Daily pill of Defence - 22 March 2008

Firstly, wish you all a very Happy Holi.

I'll be posting snippets of Defense news for the day here - a collection of major news, blog reports, opinions and commentaries, and any other news of interest. Hopefully, it will be a daily thing. Lets see how that goes.

Heres the first post.
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Vietnam-era Navy SEAL honored for Rambo style rescue mission
FIDSNS

More than three decades after a daring attempt to rescue prisoners of war in Vietnam ended in tragedy, a retired Navy SEAL was honored March 18 in Coronado, Calif. for saving the lives of his comrades. Adm. Joseph D. Kernan, Commander, Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) presented retired Lt. (SEAL) Philip L. “Moki” Martin the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with combat “V” for valor during a ceremony at NSWC. (read more)

Defence Ministry goes 'soft' on China
Rajat Pandit, ToI

NEW DELHI: India's defensive and ultra-cautious mindset towards China has now firmly made its way even to the normally hawkish environs of the Defence Ministry (MoD).

The latest MoD annual report makes it seems that all is hunky-dory as far as the Chinese military threat is concerned..... (read more)

Vintage Pandit stuff - little source, lots of recycling. Ctrl C, Ctrl V. Still makes for interesting reading.

Private Sector in Defence: Mahindra Defence Systems: the niche player
Broadsword - Ajai Shukla

Mahindra Defence Systems (MDS), the defence division of the Rs 24,000 crore rupee ($6 billion) Mahindra Group, is hinging a major foray into defence manufacture on an anticipated surge in demand for “up-armoured light vehicles”, as security forces - army, paramilitary and police - gear themselves up to deal with growing internal insecurity. (read more)

An interesting piece with good photos of M&M defence vehicles.

Armed Personnel KIAs for 2007
MoD Press release

The Force-wise break up of Armed Forces personnel who died in action during 2007 is as under:

Army - 84
Assam Rifles - 11
BSF - 02
CISF - 02
CRPF - 71

ITBP - nil
SSB - nil
Total - 170
(read more)

RIP to the dead.

No Prisoner exchange for Sarabjit
Deccan Herald, New Delhi/Islamabad, PTI

India on Thursday firmly ruled out release of any Pakistani prisoner in exchange for Sarabjit Singh whose execution has been deferred by one month amid indications that it has been left to the incoming government to decide on his fate. (read more)