HAMMER Missiles & H-125 Helicopters: India-France Build Big in Bengaluru
India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is meeting France's Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin in Bengaluru on February 17, and this is a moment every Indian should care about. Why? Because India is finally getting serious about making weapons that can protect our borders, not just buying them from others. But before you think this is just another political meeting, let me explain what's really at stake here. The dialogue will review the entire gamut of bilateral defence cooperation, with a focus on expanding industrial collaboration, and that collaboration is going to change how India defends itself.
Catherine Vautrin is coming to Bengaluru specifically because this city represents everything India-France partnership is about. But here's the exciting part—she's not just coming for talks. She will travel to nearby Vemagal in Karnataka to personally witness India's first privately-built helicopter assembly factory. This is massive. When a French Defence Minister travels to see a manufacturing facility being inaugurated, it shows France's commitment to building weapons together with India, not just selling them to us. Our tech capital hosting defence tech collaboration shows that India means business.
Now, let's clear up something important about HAMMER. It is NOT an air-to-air missile that dogfights with enemy aircraft. HAMMER is an air-to-surface weapon, which means fighter jets drop it on ground targets like bunkers, military installations, and hardened structures. Think of it this way: air-to-air missiles are for fighting other aircraft in the sky, but HAMMER is for hitting enemies on the ground from the air. HAMMER transforms standard unguided munitions into long-range precision strike weapons, enabling Indian pilots to neutralize hardened, high-value targets from safe stand-off distances with exceptional accuracy under all-weather conditions. This is crucial because our pilots can stay far from enemy defence systems and still hit their targets accurately.
Which aircraft will use HAMMER? Here's where it gets exciting. The joint venture will supply HAMMER systems for the Indian Air Force's Rafale fleet, the Indian Navy's Rafale-M fighters, and all variants of the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft. So our Rafale fighter jets already use it, and now our own homegrown Tejas will get this powerful weapon. Every modern fighter we have can carry HAMMER. Each fighter jet can carry up to six HAMMER missiles at once, meaning one aircraft can hit six different targets in a single mission. The missile weighs about 330 kilograms and nails precise hits even in high-altitude spots. It's "fire-and-forget"—lock on the target, launch it, and you're done. With a range of 70 kilometers, our pilots can strike enemy bunkers and fortified positions from mountainous terrain like Ladakh without risking their aircraft.
Now, about the H125 helicopter Catherine will witness in person. This is a light utility helicopter that does rescue missions, emergency medical transport, and disaster relief. The Airbus H125 can carry a crew of two pilots and up to six passengers, with a useful load of 1,075 kilograms. Most importantly, the H125 is the only helicopter to have landed on Mount Everest, demonstrating its agility in high-altitude, extreme environments. It can operate in high-and-hot conditions and be easily reconfigured for aerial work, firefighting, law enforcement, rescue, air ambulance, and passenger transport. India will manufacture these in Vemagal, and Catherine will see this cutting-edge facility with her own eyes. The plant will produce the Airbus H125 civil helicopter with initial capacity of 10 units yearly, scaling up to 500 helicopters over two decades.
Why is Catherine Vautrin's visit so significant? She is here to sign agreements worth billions. A defence cooperation agreement will be renewed for another 10 years. An MoU for manufacturing Hammer missiles will be signed. But here's something equally important that shows real trust: India and France will launch an "Officer Exchange Program." This means Indian Army officers will actually be stationed inside French military units in France for months, learning how French soldiers work, eat, train, and fight. At the same time, French Army officers will be posted in Indian military establishments. They'll live with us, learn our tactics, understand our terrain, and share their expertise. This is the ultimate sign of trust between nations. Only countries that truly believe in each other do this.
Prime Minister Modi and French President Macron will virtually inaugurate the Tata Airbus H125 helicopter assembly line at Vemagal, and Catherine will witness this historic moment in person at the facility itself.
This is India telling the world: we are not just buying defence equipment anymore, we are making it ourselves with our trusted allies. India is moving from dependency to self-reliance, and Karnataka is where this revolution begins. When Indian soldiers carry HAMMER missiles designed and built in India, when Indian rescue operations use helicopters assembled in Vemagal, when our officers learn from French soldiers in their homeland and vice versa, that's when "Atmanirbhar Bharat" becomes real. This visit is not just diplomacy; it's India's declaration of defence independence.
(Girish Linganna is an award-winning science communicator and a Defence, Aerospace & Geopolitical Analyst. He is the Managing Director of ADD Engineering Components India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany)
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or position of the publication, its editors, or its management. The publication is not responsible for the accuracy of any information, statements, or opinions presented in this piece.
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Media dinner shooting suspect wrote about targeting of administration officials, Trump says
Washington (AP): The man accused of trying to storm the ballroom at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner with guns and knives had written about targeting Trump administration officials, and his family raised concerns with law enforcement before the event, President Donald Trump said Sunday in an interview on Fox News Channel.
The accused gunman's family had alerted police in Connecticut, Trump said, revealing new details about a chaotic encounter that disrupted one of Washington's glitziest annual events the night before.
The suspect, identified by law enforcement officials as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen of Torrance, California, was expected to face criminal charges on Monday from the Justice Department, whose acting leader, Todd Blanche, said the suspect travelled by train from California and checked in as a guest days earlier at the Washington hotel where the Saturday night gala dinner was held with its typically tight security.
Law enforcement officials who have interviewed Allen's relatives, examined the gunman's electronic devices and his writings preliminarily believe he intended to target administration members in attendance at the dinner.
He attempted to charge into the cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton but was tackled to the ground in a violent scene that resulted in shots being fired, Trump being hurried off the stage and guests ducking for cover beneath their tables.
“It does appear that he did in fact set out to target folks who work in the administration, likely including the president,” Blanche told NBC's “Meet the Press.”
The suspect is believed to have purchased the two firearms he carried within the last couple of years, Blanche said. He is not being cooperative and is expected to face multiple charges on Monday.
Video posted by Trump showed the suspect running past security barricades as Secret Service agents ran toward him. One officer was shot in a bullet-resistant vest but was recovering, officials said. The gunman was taken into custody and was not injured, but was being evaluated at a hospital, police said.
“He failed,” Blanche said on CBS's “Face the Nation.” “Law enforcement did their jobs.”
Authorities believe the suspect fired the shot that hit the Secret Service officer, who is expected to make a full recovery, Blanche said.
“He's going to be great, he's going to be fine, and thank God he was wearing a bulletproof vest,” Blanche said Sunday on ABC's “This Week.”
Social media posts that appear to match the suspect show he is a highly educated tutor and amateur video game developer.
A May 2025 profile photo of Allen appears to match the appearance of the man in a photo of the alleged attacker being taken into custody that was posted Saturday night by Trump.
The photo, posted to the social networking site LinkedIn, shows him in a cap and gown after graduating with a master's degree in computer science from California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Allen earned a bachelor's degree in 2017 in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He listed his involvement there in a Christian student fellowship and a campus group that battled with Nerf guns.
The shooting at the security barricades happened minutes after the event got underway.
The Secret Service and other authorities swarmed the room as guests ducked under tables by the hundreds. Gasps echoed through the ballroom as guests realised something was happening. Hundreds of journalists immediately got on phones to call in information.
“Out of the way, sir!” someone yelled. Others yelled to duck. From one corner, a “God Bless America” chant began as the president was escorted offstage. Outside the hotel, members of the National Guard and other authorities flooded the area as helicopters circled overhead.
After an initial attempt to resume the event, it was scrapped for the night and will be rescheduled.
Trump was unusually conciliatory after what he saw as a third attempt on his life in less than two years. He suggested that his personal politics had made him a repeated target, but he also called for unity and bipartisan healing in an increasingly violent world.
“It's always shocking when something like this happens. Happened to me, a little bit. And that never changes,” Trump told reporters in a hastily organised news conference at the White House late Saturday.
