India: Military Snippets - 1

1. India successfully test fires third generation anti tank missile

On two successive days on August 6 and 7, Indian missile scientists successfully test fired the third generation hit-to-kill anti-tank missile, Nag, at Pokhran test range in Rajasthan, India. Media reports say on the first day the weapon system damaged the target, a stationary tank four km away. According to the Nag project director S.S. Mishra the missile achieved the maximum range and was on the target. The test-firing was preceded in the last few days by pre-launch transportation trials in the desert terrain "with full combat load"...

On the second day the third generation missile was successfully test fired on a "moving target.".Launched from the dedicated missile carrier, Namica, the fire-and-forget missile hit the specially-designed target, which was moving on rails at an intermediate range of two km.

2. Breaking the glass ceiling in the armed forces

A New Delhi report of August 6 says that the three secrvices of the Armed Forces have given in principle approval for the induction of women as permanent commissioned officers in non-combat streams. The Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) is expected to formally approve the proposal within the next month. According to media reports women granted permanent commission in all three forces are likely to be in position by 2013. So far women officers were given only short service commission. Short service officers cannot aspire for promotion to senior ranks. Grant of permanent commission will be a major shift in the staffing of Indian armed forces which are male dominated, with women holding senior positions only in the Army Medical Corps ann the Military Nursing Service. Perhaps the huge deficiencies in the officer cadre of the army induced the change over in policy on this aspect.

The Indian Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major, is reported to have said on August 7 that there could come a time in future when women could fly the IAF fighter aircraft. He was replying a reporter in New Delhi whether women could ever be fighter pilots in the IAF. The IAF chief quipped, "It may happen in future, why not. The women in IAF are doing a good job.". But the he added that there was no proposal as of now to induct women as fighter pilots. "No proposal is under consideration right now. We will have to give a lot of thought on it"...So the ceiling might be cracking but the lid is on the cookie jars.

3. IAF sets up aerospace control base

The Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal F.H. Major announced on August 8 that the IAF had set up a "dedicated space sub-branch" to coordinate all its activities on aerospace. The air chief said that the IAF had embarked on "a series of progressive steps to integrate assets in space into its operational plans". This was to synergise the capability that space provides along with the traditional systems in the IAF. "Military application (in space) is only beginning to find a foothold in this country," he added