector in Gujarat, the state government has come out with Defence & Aerospace policy and defence manufacturing zones have been marked.
The Conclave will bring together high-level government representatives, key industry and academia to discuss, deliberate and exchange ideas, viewpoints and knowledge about critical defence offset policies, sector analyses and review choices of technology available globally for the manufacturing and production of indigenous defence systems. The Conclave intends to build on the positives of the ‘Make in India’ vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for boosting the defence manufacturing.

Jamnagar air base to get new radar centre

To shore up defences along the China-Pakistan border, the Gujarat government took a major decision on Wednesday. It decided to allot 1400 sq m land for a new radar system at Jamnagar Air Force Station.
The Gujarat government took the decision after discussing border security in the Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday evening.
Jamnagar is home to several refineries and industries. It has the world’s largest oil refining and petrochemicals complex and also the second largest private refinery in India.
A modern radar system will not only improve the country and state’s defences but will also be helpful in protecting these important installations.
Jamnagar has base stations of all three wings of Defence: the Indian Air Force, Indian Army, and Indian Navy. Geographically Jamnagar supports all branches of defence, as it has access to the sea for the Indian Navy and a large air base due to the city’s strategic location close to Pakistan. The Jamnagar air base is reportedly the largest base of the South Western Air Command.

German state govt slams Pakistan for trying to obtain nuclear know-how illegally

German state government has slammed Pakistan on its proliferation record. According to a report by the southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg, Pakistan continues to engage in the proliferation of nuclear weapons of mass destruction and is trying to obtain know-how through illegal procurement from the country.
Annual report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Baden-Württemberg said, “Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and Syria are still pursuing such efforts. They aim to complete existing arsenals, perfect the range, deployability and effectiveness of their weapons and develop new weapons systems. They are trying to obtain the necessary products and relevant know-how, inter alia, through illegal procurement efforts in Germany.”
The report that gives the key developments on proliferation front for last year and was released on June 16 said, “As one of the leading industrial nations and home to numerous high-tech companies”, Germany is an important area of operation for these countries.
Pakistan has been under the scanner for nuclear proliferation. 2004 saw the country’s nuclear architect AQ Khan confessing his role in global proliferation including supplying designs to countries like North Korea. On Pakistan, the report said, “the country’s nuclear program is directed against arch-enemy India”.
The report highlighted that in order to circumvent existing export restrictions and embargoes, the countries mentioned in the report have developed new procurement methods. Under these methods, they can procure goods in Germany and Europe with the help of “cover companies” and transport dual-use goods.
The report explained, “production and proliferation” of weapons of mass destruction is “serious threat to peace and international security” and authorities have the “goal of preventing risk states from building and developing weapons of mass destruction and corresponding carrier systems”.
Potential proliferation sources of know-how, according to the report include universities, non-university research institutions and research and training departments of companies.

Stranded Indians In Iran have Embarked INS Jalashwa: Indian Navy

India’s warship INS Jalashwa, which has been deployed to bring back the stranded citizens from Iran under Operation Samudra Setu, had embarked on Thursday, said Indian Navy. They will be brought back to Tuticorin.
“Op #SamudraSetu. @indiannavy ship #INSJalashwa reached Port of Bandar Abbas, #Iran on 24 Jun 20 to bring back Indian citizens. Embarkation commences today,” Indian Navy tweeted.
On June 11, INS Shardul had brought back 233 Indians from Iran.
Operation Samudra Setu is a part of Vande Bharat Mission to bring back citizens stranded overseas amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Indian Navy had launched Operation Samudra Setu on May 8 to repatriate Indian citizens. INS Jalashwa and Magar have already evacuated 2,874 personnel from the Maldives and Sri Lanka to ports of Kochi and Tuticorin. On June 23, INS Airavat brought back 198 Indians from the Maldives.

Spain approves full-rate production of first 348 VCR wheeled combat vehicles

On Monday, Spain’s government approved the building of the first 348 VCR 8×8 vehicles (Piranha V) – out of a 1000- armoured fighting vehicles for the Spanish Army for a total amount of 2 billion euros.
The new vehicles are designed by General Dynamics European Land Systems-Santa Barbara to replace ageing fleet of the BMR armoured personnel carrier.

Imran Khan calls Osama bin Laden ‘shaheed’; says ‘Pak should never have taken part in war on terror’

Lashing out at the US, Khan said that American forces entered Pakistan and killed Laden without informing Islamabad after which everyone in the world started abusing Pakistan thereby causing embarrassment to the country.
He further said 70,000 Pakistanis died due to US-waged war on terror.
Operation Neptune Spear, 2011, was a precision strike operation executed by the United States Navy Seals in which the long sought after Osama Bin Laden was eliminated under cover of darkness in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

The two-day Defence Conclave 2020 at Gujarat is jointly organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Gujarat and
Ministry of Defence (MoD)
Ordinance Factories Board (OFB)
Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM).
Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar

ANSWER: C