Operation Samudra Setu under progress

• INS Jalashwa, reached Maldives as part of this operation to evacuate Indian nationals stranded there due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.
• The Navy has deployed two ships for Operation Samudra Setu, which is part of the bigger ‘Vande Bharat Mission’.

MoD Signed A Contract With Turkey’s TAIS Shipyards For 5 Fleet Support Vessels

• India is going ahead with a $2.3 billion (about Rs 15,000 crore) deal to manufacture fleet support vessels (FSVs) in collaboration with a Turkish shipyard.
• This was done following a review after questions were raised on Turkey’s links with Pakistan and the recent diplomatic tiff with the Recep Tayyip Erdogan government.
• The formal contract was signed days after India issued a strong statement rejecting all references made to Jammu and Kashmir in a joint declaration by Turkey and Pakistan during President Erdogan’s visit to Islamabad last month.

Bharat Dynamics Bags orders from IAF for MRSAM

• Bharat Dynamics jumped 5% to Rs 224.85 after the company said it received a Rs 293.33-crore order from Indian Air Force to supply MRSAM missile sections.
• The order must be executed in next 24 months.

India’s Space technology startup VestaSpace raises $10 Mn from America

• VestaSpace Technology has received this amount in funding from American investment and advisory firm Next Capital LLC, which specializes in making small satellite platforms for commercial and scientific applications.
• The company has already been working with ISRO and has aggressive strategic plans to expand globally

U.S. Marine Corps to receive removable networking on the cutting-edge move technology

• Naval Information Warfare Systems Command engineers have transformed their signature Networking on the Move (NOTM) technology to be compatible with the Marine Corps’ recently fielded Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV).
• The new NOTM variant, called the “SWaP” (Size, Weight and Power), fits alongside a large antennae structure and other components on the JLTV that significantly restrict space.

Raytheon, Lockheed rolls into production latest version of Javelin missile

• The F-Model combines multiple features such as blast fragmentation and high-explosive anti-tank into a single warhead. Javelin has been used extensively in combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. U.S. and coalition forces have used the Javelin in more than 5,000 engagements since its deployment in 1996.

U.S. Air Force conducts training bombing close to Russia’s western flank

• Two U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer strategic bombers, after a transatlantic flight, conducted training bombing at the Tapa training ground in Estonia.
• This included integration and interoperability training with Danish F-16s overflying Bornholm Island in the Baltic Sea.

150 highly trained foreign terrorists in Kashmir Valley, say experts

• They belong to Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and are active in the Kashmir Valley.
• 13 of the 68 terrorists killed in Jammu & Kashmir this year were foreigners.
• Most of these are usually holed up in Pulwama, Anantnag, Kupwara, Shopian, Kulgam and Baramulla districts.

Four terrorists, including top Hizbul Mujahideen commander, killed in Jammu and Kashmir

• The Hizb commander Riyaz Naikoo, who has been on the run for eight years and carried a reward of Rs 12 lakh, was killed in his home village on Wednesday.
• In a simultaneous gun battle in another village in the district, two unidentified militants were killed, officials said.
• A police spokesperson said earlier in the morning that a top terrorist commander along with an accomplice was trapped in an encounter but did not reveal his identity.
• Later in the day, officials disclosed that the man in their sights was Riyaz Naikoo, operational commander of the banned Hizbul Mujahideen, and he was trapped in Beighpora village in Pulwama.
• Naikoo became the de facto chief of the terror group after the death of Burhan Wani, the poster boy of militancy in the Valley, in July 2016.
• Naikoo had managed to escape the police dragnet thrice in Shopian in south Kashmir.
• Declining to give details, officials only said they had launched a plan to nab Naikoo after establishing his presence in the village and wanted to ensure he did not escape this time.