United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) elected Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama, and Somalia to UNSC. 

• Each year UNGA elects five non-permanent members (out of 10 in total) of UNSC for a two-year term through a secret ballot. 

SIPRI published a topical backgrounder titled ‘Multilateral peace operations in 2023: Developments and trends’ on important developments related to multilateral peace operations during 2023.

Key Findings on multilateral peace operations

• Largest numbers of multilateral peace operations (20) were conducted by the United Nations.
• India was the highest contributor of military personnel for UN peacekeeping forces in 2023.
• In 2023, 63 multilateral peace operations were active in 37 countries.
• Largest deployment of peacekeeping forces was in Sub-Saharan Africa.

INS Kiltan, one of Project 28 (P28) Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Corvettes, visited Brunei as part of operational deployment.

About P28

• It was aimed at building 4 indigenous ASW corvettes or Kamorta class ships. 
• Features of ASW corvettes:
  • Equipped with anti-aircraft guns, torpedo launcher and early warning, fire control radars etc. 
  • Can be deployed in nuclear, biological and chemical warfare conditions. 
  • Utilized indigenously developed special high strength warship grade steel type DMR 249A.
• Designed by: Indian Navy’s Directorate of Naval Design.
• Built by: Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (GRSE) in Kolkata.
• Ships: INS Kamorta, INS Kadmatt, INS Kiltan and INS Kavaratti.

Indian Army received First indigenous Loitering Munition suicide drones Nagastra-1. 

About Nagastra-1

• Developed by Solar Industries’ Economics Explosives Ltd (EEL) Nagpur.
• Can neutralize hostile threats in ‘kamikaze mode’ with GPS-enabled precision strikes with an accuracy of up to 2 metres.
  • Kamikaze refers to members of a Japanese air attack corps in World War II assigned to make a suicidal crash on a target (such as a ship)
  • However, Nagastra-1 is capable of carrying out precision strikes on enemy camps without endangering the lives of soldiers.
• Equipped with day-and-night surveillance cameras. 
• Carries a 1 kg high-explosive fragmenting warhead.
• Unique features include abort, recover and reuse, facilitated by a parachute recovery mechanism.

RudraM-II missile was successfully flight-tested from Su-30 MK-I. 

About RudraM-II

• Indigenously developed solid-propelled air-launched missile, designed for air-to-surface operations.
• Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
• In 2020, RudraM, a new-generation anti-radiation missiles (NGARMs) was successfully tested. 
  • It is first indigenous ARM of Indian Air Force. 
  • It is equipped with the Inertial Navigation System (INS)-Global Positioning System (GPS) navigation system and Passive Homing Head (PHH). 
  • PHH can detect, classify and engage targets over a wide band of frequencies as programmed.

DRDO handed over the Medium Range-Microwave Obscurant Chaff Rocket (MR-MOCR) to the Indian Navy. 

MR-MOCR

• Developed by:  DRDO’s Defence Laboratory in Jodhpur. 
• Purpose: Obscure radar signals reduce detection.
• Specification: 
  • Chaff is a passive electronic countermeasure consisting of electrically conducting fine fiber of resonant length to act as a microwave dipole.
• Working mechanism: The rocket, when fired, forms a microwave obscurant cloud in space, thus creating an effective shield against hostile threats having Radio Frequency seekers.

India and the US held discussions on the co-production of American javelin missiles in India, as per reports. 

About Javelin anti-tank Weapon System

• World’s premier single man-portable medium-range anti-tank weapon system.
• Missile automatically guides itself to the target after launch (fire-and-forget principle), this allows the gunner to take cover and avoid counter fire.
• Can be safely fired from inside buildings or bunkers.

• JIMEX: Bilateral Japan – India Maritime Exercise (JIMEX) 2024 commenced at Yokosuka in Japan. This is the eighth edition, since its inception in 2012.
• Exercise HOPEX: Exercise HOPEX is a joint military exercise between Indian Air Force (IAF) and Egyptian Air Force.
  • Aim – to promote bilateral and regional cooperation.
  • IAF’s Rafale fighter jets, C-17 Globemaster and IL-78 tankers are participating in the exercise.
  • Location – Egypt.