Defence Current Affairs October 2026

The fifth edition of Exercise AUSTRAHIND, the India-Australia joint military exercise, began on 19 October 2026 at the Foreign Training Node, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) and runs until 1 November 2026. About 240 soldiers are taking part, roughly 120 from each army. The theme is 'Joint Sub-Conventional Operations in Island and Coastal Environment under Chapter VII of the UN Mandate', with drills in surveillance and reconnaissance, protection of vital installations, coastal and island operations and HADR. New Zealand sent an observer delegation for the first time. The fourth edition was held at Irwin Barracks, Perth, Australia, from 13 to 26 October 2025.

The Indian Navy and Britain's Royal Navy began the bilateral exercise KONKAN-26 off Plymouth, United Kingdom, running 8 to 15 October 2026, with the Talwar-class guided-missile frigate INS Trishul representing India. The harbour phase featured professional interactions, cross-deck visits, sports and cultural engagements, and opened INS Trishul to visitors. The sea phase covered drills across the air, surface and sub-surface domains - cross-deck helicopter landings, firing serials, air defence, seamanship evolutions and anti-submarine warfare. The exercise is designed to deepen interoperability, sharpen operational coordination and exchange best practices between the two navies.

The Indian Navy and the Russian Federation Navy began the bilateral maritime exercise INDRA 2026 at Vladivostok on 13 October 2026, running to 18 October. India is represented by INS Sahyadri, an indigenous Shivalik-class stealth multi-role frigate, which reached the port on 10 October. The drill has a harbour phase of professional exchanges and a sea phase of coordinated manoeuvres, and the Ministry of Defence placed it under India's MAHASAGAR vision. It caps a crowded fortnight of Indian exercises: KONKAN 2026 with Britain's Royal Navy off Plymouth and the close of the IAF's Tarang Shakti 2026 at Jodhpur on 12 October.

The Indian Coast Guard conducted SAREX-2026, the 12th National Maritime Search and Rescue Exercise, off the Paradip coast of Odisha on 7-8 October 2026, inaugurated by MoS (Defence) Sanjay Seth. The scenario was a Mass Rescue Operation after a passenger aircraft ditched at sea with 228 people aboard and struck the container vessel MV Zumba. Thirty-two observers from 30 countries attended. Assets deployed included 15 ICG ships, two Dornier aircraft, three Advanced Light Helicopters, a Chetak, IAF C-130J and Mi-17 aircraft and two Indian Navy ships. It follows the Navy's FSS-1 'Surya' launch and the ASEAN-India maritime exercise in India's crowded October maritime calendar.

India and the United Arab Emirates began the joint military exercise Mountain Guardian 2026 at the Foreign Training Node, Chaubatia in Uttarakhand, on 5 October 2026, running two weeks to 18 October. Ninety-two troops are taking part — 46 from the Indian Army's Bhairav Battalion and 46 from a UAE Army mountain infantry battalion — drilling high-altitude and mountain-warfare skills including rock craft, cliff assaults, patrolling and casualty evacuation in rugged terrain. The exercise widens the India-UAE defence relationship from desert to mountain operations, adding to the two armies' Desert Cyclone series and the air forces' Desert Flag engagement.

The Indian Navy commissioned INS Samarthak, its first indigenously built Multi-Purpose Vessel (MPV), at Naval Base Karwar on 16 October 2026 - the final step after builder Larsen & Toubro delivered her on 29 August 2026. Built under Make in India with over 75% indigenous content, she is the first of four such vessels, with a combat suite of Indian sensors, weapons and electronics. Roles span maritime surveillance and patrol, Low Intensity Maritime Operations, target deployment and weapon trials, mothership duties for unmanned and autonomous systems, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, limited hospital-ship conversion and salvage work.

The Indian Navy handed over command of Combined Task Force 154, the Combined Maritime Forces' maritime training task force, at a ceremony in Manama, Bahrain, on 14 October, closing an eight-month tenure that began on 11 February 2026. It was India's first command of any CMF task force. Under Indian leadership CTF-154 delivered over 7,800 training hours to personnel from 39 countries and ran 20 Staff Enhancement Training engagements, besides Operation Southern Readiness 26-2, hosted by Southern Naval Command at Kochi in July, and the inaugural SPAR 2026 exchange on piracy and armed robbery at sea.

INS Mangrol, the third Anti-Submarine Warfare Shallow Water Craft (ASW-SWC) built by Cochin Shipyard Limited, was commissioned at the Naval Dockyard, Mumbai on 12 October 2026 by Vice Admiral Sanjay Vatsayan, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command. With over 80% indigenous content, it carries the Abhay hull-mounted sonar, lightweight torpedoes, an indigenous anti-submarine rocket launcher and the Maareech torpedo decoy system. Named after a fishing harbour in Gujarat's Junagadh district, it revives the name of the minesweeper INS Mangrol (M85), decommissioned in 2004. It follows the ICGS Ajit commissioning and the NGOPV Shreyas launch at GRSE.

The Indian Coast Guard commissioned ICGS Ajit, an indigenously built Fast Patrol Vessel, at Goa Shipyard Limited on 9 October 2026, with Dr Sirish Choudhary, Principal Integrated Financial Advisor to the Coast Guard, presiding. The ship will be based at Okha in Gujarat and deployed along India's western seaboard for coastal surveillance, search and rescue, anti-smuggling and anti-poaching patrols and marine pollution response. The commissioning continues a dense run of indigenous maritime inductions — it comes days after the Navy launched its first home-built Fleet Support Ship Surya at Visakhapatnam, and soon after the Coast Guard's SAREX-2026 exercise off Paradip rehearsed exactly Ajit's rescue role.

EyeROV, a Kochi-based start-up, delivered two TROUT underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) systems to the Indian Navy on 7 October 2026 — India's first indigenously built military-grade ROVs, and the first two of five ordered. Developed under the Ministry of Defence's iDEX DISC 7 SPRINT challenge with quality assurance by the Directorate of Quality Assurance (Naval), TROUT is rated to 300 metres depth and performs inspection, surveillance, reconnaissance, search-and-recovery and robotic intervention in strong currents and poor visibility. It follows an earlier Rs 47 crore Navy ROV contract, and lands days after the launch of Fleet Support Ship 'Surya' at Visakhapatnam.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh launched Surya, the first of five Fleet Support Ships being built for the Indian Navy, at Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam, on 6 October 2026, the vessel entering the Bay of Bengal in a ceremony where Laila Swaminathan, president of the Navy Wives Welfare Association, performed the launch. Displacing about 43,500 tonnes, the ship will replenish fuel, water, ammunition and stores to warships at sea and operate helicopters, extending the fleet's endurance without returning to harbour. HSL upgraded Slipway-4 and installed a 300-tonne Goliath crane for the programme, and has subcontracted two of the ships to L&T's Kattupalli yard.

The second edition of the Naval Commanders' Conference 2026 ran at Nausena Bhawan, New Delhi, from 29 September to 1 October 2026, reviewing the Indian Navy's operational preparedness, combat readiness and maritime surveillance. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressed the commanders, along with Chief of Defence Staff Gen N S Raja Subramani and Navy Chief Admiral Krishna Swaminathan. Deliberations covered the Navy's role as first responder in the Indian Ocean Region, Operation Urja Suraksha for energy-security protection amid West Asian tensions, indigenous technology absorption and tri-service jointness - the same readiness theme running through Tarang Shakti 2026 and Exercise KAZIND-2026.

Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal AP Singh flew the last sortie of his career on 20 October 2026, a 55-minute flight in an HJT-16 Kiran Mk-1 (tail number U 707) from the Air Force Academy at Dundigal, near Hyderabad, with his first flying instructor, retired Wing Commander V.S. Kochar. Singh had begun flying training on the same type on 28 January 1984, and got a water cannon salute on landing. His final fighter sortie was in a Tejas on 12 October 2026 during Exercise Tarang Shakti at Jodhpur. The HAL-built Kiran first flew in 1964 and entered service in 1968.

The Indian Coast Guard inducted an indigenously built Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) MK-III, tail number CG 875, at Coast Guard Air Station Ratnagiri, Maharashtra, giving 831 Squadron its first ALH MK-III and thickening ICG air cover along the western seaboard. Built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and also designated the HAL Dhruv MK-III, the aircraft carries advanced surveillance radar, an Electro Optical Pod for long-range imaging and identification, and an Automatic Identification System. It is a multi-role platform configured for search and rescue, maritime reconnaissance and surveillance, medical evacuation, transport and coastal security duties.

GE Aerospace shipped four more F404-IN20 afterburning turbofan engines to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), announced on 7 October 2026, taking total deliveries to 14 against a 2021 contract for 99 engines worth Rs 5,375 crore. HAL expects 20 engines between June and December 2026 and more than 20 a year from 2027, and is levying contractual penalties on GE over earlier delays. The engines power the LCA Tejas Mk-1A, of which the IAF has ordered 180 aircraft — 83 contracted in February 2021 and 97 in September 2025. First Mk-1A deliveries, originally due March 2024, are now expected from December 2026.

Bengaluru-based Flying Wedge Defence & Aerospace (FWDA) has tied up with Portugal's KEYDEF, which is investing EUR 6 million, to manufacture two Indian-designed drones in Portugal for European and NATO markets. The systems are the Kaal Bhairava autonomous UAV, built for long-endurance intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance work and precision strike, and YAMA, a small, stealthy, radar-equipped interceptor that autonomously neutralises hostile drones. All Portugal-built systems are to be NATO-certified, and the partnership is to widen later to FWDA's surveillance, air-defence and civilian portfolio. FWDA's CEO is Suhas Tejaskanda.

The Research and Development Establishment (Engineers), a DRDO laboratory at Pune, has developed indigenous armour panels that are 20% lighter than existing systems while meeting STANAG 4569 Level 6, the NATO protection standard requiring resistance to 30 mm armour-piercing ammunition. The panels have cleared in-house testing against DRDO's operational requirements and were listed around 1 October 2026 under the Category 'A' Transfer of Technology route, with three manufacturing licences on offer and several large firms reported interested. They are intended for future main battle tanks, light tanks and Future Infantry Combat Vehicles, improving mobility, fuel efficiency and strategic transportability in high-altitude sectors.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has launched IIT Kanpur's 'Greater Than Us' campaign, which aims to raise USD 1 billion by March 2029 for research in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum technologies, semiconductors, drones, MedTech and sustainability. IIT Kanpur also unveiled plans for a defence drone hub with the Ministry of Defence to indigenise critical drone components. The push adds an academic leg to a drone ecosystem the armed forces have been building through the Army's first Baaz drone battalion in Punjab and DRDO's drone-launched missile trials, and complements the Drone Rules, 2021 and the drone production-linked incentive scheme.

DRDO on 6 October 2026 flight-tested an indigenously developed High-Altitude Platform System (HAPS), a lighter-than-air stratospheric vehicle that climbed to 21 km above sea level and held station at 20 km for more than 30 minutes before being recovered. Developed by the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), Agra, the platform carried an inertial measurement unit, a GPS receiver, onboard cameras and altitude-control systems, streaming live video and flight parameters to the ground control station. The trial was coordinated with the Indian Air Force, CEMILAC, the DGCA and the Airports Authority of India, and advances indigenous persistent-surveillance capability under Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

DRDO and the CSIR-Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute (CSIR-CGCRI), Kolkata, began a Rs 50 crore, four-year project in late September 2026 to develop lightweight indigenous bulletproof glass, or transparent armour, for armoured vehicles, aiming to cut weight and thickness by about 30-50% against imported glass. DRDO's Naval Materials Research Laboratory in Maharashtra and the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory, Chandigarh, are partners for testing. Early ballistic trials stopped rounds fired from a Trichy Assault Rifle at 10 metres, with multi-shot testing to follow. The technology could later extend to aircraft and naval platforms, deepening India's defence import-substitution push.

The Ministry of Defence signed two contracts worth about Rs 4,106 crore in New Delhi on 15 October 2026, in the presence of Additional Secretary and Director General (Acquisition) A Anbarasu. The larger, worth Rs 2,563 crore, is with New Space India Limited, Bengaluru, for the GSAT-7C dedicated communication satellite capability, giving the Indian Air Force secure, resilient and seamless connectivity across its assets. The second, worth Rs 1,543 crore, is with Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad, for Varunastra ship-launched anti-submarine heavy weight torpedoes developed by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory, capable of engaging enemy submarines at long ranges.

The Indian Army launched 'Bharat Rice' in New Delhi in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Pralhad Joshi, to deliver quality rice directly to Army Supply Depots, including in remote Ladakh and the North East. Spearheaded by the Army's Directorate General of Supplies and Transport (DGST), the initiative will see NAFED procure and supply rice in 10 kg and 30 kg ergonomic bags through FY 2026-27. The Army also signed a five-year, extendable MoU with the Food Corporation of India to draw on FCI's infrastructure, equipment and trained manpower during operational contingencies.

The Ministry of Defence signed a Rs 661.50 crore contract with BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited in New Delhi on 6 October 2026 for BrahMos Fire Control Systems and launchers for Indian Navy ships, placed under the Buy (Indian-IDDM) category that requires indigenously designed, developed and manufactured equipment. The systems will arm major surface combatants such as destroyers and frigates, handling target acquisition and launch coordination for the supersonic cruise missile. The project is expected to reach at least 68% indigenous content and to generate employment over three years, deepening the domestic supply chain for naval strike weapons.