Security

Question 1

PROJECT 75-I

Answer 1

Project 75 India (P-75I) is follow-on of the Project 75 Kalvari-class submarines for the Indian Navy.
 Under this project, the Indian Navy intends to acquire six diesel-electric submarines, which will also feature advanced Air-independent propulsion (AIP) systems to enable them to stay submerged for longer duration and substantially increase their operational range.
 Six Scorpene-class submarines are currently being built under 'Project 75' of the Indian Navy.
 The submarines, designed by French firm Naval Group are being built by Mazagon Dock Limited in Mumbai.
 The first of these, INS Kalvari was commissioned in Dec 2017 and the second INS Khanderi is undergoing sea trials while the third INS Karanj is under construction.
 The P75I project is part of a 30-year submarine building plan that ends in 2030. According to this, India has to build 24 submarines — 18 conventional submarines and six nuclear-powered submarines (SSNs).

Question 2

Strategic Partnership (SP) Model

Answer 2

The SP model has four segments — submarines, single engine fighter aircraft, helicopters and armoured carriers/main battle tanks — which would be specifically opened up for the private sector.
 Under this policy an Indian private company would be selected in each segment which would tie up with shortlisted global Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to manufacture the platforms in India under technology transfer.
 It was first suggested in 2015 by Dhirendra Singh Committee and was introduced by Defence Procurement Procedure 2016.
 A 49 per cent FDI cap has been kept for setting up ventures under this for the production of defence platforms and the companies have to be in control of Indian entities.

Question 3

The Indian Navy has commissioned a new airbase in Andaman and Nicobar. what is its name

Answer 3

INS Kohasa

Question 4

Provisional Government of Free India

Answer 4

During World War II, Japan had captured Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• In 1943, Netaji, leading the Azad Hind Fauj, announced the formation of Provisional Government of Free India (Azad Hind) on the islands.
• Immediately after the formation of the government-in-exile, Azad Hind declared war against the Anglo-American allied forces on the Indo-Burma Front.

Question 5

PARIS CALL

Answer 5

At UNESCO Internet Governance Forum (IGF) meeting convened in Paris, “The Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace” was commenced, aimed at developing common principles for securing cyberspace.

More than 190 signatures were obtained on the Paris Call, including 130 from private sector and more than 50 member nations. Prominent countries like India, US, China, Russia didn’t sign the agreement.

Question 6

Budapest convention on cybercrime

Answer 6

This convention of the Council of Europe is the only binding international instrument on the issue of cyber security
• It addresses Internet and computer crime through a common policy by harmonizing national laws, improving legal authorities for investigative techniques & fostering international police as well as judicial co-operation.
• It provides for procedural law tools to make investigation of cybercrime and securing of evidence in relation to any crime more effective
• India is not yet a member.

Question 7

first dedicated military communication satellite built by ISRO that provide services to the Indian defence forces with the main user being the Indian Navy.

Answer 7

GSAT 7

Question 8

advanced military communications satellite meant primarily for the Indian Air Force with Indian Army using 30% of capacity.

Answer 8

GSAT 7A

Question 9

PERMANENT CHAIRMAN OF THE CHIEFS OF STAFF COMMITTEE

Answer 9

The three services have agreed on the appointment of a Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (PCCoSC).
• It is proposed to be headed by a four-star military officer, who will be equivalent to chiefs of army, airforce and navy.
• He would look into joint issues of the services like training of troops, acquisition of weapon systems and joint operations of the services.
• He would also be in-charge of the tri-services command at Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• The post has also been referred to as Chief of Defence Staff.
• He will head the Chiefs of Staff Committee meetings.
• Various committees such as the Kargil Review committee led by K Subramaniam and the Naresh Chandra committee of 2011 recommended a permanent chairman.

Question 10

INFORMATION FUSION CENTRE - INDIAN OCEAN REGION

Answer 10

The Navy recently inaugurated the Information Fusion Centre for the Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR).
• The Information Fusion Centre (IFC) is a 24/7 regional information sharing centre.
• The IFC has been established at the Navy’s Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC) in Gurugram. IMAC is the single point centre linking all the coastal radar chains to generate a seamless real-time picture of the coastline of the nation.

Question 11

Trans-Regional Maritime Network (T-RMN)

Answer 11

• India has recently signed the ascension agreement to the Trans Regional Maritime Network (T-RMN) which facilitates information exchange on the movement of commercial traffic on the high seas.
• The multilateral construct comprises of 30 countries and is steered by Italy. • It will give the country access to information about ships passing through the Indian Ocean Region, thereby helping to check suspicious and criminal activities and illegal trade across the ocean.

Question 12

UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact

Answer 12

It is an agreement between the UN chief, 36 organizational entities, the International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) and the World Customs Organisation, to better serve the needs of Member States when it comes to tackling the scourge of international terrorism.

Question 13

Integrated Guided Missile Development Plan

Answer 13

It was envisioned in 1983 by former President Dr. A
P J Abdul Kalam to help India attain self-sufficiency
in the field of missile technology.
• Five missile systems have been developed under
this programme namely Agni, Akash, Trishul,
Prithvi and Nag.
• In 2008 DRDO announced the successful
completion of the program.

Question 14

AGNI

Answer 14

• It is an intercontinental surface-to-surface, nuclear
capable ballistic missile.
• At present, US, China, Russia, UK, France and Israel
are known to have ICBMs.
• It has been equipped with very high accuracy Ring
Laser Gyro based Inertial Navigation System
(RINS) and Micro Navigation System (MINS).
• India has reportedly also been working on multiple
independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV)
for the Agni-V in order to ensure a credible second
strike capability or credible minimum deterrence.

Question 15

Agni-V

Answer 15

• Powered by 3 stage solid, all composite rocket motors
• It is an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)
• Coverage: 5000 km
• Maximim speed: 24 times speed of sound
• Canister-launch for quick-response, higher reliability, longer shelf-life, less maintenance and enhanced road
mobility

Question 16

PRITHVI

Answer 16

• Both Prithvi-I and Prithvi-II are short range surface-to-surface ballistic missile.
• While Prithvi I has a range of 150km (used by Army), Prithvi II has a range of 350 km (used by Airforce).
• Dhanush (also known as Prithvi III), a naval variant of this Prithvi missile, has a range of 350 km

Question 17

NAG

Answer 17

It is a third generation “fire and forget” antitank guided missile.
• It can be launched from land and air-based platforms.
• The helicopter-launched configuration, designated as helicopter-launched NAG (HELINA), can be fired from Dhruv advanced light helicopter (ALH) and HAL Rudra attack helicopter.
• The land based version (NAMICA) has maximum range of 4 km while air based version has a maximum range of 7 km.

Question 18

AKASH MISSILE

Answer 18

• It is a supersonic surface-to-air missile.
• It has a strike range of about 30 km and can carry a 55- kg fragmentation warhead.
• It’s designed to neutralise multiple aerial targets attacking from several directions simultaneously.
• The system is autonomous and its operation is fully automated.

Question 19

TRISHUL MISSILE

Answer 19

• It is a Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile.
• It can be used as an anti-sea skimmer from a ship against low flying attacking missiles.
• It employs dual thrust propulsion stage using high-energy solid propellant.

Question 20

Cruise Missile:

Answer 20

A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled guided vehicle that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. They fly within the Earth’s atmosphere and use jet engine technology.

(Cruise meaning- sail about in an area without a precise destination, especially for pleasure)

Classification on the basis of speed
o Subsonic cruise missile flies at a speed lesser than that of sound. It travels at a speed of around 0.8 Mach.
o Supersonic cruise missile travels at a speed of around 2-3 Mach. The combination of supersonic speed and warhead mass provides high kinetic energy ensuring tremendous lethal effect.
o Hypersonic cruise missile travels at a speed of more than 5 Mach. Many countries are working to develop hypersonic cruise missiles

Question 21

Ballistic Missile:

Answer 21

A ballistic missile is a missile that
has a ballistic trajectory over most of its flight path,
regardless of whether or not it is a weapondelivery
vehicle

Ballistic- moving under the force of gravity only

Question 22

INS ARIHANT

Answer 22

The indigenous INS Arihant, India’s first nuclear powered submarine successfully completed its first deterrence patrol. With the completion of the patrol, India have finally achieved the longstanding ambition to have a nuclear triad.

INS Arihant is a part of Indian Navy’s secretive Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) project operated under the supervision of the Prime Minister’s Office and closely monitored by agencies such as the Department of Atomic Energy and the Submarine Design Group of the Directorate of Naval Design.
• The INS Arihant was built at the Ship Building Centre at Visakhapatnam.
• It is capable of carrying nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
• The vessel will be able to carry 12 Sagarika K 15 submarine launched ballistic missiles that have a range of 750 km. It can also be armed with four K-4 submarine launched ballistic missile with a range of 3,500 km.
• There is also provision to launch non-nuclear tipped BrahMos supersonic cruise missile as well as the 1,000-km sub-sonic cruise missile Nirbhay, which can be configured for both nuclear and non-nuclear warheads.

Question 23

Nuclear Triad

Answer 23

• A nuclear triad refers to the three components of
atomic weapons delivery: strategic bombers,
intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and
submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).
• A nuclear triad gives a country the ability to launch
nukes from land, air and sea. India’s nuclear triad
consists of multiple deterrants such as Agni and
Prithivi missiles for Army, Sukhoi-30MKI and
Mirage-2000 for Airforce, INS Arighat for Navy.

Question 24

Project Network for Spectrum (NFS)

Answer 24

The Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure approved substantial hike in the budget for the Network for Spectrum (NFS) project.
• It was launched to establish the alternative communication network for exclusive use by defence services to boost the communication capabilities of defence forces.
• The project is result of an agreement reached in 2010 between Defence ministry and Dept. of Telecom (DoT) in which DoT agreed to vacate 25 MHz of 3G spectrum and 20 MHz of 2G spectrum in phases solely for defence communication purpose
• The project is being implemented by state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

Question 25

Various Defence UAV developed by DRDO

Answer 25

• Nishant: It was designed for battlefield surveillance
and reconnaissance.
• Panchi: It wheeled version of UAV Nishant.
• Lakshya: It is a surface/ship launched reusable
aerial target system.
• Rustom-2: It’s used by all three services of Indian
armed forces, primarily for intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) operations.
o It can fly missions on manual as well as
autonomous modes.

Question 26

Key features of the Regulations for Civil Use of

Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS)

Answer 26

The Digital Sky Platform is the first-of-its-kind national unmanned traffic management (UTM) platform that implements “no permission, no takeoff”.
• All civil RPA, shall require to obtain Unique Identification Number (UIN) from DGCA.
• As per the regulation, there are 5 categories of Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) categorized by weight.
• Operators of civil drones will need to get an Unmanned Aircraft Operator Permit (UAOP) from the DGCA with certain exceptions.
• RPAS shall be flown only by someone over 18 years of age, having passed 10th exam in English, and undergone ground/ practical training as approved by DGCA.
• DGCA has also clarified that no remote pilot can operate more than one RPA at any time.
• The basic operating procedure will restrict drone flights to the daytime only and that too within “Visual Line of Sight (VLOS)”.
• An insurance will be mandatory to cover third-party damage.
• Restrictions placed such as:
o RPAS cannot be flown within 5km of the perimeters of the airports in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad and within 3km from the perimeter of any other airport.
o It cannot fly within “permanent or temporary Prohibited, Restricted and Danger Areas” and within 25km from international border which includes the
Line of Control (LoC), Line of Actual Control (LAC) and Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL).
o It cannot fly beyond 500 m into sea from the coast line and within 3 km from perimeter of military installations.
o It also cannot be operated from a mobile platform such as a moving vehicle, ship or aircraft.
o Eco-sensitive zones around National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries are off-limits without prior permission.

Question 27

MISSILE PRAHAAR

Answer 27

• India recently successfully test-fired missile
Prahaar off Odisha coast.
• It is a surface-to-surface short-range tactical
ballistic missile developed by DRDO with a
strike range is 150 km.
• It can carry warhead up to 200 kg. It uses
solid propellant and travels at a speed of
Mach 2.

Question 28

MILAN-2T ANTI-TANK MISSILES

Answer 28

The Defence Acquisition Council gave
approval for acquisition of 5,000 Milan 2T antitank
guided missiles (ATGM) with a range of 2
Km.
• Milan-2 is a French 2nd-generation man-portable
ATGM which is produced in India by Bharat
Dynamics Limited in partnership with a French
firm.
• Some of the indigenous anti-tank missiles
include: NAG, HELINA, SANT (Stand-off Anti-
Tank) Missile, Cannon-launched Laser Guided
Missile (CLGM), SAMHO, AMOGHA-1,
AMOGHA-2, AMOGHA-3.

Question 29

BARAK-8 MISSILE

Answer 29

• The Barak 8 missile defence system will be procured by the Israeli Navy to protect its economic zones and strategic facilities.
• Barak 8 (the Hebrew word for Lightning), jointly developed by India and Israel, is a long range surface-to-air missile (LRSAM).
• It is designed to defend against any type of airborne threat including aircraft, helicopters, anti-ship missiles, and UAVs as well as cruise missiles and combat jets.
• Its main features include:
o Capability to take down an incoming missile as close as 500 meters away;
o Maximum speed – Mach 2
o Operational range - 70 Km (which has been increased to 100 Km)
o Simultaneous Engagements on multiple targets in all weather conditions.

Question 30

NATIONAL ADVANCE SURFACE

TO AIR MISSILE SYSTEM-II (NASAMS)

Answer 30

• Recently, Defence Acquisitions Council (DAC)
approved the acquisition of National Advance
Surface to Air Missile System-II (NASAMA) for
the security of Delhi.
• NASAMS was developed by Raytheon in
partnership with KONGSBERG Defence and
Aerospace of Norway.
• It quickly detects, tracks & shoots down
multiple airborne threats such as cruise
missiles, aircraft and drones.
• It consists of a radar, short and medium range
missile launchers and fire distribution centres,
• It is deployed in US, Israel, Russia and various
NATO countries.

Question 31

AVANGARD HYPERSONIC

SYSTEM

Answer 31

• Recently, Russia successfully test fired Avangard Missile.
• It’s liquid-fueled intercontinental-range ballistic missile (ICBM), with the ability to fly as fast as Mach 20 (more than 15,000 miles per hour), and can carry nuclear and
conventional warheads.
• Avangard deployment by 2019 will make it the first operational hypersonic glide vehicle system deployed anywhere in world

Question 32

PINAKA ROCKET

Answer 32

• An upgraded version of Pinaka rocket was
recently successfully test-fired from
Chandipur in Odisha.
• The upgraded Pinaka system, Pinaka mark-II,
is a guided one unlike the earlier version and
has navigation, guidance and control kit.
• The range of new version is more than 70
kilometre which was earlier only 40km.
• It is a multi-barrel rocket launcher which can
fire a salvo of 12 rockets in 44 seconds.

Question 33

LCA TEJAS

Answer 33

• Recently, India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas has received the final operational clearance for induction into the Indian Air Force (IAF) as a weaponised fighter jet.
• It is indigenously built fighter aircraft and has been designed by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
• It is single-seat multi-role jet fighter, powered by single engine and can also carry out mid-air refueling. It is pegged as world’s smallest and lightest supersonic fighter aircraft in its class.
• It has limited reach of little over 400-km and will be mainly used for close air-to-ground operations (unlike Russian-origin Sukhoi-30MKIs or Rafale which have deep strike capability into enemy territory due to their
long range).
• It is equipped with state-of-the-art Satellite aided Inertial Navigation System.
• It is not the first indigenous fighter to be inducted into the IAF. In April 1967, IAF had formed the first operational squadron with the indigenous HF-24 Marut fighter.

Question 34

CHINOOK HELICOPTERS

Answer 34

• India received Boeing Co.’s Chinook helicopters that are expected to bolster the heavy-lift capabilities of its air force and further strengthen the fast-expanding defence ties with the US.
• It is a multi-role, vertical-lift platform, which is used for transporting troops, artillery, equipment and fuel. It is also used for humanitarian and disaster relief operations and in missions such as transportation of relief supplies and mass evacuation of refugees.
• It is also expected to give a significant boost to infrastructure development along India’s borders given the Chinook has the capability to ferry heavy cargo like road construction equipment over difficult terrain.

Question 35

ARTILLERY GUN ‘DHANUSH’

Answer 35

• It is the first long-range artillery gun to be produced in India.
• It is an upgraded version, based on the original design of the Swedish 155-mm Bofors howitzers, which India procured in the mid- 1980s.
• It is the product of joint efforts by the Ordinance Factory Board and the Army with contributions from the DRDO, DGQA etc. and several private enterprises.