NEW DELHI: The Sukhoi-30MKI fighters have now practised long-range precision strikes in the western seaboard of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) in a combat training mission that lasted almost eight hours, which comes soon after Rafale jets undertook a similar exercise on the eastern one.
The “large package” of Sukhois and some other assets took off from an air base in Gujarat and then “hit” the designated target near the Gulf of Oman after mid-air refuelling by IL-78 tankers, an IAF officer said on Friday.
The Rafales, after taking off from the Hasimara airbase in northern West Bengal, had also conducted an over six-hour mission to hit a target in north Andaman on the eastern seaboard last week. “The Sukhois have done it now on a different axis. So, both the seaboards have been covered,” the officer said.
The twin IAF training missions constitute strategic signalling to China, which with the world’s largest Navy with 355 warships and submarines is steadily stepping-up its presence in the IOR.

Amid the continuing military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh since May 2020, the IAF has been practising such interdiction missions in the IOR to choke China’s sea lanes of communication for huge energy and other imports from the Malacca Strait to the Persian Gulf.
Apart from the western and eastern fronts, the Sukhois are also deployed at Pune and Thanjavur in peninsular India. The Sukhois armed with BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, whose strike range has been extended to 450-km from the original 290-km, were first based at the Thanjavur airbase in 2020 to give IAF “strategic depth” in the IOR.
With a combat radius of almost 1,500-km without mid-air refuelling, the Sukhois armed with BrahMos constitute a deadly weapons package for pinpointed strikes against high-value targets like warships on the high seas or enemy positions, bunkers, command-and-control centres and the like on land.
IAF chief Air Chief Marshal V R Chaudhari had last week said that the lethal combination of the BrahMos missiles, which fly at almost three times the speed of sound at Mach 2.8, fitted on the Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jets has made the IAF’s “deterrence value go up by leaps and bounds”.
The next-generation BrahMos, a smaller and lighter version of the existing missile that is under-development, will be fitted onto smaller fighters like the MiG-29s, Mirage-2000s and Tejas light combat aircraft in the future. An 800-km range variant of the BrahMos has also undergone its maiden test, as was earlier reported by TOI.

After his hurricane yet pleasing 27-ball 61 for Chennai Super Kings against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in the IPL, Ajinkya Rahane, while speaking to Ravi Shastri, the former India coach on TV, said, “I love playing at the Wankhede. I know the ground well. I have not played a Test here, yet.”
That word “yet”, was a bigger statement than his refreshingly liberated innings and the stroke-filled cameos he essayed throughout the IPL. It basically said, “I am not going anywhere. Not yet”.

Four days before the IPL had begun, he had been dropped from BCCI’s list of centrally contracted players. Last March, he was downgraded and eventually dropped from the Test team. Only six months before, in November, he was captaining India in Kanpur vs New Zealand. But with an average of 22.60 over 13 Tests for almost two years at No.5, it was tough to justify his spot in the squad.
Also, with the kind of Bunsen pitches India had opted to play on in home Tests, in search of quick wins, there was no fallback option for him to score big runs and get confidence for tougher, away assignments. Almost all the Indian batters, barring Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant have suffered because of that.

Injuries to Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul saw him earn a surprise recall to the squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) final vs Australia at The Oval when the team was announced on April 25. It sparked a meme fest on social media on how he was being picked for a Test on the basis of a few IPL performances.
India though knew what they were signing up for. Experience and pedigree. Rahane is one of those rare Indian batters, who can be considered an overseas specialist, especially when the team is down in the dumps. Durban (2013) Wellington (2014), Lord’s (2014), Bangalore (2017), Johannesburg (2018), MCG (2020), are all venues that bear the signatures of his toil. He averages 41.17 away from home with eight of his 12 hundreds coming overseas.
At home, he averages 35.73.

Many of those overseas runs have come when India were in the dumps, like they were at the Oval. They were 50 for 3 when he walked in. 71 for 4 when Virat Kohli was out and 152 for 6 when KS Bharat was cleaned up by Scott Boland off the second ball on Day Three.
He had the twin tasks of scoring runs and guiding fellow Mumbai teammate, Shardul Thakur. He did that expertly till he was dismissed for 89, caught in the gully by Cameron Green, a blinder off Pat Cummins.
Yes, Rahane rode his luck. He survived a lbw shout against Cummins when on 17 on Day Two because the bowler had overstepped. Cummins also battered his fingers with sharp, lifting deliveries from a length that needed frequent medical attention. On Day Three, he was dropped in the slips by David Warner just before lunch on 72, but in between those bits of luck, there was pluck and technical brilliance. He was playing more on the backfoot and meeting the ball late.

Cricviz suggested that his average interception points were 1.49 metres, which meant he was playing closer to his body than at any time in his career.
Rahane’s drives through covers don’t get viral like the ones played by other superstars, but the efficiency he displayed while playing the stroke was first rate.
Six of his 11 boundaries came through cover drives as he scored 33 runs through that stroke off just 12 balls.
In his attempt to play another one, he perished and was denied a well-deserved 13th Test ton. What he wasn’t denied though was the record of becoming the 13th Indian to score 5000 Test runs and genuine appreciation of everyone who watched the innings.

WASHINGTON: After his indictment on Friday on federal charges in the classified documents case, former US President Donald Trump said, “I never thought it possible that such a thing could happen to a former president of the United States, who received far more votes than any sitting president in the history of our country, and is currently leading, by far, all candidates, both Democrat and Republican, in polls of the 2024 presidential election.” “I am aninnocent man!” he lamented on his social media platform.
He will appear before a judge on Tuesday — Aileen Cannon — whom Trump himself had appointed.

The indictment gives the clearest picture yet of the files that Trump took with him when he left the White House. It said he had illegally kept hold of documents concerning “US nuclear programmes; potential vulnerabilities of the US and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. ” One document concerned a foreign country’s support of terrorism against US interests. Materials came from the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies, the indictment said.

Investigators seized roughly 13,000 documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, nearly a year ago. In all, roughly 300 documents were marked classified, including some at the top secret level, even though one of Trump’s lawyers had previously said all records with classified markings had been returned to the government.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Trump shared a highly sensitive “plan of attack” against Iran to visitors at his golf club in Bedminster, N. J. in July 2021 — and was recorded on tape describing the material as “highly confidential” and “secret,” while it admitting it had not been declassified. In another incident in September, 2021 he shared a top secret military map with a staffer at his political action committee who did not have a security clearance.
The indictment also names one of his personal aides, Waltine Nauta, as a co-conspirator who assisted in obstructing the investigation into the former president’s retention of sensitive defence documents at his residence and resort in Florida.
The indictment says that Trump stored the boxes throughout Mar-a-Lago, including in a ballroom, a bathroom and a shower, as well as in an office and his bedroom. His lawyers had told investigators that documents were kept only in a storage room.
The filing includes many pictures of what appear to be bankers’ boxes, some containing highly sensitive national documents, which were haphazardly moved by Nauta and other aides at Trump’s behest. Some of the boxes appear to be sagging — and on December 7, 2021 Nauta found that one of the boxes had toppled and spilled its contents on the floor. The files that splayed on the carpet included the designation “SECRET/REL TO USA, FVEY” — which meant that they were meant to be seen by officials from the US, UK New Zealand and Australia with high-level security clearances.
Trump himself turned on US President Joe Biden, accusing him of taking classified material, too, although legal experts say there are no parallels between the two.
“The corrupt Biden Administration has informed my attorneys that I have been Indicted, seemingly over the Boxes Hoax, even though Joe Biden has 1850 Boxes at the University of Delaware, additional boxes in Chinatown, DC , with even more boxes at the University of Pennsylvania, and documents strewn all over his garage floor where he parks his Corvette, and which is ‘secured’ by only a garage door that is paper thin, and open much of the time,” he claimed.
After classified documents were found at Biden’s thinktank and at ex-vice-president Mike Pence’s Indiana home, their lawyers notified authorities and arranged for them to be handed over. They also authorised other searches by federal authorities.