HCS Last One Year Current Affairs 2020: Defence Affairs Part-II

HCS Last One Year Topic Wise Current Affairs: Defence Affairs Part-II

Haryana Civil Services Exam

CURRENT AFFAIRS YEARLY 2020

Last one-year Current Affairs For HCS Exam: Defence Affairs Part-II

1. India and Russia -bilateral naval exercise INDRA 2020

• India and Russia will hold bilateral naval exercise INDRA 2020 in the Andaman Sea 
• The exercise is being conducted while the Indian Navy is on high operational alert due to the standoff with China in Ladakh.
• Three Russian Naval ships are to take part in the exercise on September 4 and 5. 
• The exercise comes just after India withdrew from the Kavkaz-2020 multinational exercise that is to be held in Russia.

2. Indian Navy and the Australia navy will be conducting a two-day mega naval exercise in the Indian Ocean commencing from September 23, 2020. 

• This will include various anti-aircraft drills, complex naval maneuvers, and helicopter operations.
• The exercise involves advanced surface and anti-air exercises.
• It also includes seamanship exercises, weapon firings, cross-deck flying operations, and naval manoeuvers.
•  HMAS Hobart will be deployed in the exercise by the Royal Australian Navy.  It is a lead-ship of the Hobart-class air warfare destroyers.
• From Indian side, Karmuk and Sahyadri ships will be a part of the exercise.

3. India has successfully launched flight tested Hypersonic Technology Demonstrator Vehicle (HSTDV).

• This is  a giant leap in indigenous defence technologies and a significant milestone towards a Sashakt Bharat and Atmanirbhar Bharat. 
• DRDO with this mission, has demonstrated capabilities for highly complex technology that will serve as the building block for Next Gen Hypersonic vehicles in partnership with industry
• Defence minister Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO for successfully testing the Hypersonic Technology  Demonstrator vehicle using indigenously developed scramjet propulsion system.

4.The Defence Institute of Advanced Technology, deemed university operating under Defence Research and Development Organization has designed microwave sterilizer called “ATULYA”. 

5.For the first time, the Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP) has sent female doctors to forward operating locations in Ladakh.

• From sending troops from Leh to taking care of them at the forward locations, the ITBP female doctors have given all kinds of charge.
• ITBP has changed its standard operating procedure (SOP), which did not allow any female officer to be deployed at such locations.
• The department, irrespective of gender, has sent female doctors and other staff a few weeks ago. The officials claimed that earlier, only male doctors were sent to the forward locations near to the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

6.Iran’s military has begun an annual three-day exercise Zolfaghar-99, near the strategic Strait of Hormuz

• Units from the navy and air force and ground forces are participating in a nearly 2 million-square-kilometer (772,200-square-mile) area of the Gulf of Oman. 
• Iranian submarines and drones were being deployed.
• The Iranian navy handles all operations in the Gulf of Oman on the eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of all oil traded passes.
• In August, the Iranian navy boarded and briefly detained a Liberian-flagged oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz.
• In July, Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard fired a missile from a helicopter targeting a replica aircraft carrier in the strait, an exercise aimed at threatening the U.S. amid tensions between Tehran and Washington.

7.The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has conducted a successful flight test of missile target vehicle -ABHYAS - High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT) from the Interim Test Range, Balasore in Odisha.

• During the trials, two demonstrator vehicles were successfully test flown.
• The vehicle can be used as a target for evaluation of various missile systems," Abhyas is designed and developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment, DRDO
• This is the second time that the target vehicle was flight-tested successfully. The first successful test was in May 2019. But during this test, Abhyas cleared all the parameters that were being evaluated.
• Abhyas is capable of fully-autonomous flight and runs on a gas turbine engine. Its inertial navigation system is based on micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and it uses a flight control computer for guidance and control.

8.A US Navy carrier strike group, led by USS Nimitz, is conducting basic maritime drills with Indian warships while on its way from the South China Sea to deployment in the Middle East.

• Called “Passex” in naval parlance, the basic manoeuvre comes at a time when Indian and China are locked in a tense border confrontation in Ladakh.
• The drills also come amidst mounting tensions in the South China Sea where the US Navy just conducted a major exercise involving USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan. 
• The Passex is nowhere near Andamans and Nicobar Islands. It is en route to the Gulf Region.

9.DRDO has conducted a successful night testfire of its indigenously developed nuclear capable surface-to-surface Prithvi-II missile as part of a user trial by the Army from a base in Odisha.

• The state-of-the-art missile was test fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur
• The trial was successful in meeting all the parameters.
• The trial of the missile, which has a strike range of 350 km, was carried out from a mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of the ITR.

10.The 13th edition of Aero India-21 is scheduled to be held at Air Force Station, Yelahanka, Bengaluru, Karnataka from 3 to 07 February 2021. 

• Raksha Mantri, Shri Rajnath Singh has launched the website for Aero India 2021. 
• Aero India is Asia’s largest air show and aviation exhibition held biennially in Bengaluru since 1996. 
• The website can be accessed at aeroindia.gov.in.

11. 4th edition of India - Japan Maritime bilateral exercise JIMEX

• JIMEX which is conducted biennially between the Indian Navy and Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force will be held in the North Arabian Sea from 26 to 28 September 2020.
• The last edition of JIMEX was conducted in October 2018 off Visakhapatnam, India.
• JIMEX 20 will showcase high degree of interoperability and joint operational skills through conduct of a multitude of advanced exercises, across the spectrum of maritime operations.
• JIMEX 20 will be spread over three days and is being conducted in a ‘non-contact at-sea-only format’, in view of COVID-19 restrictions.
• Indigenously built stealth destroyer Tarkash and Fleet Tanker Deepak will represent the Indian Navy.

 12.''Naseem-Al-Bahr'' (or sea breeze) is a naval exercise between the Indian Navy and the Royal Navy of Oman, being conducted since 1993.

• Two ships of the Royal Navy of Oman  (RNOV Al Rasikh and RNOV Khassab)  arrived in Goa to participate in the 12th edition of the Indo-Oman bilateral naval exercise ''Naseem-Al-Bahr'',
• Indian Navy ships Beas and Subhadra are participating in it, with harbour phase in Goa followed by sea phase off the Goa coast.
• The ships will conduct subject matter expert exchanges on professional topics.
• The harbour phase also includes sports activities between the Indian Navy and the RNO personnel, reciprocal receptions and planning conferences for the sea phase of the exercise. 

13.The Aerospace Startup Skyroot Aerospace has test fired an upper stage rocket engine “Raman” and has become the first Indian private company to demonstrate the capability of homegrown rocket engines.

• The 3D printed rocket engine was named after the Nobel Laureate Sir C V Raman. 
• The rocket had fewer moving parts and weighed half of conventional rocket engines. 
• The rocket was developed by the Skyroot firm that is headquartered at Hyderabad. The Skyroot Aerospace was founded by former scientists of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization).

14.An Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) for the Indian Coast Guard was launched and re-christened as Indian Coast Guard Ship ‘Sarthak’ 

• The launching ceremony at Goa Shipyard Limited, GSL, Yard 1236, was conducted through video conferencing from Coast Guard headquarters at New Delhi, while adhering to GoI protocol on global pandemic COVID-19.
• Defence Secretary, Dr Ajay Kumar; Director General Indian Coast Guard Shri K Natarajan; and senior officials of MoD were present.  
• OPV Sarthak is the 4th in the series of five OPVs. 
• It has been designed & built indigenously by M/s Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) in line with the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Make in India

15.Israel has successfully tested its advanced missile defence system, “Arrow-2” ballistic missile interceptor.

• The Missile test was conducted in the test site in Central Israel over the Mediterranean Sea.
• The Missile Defense Agency of the United States of America along with Israeli Air Force and Israel Aerospace Industries conducted the testing.
• The Arrow-2 interceptor engaged a Sparrow target missile which stimulated a long-range surface to surface missile, performed the planned trajectory and destroyed the target.

16.The aircraft carrier, INS Viraat that served the Indian Navy for more than 30 years is to be dismantled at Alang, Gujarat. 

• The ship was decommissioned three years back.
• INS Viraat is the longest serving ship of the Indian Navy. It was inducted into the Indian Navy in 1987. 
• It was recently bought by a metal scrap company for Rs 38.54 crores. The ship is to be towed from Naval Dockyard in Mumbai to the ship breaking yard at Alang. It will take nine to twelve months to completely scrap the ship.

17.The Indian Air Force launched ‘MY IAF’ mobile application to provide career-related information for those aspiring to join IAF. 

• The application was developed in association with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
• It will  provide career related information and job details in Indian Air Force(IAF) to the candidates.
• This will provide insights about the Indian Air Force training centres and about life in IAF and helps to explore career opportunities.

18.AstroSat, India's first multi-wavelength satellite has detected an extreme ultraviolet (UV) light from a galaxy which is 9.3 billion light-years away from Earth

• A global team led by Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) scientists have achieved the major breakthrough.
• The discovery was made by an international team of astronomers led by Dr Kanak Saha, associate professor of astronomy at the IUCAA
• This team comprised scientists from India, France, Switzerland, the USA, Japan and The Netherlands.
• Saha and his team observed the galaxy, which is located in the Hubble Extreme Deep field, through AstroSat.

19.Five Indian Air Force Rafale operated by Indian Air Force pilots took off from Dassault Aviation Mérignac facility to ferry to Ambala Air Force Station for entering service in No. 17 Squadron “Golden Arrows”.

• After a complete training of Indian pilots and technicians by Dassault Aviation, with the French Air Force participation, the Indian Air Force will fully perform this first ferry, including an air-to-air refueling, with the dedicated support of the French Air Force. 
• The first fighter jet was handed over to the Indian Air Force in October 2019, in France.
• Ten aircraft have been delivered on schedule, as per a statement by the Indian Embassy in France. Of these ten, five have left for India, while the other five will remain in France for training missions.

20.The Defence Ministry gave its approval to the Indian Air Force to speedily procure 21 MiG-29 fighter jets besides 12 Sukhoi MK1 from Russia worth Rs 38,900 crore.

• The Defence Ministry’s Defence Acquisition Council gave its nod for:
• 21 MiG-29 fighter jets to be procured from Russia
• 12 Su-30 MKi aircraft to be bought from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL)
• Upgrade of the existing 59 MiG-29 aircraftWhile the MIG 29 procurement and upgradation from Russia is estimated to cost ?7,418 crores, the Su-30 MKI will be procured from HAL at an estimated cost of ?10,730 crores,"

21.NASA will send a football stadium sized balloon into the stratosphere. 

• The balloon will observe wavelengths of invisible light from the earth.
• The balloon has a telescope, subsystems, science instruments, electronic systems and cooling systems.
• ASTHROS is Astrophysics Stratospheric Telescope for High Spectral Resolution Observation as Sub millimeter wavelengths. The mission is operated by Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA.
• The ASTHROS Mission will be launched from Antarctica in December 2023. 
• The mission is to spend three weeks observing air currents above the continent.

22.Cipla gets DCGI approval to sell Covid-19 drug favipiravir under brand “Ciplenza” in India.

• Indian drugmakers including Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd are racing to supply generic versions of favipiravir, originally developed by Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp as Avigan for treating influenza.
• Cipla  would launch favipiravir as "Ciplenza" in the first week of August, priced at 68 Indian rupees (91 cents) per 200 mg tablet

23.DRDO has successfully conducted the flight trial of Dhruvastra anti-tank guided missile at the Interim Test Range of Odisha.

• The trials of the helicopter launched Nag Missile (HELINA) were successful. 
• The missile has now been renamed “Dhruvastra”.
• Helina is a third-generation anti-tank guided missile mounted on Advanced Light Helicopter
• The missile system can engage targets indirect hit mode and attack mode.
•  DRDO (Defence Research Development Organization) has carried out three successful test firings of NAG missiles in the Pokhran firing range.

24.Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has e-Inaugurated 6 strategic bridges in sensitive border areas of Jammu & Kashmir. 

• All the six bridges along the International Border and Line of Control were constructed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) under Project Sampark
• The total cost for the construction of the 6 bridges was Rs 43 crore
• Two Bridges out of the six have been constructed at Tarnah Nallah of Kathua district.
• The other four are on Akhnoor-Pallanwala road in Akhnoor/Jammu district.
• These are Palwan Bridge (91m), Ghodawala Bridge (151m), Pahadiwala Bridge (61m), Panyali Bridge (31m).

25.The Israel Ministry of Defense, and Israel Aerospace Industries, have successfully launched a new spy satellite “Ofek 16” into orbit by using a locally-developed Shavit rocket.

• Following the launch, ‘OFEC 16’ started sending data and orbiting around the Earth.