11 aircraft, including 5 Pak UAVs, violated Indian airspace

New Delhi: The government on Wednesday, said that 11 aircraft belonging to Pakistan, China and the United
States violated Indian airspace in the last one year.

"In six separate incidents, five Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and one medium-sized aircraft from Pakistan violated Indian airspace in last one year," defence minister A.K. Antony told Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

The Pakistani aircraft had entered Indian aerial territory in December 2008 and in January, February, March, August and September this year.

Antony said five Chinese aircraft, including four helicopters, had entered Indian territory between May and
June this year.

Two Chinese helicopters each had entered Ladakh and dropped food items inside Indian territory June 21 and 24 after a slow-moving aircraft entered Indian airspace on May 13.

One transport and one cargo aircraft from the US had also violated Indian airspace in June and October respectively, the Defence Minister said.

Antony said that all such cases of airspace violation are taken up with concerned countries through diplomatic channels.

Replying to another query, the Defence Minister said slippages in the delivery schedule of the Scorpene
submarines under construction at Mazagon Dockyards Limited (MDL) will impact the envisaged submarine force levels.

Antony said it was difficult to quantify the loss on account of delayed delivery and cited absorption of
technology and delays in augmentation of industrial infrastructure and procurement of MDL procured
Materials (MPM) as reasons behind the slippages in delivery schedule.

India is building six Scorpene submarines in the country under a deal signed with France.

In reply to a query on Joint Indo-US Army exercise at Babina in October, the Defence Minister said, "the
expenditure incurred for the exercise was Rs 64 lakh."

He said that such exercises benefited the Indian Army by helping it gain insights into the psyche, combat readiness, training standards and technological capabilities of the US forces.