Reports indicate that US has cleared sale of Harpoon air launched missiles and torpedoes to India for the P-8I aircraft. These Harpoon missiles have a range of about 124 km and will be manufactured by Boeing. Harpoon missile has enough firepower to destroy coastal defence, surface-to-air missile sites, industrial installations and docked ships.

Army has tweeted that fake and incorrect news have been published in print media about Army deployment in Gujarat as also the instructions given to Army personnel on leave/due for retirement under present circumstances. It has requested media to confirm such inputs from authorised sources only prior to publication.

Indian Navy’s Naval Aircraft Yard has developed a smart evacuation pod for evacuation of Covid-19 patients safely from remote areas such as islands and ships. The indigenously designed and fabricated Air Evacuation Pod will help the evacuation team to safely shift coronavirus-infected persons from ships and islands in a fully sealed patient transfer capsule. There will be no risk of cross infection to pilots and evacuation team using the pod with no requirement of sanitisation of aircraft post evacuation.

Indian Navy Quarantine Facility at Ghatkopar, Mumbai has successfully completed the task of quarantining 44 evacuees (including 24 women) from Iran. These evacuees spent 30 days in the facility. A dedicated team of medical staff from Navy worked tirelessly to monitor the health of these evacuees. They were supported by a team of conservancy personnel and other staff to take care of the cleanliness of the facility, their comfort and well being. The meals provided were prepared under strict supervision and customised to meet any special requirements.The quarantine facility also catered for amenities like library, TV room, indoor games, a small gymnasium and limited cricket gear to keep the evacuees occupied and comfortable. IAF’s C-130 airlifted these evacuees from Mumbai to Srinagar on April 12, 2020.

BRO opened the strategic Srinagar-Leh highway that connects Ladakh with the rest of the world on April 11, 2020. This was managed despite fresh snowfall in the Zojila pass. The 425 kilometre road was closed since December last year due to heavy snowfall at Zojila pass. In view of emergent need for stockpiling essential commodities in the Union Territory of Ladakh, the team of Project Beacon and Project Vijayak cleared the fresh snow around Zojilla at the height of 11,500 feet and made the road motorable.

Indian Air Force continues to be ready 24 x 7 to undertake any task for complementing the efforts of the Govt of India to contain the spread of the Novel Corona virus. It has airlifted essential medical supplies and commodities from nodal points to various States across the country including Maharashtra, Kerala, Telangana, Nagaland, Assam and the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh. It flew dedicated sorties for DRDO and airlifted around 9000 Kg of raw material from various nodal points for producing PPE at the production facilities of DRDO. It also airlifted N95/99 Masks manufactured by DRDO.

Ministry of Defence has extended the last date for RFP responses for capital acquisitions to June 1, 2020 due to Covid-19.