NEW DELHI — India will soon acquire a Hercules WC-130J aircraft and an unmanned aerial vehicle to ensure improved monitoring of cyclones, a senior government official says.

NEW DELHI — India will induct its homegrown Akash surface-to-air missile (SAM) into the Indian air force (IAF) on March 3. “The Akash weapon system [AWS] was indigenously developed by [the] Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as part of the integrated guided missile development program and is an all-weather, medium-range, surface-to-air missile system,” a defense ministry official says. “It provides multidirectional and multitarget area defense.”

Filled with military deals harvested over the past few years, the Indian defense pie is getting bigger and sweeter, on land and in the air. But the country faces major hurdles in making those plans real. First, the good news: Over the next five years, India plans to renovate or replace its Soviet-era kit with $50 billion in new equipment, making Asia's third largest economy a lucrative market for foreign companies such as Boeing and Dassault.