Defence Current Affairs Quiz: 1 October 2026

The correct answer is a frontline stealth frigate. That is how the ship has been described in the announcement of her visit to the Kenyan port, and a frigate of this class is a general purpose warship built with a reduced radar signature so that it is harder to detect at sea. Option A is wrong because an aircraft carrier is a far larger capital ship whose role is to operate fighter aircraft from its deck, and no carrier was involved in this visit. Option C is wrong because a submarine is an undersea platform and the ship in question is a surface combatant making a formal harbour call with ceremonial and community programmes. Option D is wrong because a survey vessel is a specialised ship for hydrographic charting rather than a frontline fighting unit. Only option B matches the description.

The correct answer is Buldhana. Lonar Crater Lake is a unique natural formation in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra, and it attracts visitors because of its distinctive geological and environmental features. The lake is known for water that is both saline and alkaline, and for the striking crater landscape around it. It is one of the three sites at which the Union Minister of State for Ayush has asked the Defence Ministry to allow performances by the aerobatic display team of the Indian Air Force, the other two being the Ajanta and Ellora Caves. Options B, C and D name Nagpur, Satara and Nashik, which are all districts of Maharashtra but none of them is the district in which this crater lake lies. Hence option A is the correct choice.

The correct answer is France. Varuna is the annual bilateral maritime exercise between the Indian Navy and the French Navy, and in its twenty-fourth edition the Indian warship Trishul sailed to the French port of Toulon to take part. Option A is wrong because the naval exercise India holds with the United Kingdom goes by a different name. Option C is wrong as well; the drill India conducts with Russia is a separate series and has nothing to do with Varuna. Option D is incorrect because the exercise with Japan is also a distinct series with its own name. A useful way to fix this in memory is to link the French connection with the ports and units named in this edition, Toulon as the port of call and the French ships Charles de Gaulle, Forbin and La Fayette, along with the nuclear-powered submarine Suffren that took part in the sea phase.

The correct answer is Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions. The visit of the Indian warship to the Kenyan port has been placed within the spirit of this framework, which expresses India's approach to working with friendly countries of the Indian Ocean Region on both security and development. Options A, C and D are invented expansions. They have been built from words that sound plausible in a maritime context, such as harbour, safety, alliance and oceans, and a candidate who remembers only that the name sounds like the Hindi word for ocean may fall for any of them. Examinations often test exactly this kind of acronym, so the safe approach is to learn the expansion word by word: mutual, holistic, advancement, security, growth, across regions. Only option B carries all of those elements in the right order.

The correct answer is the Indian Air Force. The Surya Kiran Aerobatic Display Team is the air force’s formation display team, and it has a reputation for precision, skill and closely coordinated aerial manoeuvres. The letter seeking its performances in Maharashtra notes that its displays showcase the country’s aviation capabilities while drawing public interest and encouraging young people to explore opportunities in the air force. Option A, the Indian Army, and option B, the Indian Navy, both have their own display and adventure teams, but Surya Kiran is not one of them. Option D, the Indian Coast Guard, is a maritime force under the Ministry of Defence and operates no such aerobatic team. Candidates should remember Surya Kiran together with Sarang, the air force’s helicopter display team, as both are frequently asked.

The correct answer is the 24th edition. The Ministry of Defence stated that INS Trishul arrived at Toulon to join the twenty-fourth edition of the exercise, which makes Varuna one of the longest-running bilateral naval exercises India takes part in. Options A and B, the 20th and 22nd editions, belong to earlier years of the same series and are the kind of near-miss figures a paper setter places to test whether the current edition has been noted carefully. Option D, the 26th, runs ahead of the present count and is therefore wrong. For the examination hall, the safest habit is to remember the edition number together with the year, so that the 24th edition is tied to 2026 and to the port of Toulon in France. Remember also that the ship arrived there on 22 September 2026 and was greeted with a ceremonial water cannon salute.

The correct answer is Mombasa, the Kenyan port where the frontline stealth frigate berthed for a goodwill call during her deployment. Option A is wrong because Dar es Salaam is the principal port of Tanzania, a neighbouring country on the same eastern African coast, which is what makes it a convincing distractor. Option B is wrong because Djibouti lies much further north, near the entrance to the Red Sea, and is not the port named in this visit. Option D is wrong because Port Victoria is the harbour of Seychelles, an island country of the western Indian Ocean. All four are ports that Indian warships visit in the course of deployments in the region, so the detail to fix in memory is the pairing of this particular ship with Mombasa in Kenya, along with the arrival date and the partner navy she engaged with there.

The correct answer is the Union Minister of State for Ayush. Prataprao Jadhav, who holds independent charge of the Ministry of Ayush and is also Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has written to the Defence Minister asking that the aerobatic display team of the Indian Air Force be permitted to perform at Lonar, Ajanta and Ellora. His letter frames the request as a way to promote tourism in Maharashtra. Option A is wrong because the Tourism Minister did not make this request, even though tourism is the stated purpose. Option C, the Culture Minister, looks after heritage sites of this kind but is not the author of the letter. Option D, the Civil Aviation Minister, handles commercial aviation rather than air force displays, so that option is also incorrect.

The correct answer is 205. The Commanding Officer, officers and crew of the ship laid a wreath at the Mazargues War Memorial in Marseille in remembrance of 205 Indian soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice during the World Wars. Options A, C and D offer figures close enough to be plausible, and each is wrong; such near figures are a common trap in examinations where only one number has been reported. Two details help the answer stick. First, the memorial stands at Marseille, while the ship was berthed at Toulon, so the city of the memorial and the port of call are different places on the French Mediterranean coast. Second, the wreath-laying was part of the harbour phase of the exercise, which also included cross-deck visits, an exchange of operational experience, a cultural evening on board and a friendly volleyball match between the two crews.

The correct answer is that both the Ajanta and the Ellora Caves are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Both are recognised across the world for their outstanding cultural and historical significance, and the minister’s letter drew attention to this standing while proposing them as venues. Option A is incomplete, since it leaves out Ellora, which carries the same recognition. Option C is wrong because Lonar Crater Lake is described as a unique natural formation known for its saline and alkaline water and its crater landscape, not as a World Heritage site. Option D denies recognition that the two cave complexes clearly hold. Candidates should pair the two cave sites together as World Heritage properties of Maharashtra, and keep Lonar separate as a geological attraction in Buldhana district.