Free Republic

Boeing India has offered a naval variant of the F/A 18 E/F Super Hornets multi role fighter jet platform to the Indian Navy. The Navy currently has one aircraft carrier (INS Viraat) in service and Russia is expected to deliver INS Vikramaditya by 2012. India is developing indigenous aircraft carriers and the aim is to have a total of three Aircraft carriers resulting in two fully operational Carrier battle groups and an additional Aircraft carrier eventually in refit making India an operating Blue-water navy.

The Indian Navy will formally induct the Russian-made MiG-29K naval fighter jets for deployment on Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier on February 19 in the western state of Goa. The first four of the 16 MiG-29Ks that India had bought from Russia in 2004 along with Gorshkov were delivered at the INS Hansa naval base in Goa in a knocked-down condition on December 4 last. Senior Indian Navy officers said the jets have been assembled and the Russian pilots are flying them as a standard procedure before Indian Navy pilots takes over from them. "The formal induction ceremony has been fixed...

An Indian navy warship has destroyed a suspected Somali pirate vessel after it came under attack in the Gulf of Aden. INS Tabar sank the pirate "mother ship" after it failed to stop for investigation and opened fire instead, an Indian navy statement said. There has been a surge in piracy incidents off the coast of Somalia. The latest attack came days after the Saudi-owned Sirius Star supertanker and its 25 crew were seized by pirates and anchored off the Somali coast. Vela International, operators of the Sirius Star, told the BBC no demands had yet been received from the...