INDIAN ARMED FORCES CHIEFS ON
OUR RELENTLESS AND FOCUSED PUBLISHING EFFORTS

SP's Land Forces - Issue 1 - 2020

Issue Features

• 

  LEAD STORY
  Changing Policy Environment Boosting ‘Make in India’
  By Lt General A.B. Shivane (Retd)

  The driver for a vibrant ‘Make in India’ will be the presence of a robust ecosystem energised and driven by the industry friendly policies, time stipulated outcomes with accountability and a policy of "Risk Sharing Gain Sharing".

• 

  MAKE IN INDIA
  Indian Defence Industry
  By Major General Arun Kumar Varma (Retd)

  In order for India to possess a technologically advanced and self-sufficient defence industry, a lot will depend on maintaining a conducive eco-system for all stakeholders and a robust framework for effective implementation of reforms.

• 

  MODERNISATION
  Indian Army Modernisation: An Update
  By Lt General Naresh Chand (Retd)

  Defence minister Rajnath Singh has cleared the restructuring of the Army headquarters which involves relocating 206 officers from the HQ to field areas

• 

  MARKETING FEATURE
  B05YA01 COMBAT MODULE FOR ARMORED VEHICLES UPGRADE
  

  The light-weight category combat vehicles (IFV, airborne assault vehicles, APC) are able to determine the combat potential of a country’s armed forces due to their application versatility.

• INDIGENISATION
  DefExpo India 2020
  By Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd)

  DefExpo India 2020 is being organised for the very first time at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. It is the 11th edition of DefExpo with SP Guide Publications as official media partner and the largest ever held.

• 

  SPECIAL REPORT
  Indian Army Inducts First Lot of Locally-Assembled M777 Artillery Guns
  By Vishal Thapar

  The Indian Army has inducted the first lot of Indian-assembled 155mm, 39 calibre M777A2 ultralight howitzers (ULH). This also coincides with its first M777 regiment getting its full complement of 18 guns.

• 

  SPECIAL REPORT
  Biggest Make in India Programme for Indian Army Dropped
  By Vishal Thapar

  The biggest Make in India programme for the Indian Army to produce 2,600 Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicles (FICVs) at an estimated cost of 60,000 Crore ($8.5 billion) under the Make-1 procedure has been dropped.

• 

  SPECIAL REPORT
  $930 Million Deal for 6 Apache Helicopter Gunships for Army Awaits CCS Approval
  By Vishal Thapar

  A $930 Million dea l for 6 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters for the Indian Army is awaiting approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

• 

  SPECIAL REPORT
  New Assault Rifles After 15 Years
  By Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd)

  Media reports of December 14 indicate that soldiers deployed on the borders with Pakistan and China have finally started receiving new assault rifles after a wait of almost 15 years.

• MARKETING FEATURE
  KORNET-EM NEW CAPABILITIES OF ANTITANK GUIDED WEAPONS
  

  Development and manufacture of antitank guided weapons have been carried out for half a century all over the world. Within this period these guided missile systems have turned out to be in the demand and most popular type of high precision weapons due to combination of such advances as simple operation, reliability, pin-point guidance and affordability.

• 

  TECHNOLOGY
  The Future of Warfare
  By Vishal Thapar

  Amidst a General view that it may have missed the bus on the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), the Indian Army has listed some of its modernisation priorities to India’s evolving Defence Industrial eco system in terms of key capabilities it needs to face future challenges.

• 

  APPOINTMENT
  Lt General Satinder Kumar Saini Assumes Appointment of VCOAS
  

  Before assuming the appointment of Vice Chief of the Army Staff, the General Officer was heading the Southern Command of the Indian Army.

• NEWS IN BRIEF
  Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh flags off 51st K9 VAJRA-T Gun from L&T Armoured System Complex in Gujarat
  

  Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh flagged off 51st K9 VAJRA-T Gun from Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Armoured System Complex at Hazira in Gujarat on January 16, 2020.

• 

  NEWS IN BRIEF
  India and Finland ink MoU to enhance bilateral defence cooperation
  

  Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence of Finland Jukka Juusti have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further defence cooperation between India and Finland on January 16, 2020.

• NEWS IN BRIEF
  Pakistan extends deadline for delivery of T129 ATAK Helicopters
  

  Pakistan has agreed to extend the deadline for the delivery of 30 T-129 ATAK attack helicopters by one year, to allow Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) to work around a US veto on the re-export of their turboshaft engines.

• 

  NEWS IN BRIEF
  Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM) Successfully flight-tested
  

  QRSAM system developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was successfully flight-tested from Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the Odisha coast on December 23, 2019.

• 

  NEWS IN BRIEF
  The CIO consortium signs contract for 30 "Freccia" 8x8 Medium Armoured Vehicles
  

  The contract for the purchase of 30 "Freccia" 8x8 Medium Armoured Vehicles (5 in Combat version and 25 in Anti-tank version) with ten years integrated logistics support was signed Italy’s General Secretariat of Defence and National Armaments Directorate.

• 

  NEWS IN BRIEF
  BAE Systems $2.68 billion contract for APKWS laser guided bombs
  

  BAE Systems announced that the US Navy has signed a $2.68 billion indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for the purchase of thousands of additional APKWS Laser-Guided Rockets which are combatproven and low-cost precision munition.

• NEWS IN BRIEF
  Pentagon (DARPA) contract for Lockheed Martin
  

  Lockheed Martin Corp., Missiles and Fire Control, Texas, has been awarded a $31,938,845 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to support the Operational Fires Integrated Weapon System Phase 3 programme...

• NEWS IN BRIEF
  Boeing gets a FMS contract for Apache AH-64E
  

  Boeing won a $564.5 million FMS to the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates and the UK for the remanufacture of Apache AH-64E aircraft.

• 

  Editorial
  By Jayant Baranwal, Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

  This issue of SP’s Land Forces coincides with the DefExpo 2020 and thus the lead article is on the nuts and bolts of ‘Make in India’ initiative pertaining to defence.