NEW DELHI – The Indian army will soon receive 204 armored repair and recovery vehicles for revamping of its damaged T-72s — the Russian-made battle tanks used by the country’s armed forces, a defense ministry official says. The armored recovery vehicles (ARVs) will be built by the Bengaluru-based defense supplier Bharat Earth Movers under full technology transfer from Poland’s Bumar. A proposal was recently cleared by the federal Cabinet Committee on Security headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the official says.

NEW DELHI – India is likely to open the commercial bids of the two shortlisted vendors for the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) in the first week of November. A Defense Ministry official said the vendors – French Rafale International and European consortium Cassidian Eurofighter – will be invited to witness the opening of their bids on Nov. 4.

NEW DELHI — An Indian air force (IAF) MiG-29 crashed into a mountain during a night-flying exercise in the northern part of the country Oct. 18, the second crash this month and the seventh IAF MiG fighter to go down this year. According to air force officials, two MiG-29s from western air command took off from Adampur in Jalandhar in northern India on Oct. 18 for an exercise in high altitude, and one of them crashed into a mountain at around 8:30 p.m. local time.