Subject - General Science
Chapter : India’s Defence Programme

India’s Defence Programme

The Supreme command of the Armed forces vests in the President of India. The responsibility for national defence, however, rests with the Cabinet. The Defence Minister (Raksha Mantri) is responsible to Parliament. for all matters concerning defence of the country. Administrative and operational control of the armed forces is exercised by the Ministry of Defence and the three Service Headquarters.   

Army

It is organized into operational commands, each under a General Officer of the rank of Lieutenant General.

The field formations in army are Corps, Division, and Brigade commanded by a General Commanding Officer and his rank is as follows:
1. Corps - Lieutenant General.
2. Division - Major General
3. Brigade - Brigadier

Territorial Army

• The Territoria1 Army was established in 1948.

• The Territorial Army is a voluntary, part-time citizen’s Army.

• In recent times, a maximum of 22 units were embodied in Operational Rakshak, Operation Vijay and Operation Parakram

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Navy

The Navy is organized into the following three command

• Around 97 per cent of India’s trade amounting to 273 million tonnes and valued at $83 billion annually comes from the seas.

• The entire import of more than 50 million tonnes of oil and gas comes by the sea. The air squadrons INAS311 and IN AS 350 were commissioned on 24th March, 2009. Indian Naval Air Station Parundu was commissioned on26th March, 2009 a Uchipull in Ramnad District Tamil Nadu. INS Airavat, The fifth-LST (L) Class Ship was Commissioned on 19th May, 2009 at Visakhapatnam.’INS Chetlat and Car Nicobar were commissioned on 16th February, 2009. ENS Cheriyarn and Cora Divh were Commissioned on 10th September, 2009. INS Shivalik was commissioned on 29th April, 2010

Coastguard

The Coast Guard was established as an independent service on August 19, I978as per the Coast Guard Act, 1978. Since its inception, the Coast Guard has acquired-a wide range of platforms both surface and airborne to undertake the assigned tasks during peace time and to supplement the efforts of Indian Navy during war

Air Force

The Air Force is organized into the following five (operation and two (functional) command;

Commissioned Ranks

The following are the commissioned ranks in the three Services; each rank is shown opposite its equivalent in the other Service:

Warships

• INS Savitri : First warship fabricated at the Hindustan Shipyard Limited; joined the Navy in 1990.

• INS Ghariyal : It is indigeneously built warship. It was commissioned into the Navy in 1997 at the Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers Ltd. Kolkata.

• INS Mysore : It is the second of the most powerful class of warships built indigenously by Mazagaon Docks Limited. It was commissioned in 1999.

• INS Brahmaputra : It has 16 Russian made Uran surface-to-surface missiles and its helicopters carry two long-range Sea Eagle air-to-surface missiles. It was commissioned in 2000.

Missile Boats

• INS Vibhuti : First indigeneously built missile boat, launched at the Mazagaon Docks, Mumbai in 1991.

• INS Nashak : Country’s third missile boat. Built at the Mazagaon Docks; it was launched in 1993.

• INS Prahar : It is the indigenously built fastest missile boat in the world. It was inducted into Navy in 1997. It packs a powerful punch in the form of Ship-to-Surface KT 138 Missile.

• INS Prabhat : It is built by Mazagaon Dock Limited to belongs to Nashak class of boats. Its weapon package includes surface-to-surface missiles with associated surveillance system.

Defence Undertakings

• Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)’s core business activities comprise of design, development and production of fixed wing aircraft (Fighters, Trainers and Transport) and Helicopters, their avionics and accessories and life cycle customer support through Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) of aerospace and products.

• Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has been accorded “NAVRATNA’ status company in 2007. BEL was established at Begalore by the Government in the year 1954 to meet the needs of the Indian Defence Services. The Company has developed core competencies in areas of (i) Radars, (ii) Sonars (iii) Communi-cation (iv) Electronic Warfare System (v) Electro Optics, and (vi) Tank Electronics. About 85 per cent of the turnover of the company comes from these business segments.

• Bharat Earth Movers Ltd. (BEML Ltd.) is engaged in the design, manufacturing, marketing and after sales support of a wide range of Mining & Construction equipment, Defence products and Railway & Metro products. BEML was established in 1965 and commenced operations from January 1965.

• Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI) was incorporated as a Public Sector Undertaking under the Administrative Control of Department of Defence Production & Supplies, Ministry of Defence in 1973.

Defence Research and Development Organisation

• DRDO, came into existence in 1958 with the amalgamation of Technical ‘Development Establishment (TDES) of Indian Army and Directorate of Technical Development & Production (DTD&P) with Defence Science Organisation (DSO).

• DRDO is headed by the Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri, who is also the Secretary 

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