Defence Weekly Current Affairs Quiz: 5–11 October 2026

The correct answer is the United Arab Emirates. The Ministry of Defence announced that the India–UAE joint military exercise Mountain Guardian 2026 began at the Foreign Training Node in Chaubatia, Uttarakhand, with equal participation from both armies and mountain warfare as the theme. Option A, Saudi Arabia, is incorrect; India holds separate engagements with that country but this drill is not one of them. Option C, Oman, is a plausible distractor because India and Oman run well-known bilateral exercises across the services, yet the exercise named here is with the Emirati army. Option D, Qatar, is also wrong, as the release names only the United Arab Emirates as the partner. Aspirants should link the exercise name to the partner country, the hill venue in Uttarakhand and the mountain warfare focus, since question papers frequently pair an exercise with the wrong neighbour to test exactly this recall.

The correct answer is Rs 661.50 crore. The Ministry of Defence signed the contract with BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited on 6 October 2026 in New Delhi, and the value of the order for BrahMos Fire Control Systems and launchers meant for ships of the Indian Navy was fixed at Rs 661.50 crore. The signing took place in the presence of Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, and the purchase was routed through the Buy (Indian-IDDM) category with a floor of 68 per cent indigenous content. Option A is wrong because no figure of that size is attached to this order. Option C is wrong because it inflates the amount past a thousand crore, which does not match the order placed. Option D is wrong because it simply rearranges the digits of the real figure and understates the contract by a wide margin. Candidates should carry the exact amount, including the paise-level 50 lakh, since question setters often offer a rounded Rs 661 crore as a trap alongside the precise value.

The correct answer is Surya. FSS-1, the first of the Fleet Support Ships designed and built by Hindustan Shipyard Limited, was named Surya and launched by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at the Visakhapatnam yard on 6 October 2026. Traditional launch honours were performed by Laila Swaminathan, President of the Navy Wives Wellness Association, and the vessel entered the waters of the Bay of Bengal. Option A is wrong, though it is a tempting distractor: Jala Usha was the first ship built in independent India and was launched at Visakhapatnam in 1948, a point the minister recalled in his speech, but it is not the new support ship. Options C and D are wrong because no vessel of those names features in this launch; they are plausible-sounding naval names offered as traps. Candidates should tie the name Surya to FSS-1 and keep Jala Usha separately in memory as the 1948 milestone.

The correct answer is 29th. The Government has appointed Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, PVSM, AVSM, VM, VSM, as the twenty-ninth officer to head the Indian Air Force, and he takes charge in the rank of Air Chief Marshal from the afternoon of 31 October 2026. Options A and B name earlier numbers in the line of air chiefs and are therefore wrong, because the outgoing chief, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, retires on the same date and Air Marshal Dixit follows immediately after him rather than before him. Option D is wrong because it names the chief who will come after the present appointment, not this one. For the examination hall, remember the pairing of the name with the number and with the rank of Air Chief Marshal, since appointment questions are usually framed around exactly that pairing.

The correct answer is Paradip, Odisha. The Indian Coast Guard conducted the 12th edition of the National Maritime Search and Rescue Exercise in the sea off Paradip on 8 October 2026, and the Paradip Port Authority along with the Odisha state administration took part in it. Option A, Kochi, is wrong: Kerala was not the setting for this edition, even though the Coast Guard keeps assets on the western seaboard. Option C, Visakhapatnam, is wrong: although it is a major port on the eastern coast, the drill named here was held off the Odisha coast and not off Andhra Pradesh. Option D, Mormugao in Goa, is wrong for the same reason, since the exercise was an eastern seaboard event. The rescue scenario itself placed the imagined aircraft crash close to Paradip Port, which fixes the location firmly.

The correct answer is General NS Raja Subramani, Chief of Defence Staff. He is also Secretary of the Department of Military Affairs, and he opened the new housing for senior sailors and naval defence civilians, along with trunk utility and amenity infrastructure, at the Karwar base. Option A is wrong because the Chief of the Naval Staff is not named in connection with this inauguration at all. Option C is wrong because the Defence Minister did not perform the ceremony; the announcement came from the Ministry of Defence, but the inauguration was done by the Chief of Defence Staff. Option D names an officer who was indeed present, Vice Admiral Vivek Dahiya, the Director General Seabird, but he attended the ceremony along with other senior officers rather than inaugurating the facilities. Candidates should link Project Seabird with Karwar and with the Chief of Defence Staff for this event.

The correct answer is INS Trishul. The Ministry of Defence stated that the guided missile stealth frigate INS Trishul had reached Plymouth in the United Kingdom, where it is scheduled to exercise with the Royal Navy in KONKAN-26. The frigate is therefore the Indian unit named for this deployment, and it is the ship that will be opened to visitors during the harbour stage of the exercise at Plymouth. Option A, INS Tabar, is wrong because no such ship figures in this deployment; the only Indian warship identified for KONKAN-26 is INS Trishul. Option C, INS Teg, is wrong for the same reason, as the announcement names a single frigate and that frigate is Trishul. Option D, INS Talwar, is also wrong: although the name is close to that of the ship actually deployed, the vessel sent to the United Kingdom for this edition of the exercise is INS Trishul and no other.

The correct answer is Russia. INDRA is the bilateral exercise between India and Russia, and in this edition the Indian Navy works with the Russian Federation Navy. The Indian warship Sahyadri has arrived at Vladivostok, a port on the Russian Far East coast, for the drill. Option A, Japan, is wrong because the India-Japan naval exercise is a separate series and Japan has no role in this deployment; the release names only the Russian Federation Navy as the partner. Option C, Indonesia, is wrong for the same reason, and India-Indonesia naval activity is conducted under its own arrangements rather than under the INDRA name. Option D, Oman, is also wrong, since no West Asian navy is involved here and the host port named for the exercise is Vladivostok in Russia, not an Omani port. Candidates should link the exercise name directly to the partner country, as questions on exercises are usually set in that match-the-pair form.

The correct answer is Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam. The yard is building all five Fleet Support Ships ordered by the Indian Navy, and FSS-1 will be launched there on 6 October 2026 into the waters of the Bay of Bengal, eighteen months after its steel was first cut. The same ceremony will see the keel of FSS-5 laid and two yard facilities opened, the upgraded Slipway-4 and a 300-tonne Goliath Crane, which together raise the yard's building limit to vessels of 45,000 DWT. The other three options are all real Indian defence shipyards, which is what makes them useful distractors, but none of them holds the Fleet Support Ship order. Fix the pairing in memory: Fleet Support Ships go with Hindustan Shipyard Limited at Visakhapatnam.

The correct answer is the Koraput division, which is in Odisha and has been building aero-engines for close to six decades. The two-thousandth engine from this plant is being handed over on 6 October 2026, with the Raksha Mantri inaugurating the event and the Chief Minister of Odisha among those attending. The same occasion marks a second production line for Shakti engines, set up with an investment of Rs 218 crore to meet the growing requirement of indigenous helicopters. Options A, C and D are genuine Hindustan Aeronautics Limited locations, each with its own product lines, which makes them tempting; but the aero-engine milestone belongs to Koraput. Candidates should link the plant, the state and the engine in one go: Koraput, Odisha, Shakti engines.

The correct answer is the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), Agra. The release states that this laboratory is designing and developing the High-Altitude Platform, a lighter-than-air system meant to work as a long endurance stratospheric aerial surveillance platform. Option B is wrong because the electronics laboratory at Hyderabad is not named as the developer of this platform. Option C is wrong because the establishment at Bengaluru is not credited with the High-Altitude Platform in this trial. Option D is wrong for the same reason; no such centre is mentioned in connection with the system. Candidates should connect the laboratory with the kind of work it does: aerial delivery systems and lighter-than-air platforms, which is why the high-altitude airship project sits with it. The trial itself was carried out in coordination with the Indian Air Force, CEMILAC, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India.

The correct answer is Nyoma (Mudh DZ), described as one of the highest-altitude drop zones. The jump was executed at 16,000 feet above mean sea level, the canopy was deployed at 15,500 feet and the landing was made at the drop zone itself, which lies at 13,700 feet. The exercise proved the efficacy and tactical employability of the parachute over extremely high-altitude terrain. Option A is wrong: Agra is where the designing laboratory sits, not where this jump was made. Option C is wrong because the desert range is not the site named for this trial, and the point of the jump was high elevation rather than open desert. Option D is wrong because the coastal test range is used for missile trials, not for a high-altitude parachute jump. Candidates should remember the three altitudes of the jump along with the name of the drop zone.

The correct answer is delivery of its 2,000th aero-engine. The Defence Minister was present at Koraput for this handover, which came six decades after the Division was set up in 1964. Option A understates the figure; the thousandth engine is not the milestone being marked here. Option C mixes up two different counts: Koraput has indeed overhauled engines in large numbers, more than 9,000 of them, but the event of the day was a delivery and not an overhaul landmark. Option D is wrong because the announcement concerned supply to India's own Defence Forces rather than exports. Candidates should remember the pairing of two numbers for this unit: 2,000 engines delivered and over 9,000 engines overhauled. The Division's output has powered frontline fighters such as the MiG-21, MiG-27, MiG-29 and the Su-30MKI, and the Minister described the two thousand engines as two thousand contributions to the operational capability of the armed forces.

The correct answer is Mt Kanchenjunga and Mt Nanda Devi. Mt Kamet stands in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand and is the third-highest mountain within India, which places exactly those two peaks above it. The joint Indo-Argentine team topped it on 21 September 2026 at a height of 7,756 metres, four days after it had climbed Mt Abi Gamin. Option B is wrong because it replaces Nanda Devi with a Karakoram peak that does not sit in the order being asked about. Option C is wrong because Trishul, although a well-known Garhwal summit, is lower than Kamet and cannot stand above it in the ranking. Option D is wrong because Nun and Kun are Ladakh peaks and neither of them outranks Kamet. Candidates should pair the name of the peak with its district, its state and its position in the list of Indian summits.

The correct answer is 12th. The exercise is being held off the Paradip coast of Odisha and is inaugurated by the Minister of State for Defence, with the search and rescue demonstration at sea following a day later. Options A and B are wrong because they name earlier editions of the same series, and an aspirant who remembers only that the drill is held in the eleventh or twelfth year of the series will lose the mark; the edition number is the fact being tested. Option D is wrong because the series has not reached that number. Note that two different edition numbers appear in this news item and should not be mixed up: the exercise itself is the twelfth, while the National Maritime Search and Rescue Board meeting that is held alongside it at Bhubaneswar is the twenty-fourth.

The correct answer is Hindustan Shipyard Limited, Visakhapatnam. The Fleet Support Ships are under construction at HSL in Visakhapatnam, and FSS-1, the first of the class, was launched there on 6 October 2026 with Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh as chief guest. The ministry's note records that the whole class is designed and built in the country by this yard, and that an Augmented Slipway, an upgrade of building facilities at the same yard, was inaugurated on the day of the launch. Option A, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders in Mumbai, is wrong because the release names no Mumbai yard in connection with this project. Option B, Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers in Kolkata, is wrong for the same reason, as the ceremony reported took place in Visakhapatnam. Option D, Cochin Shipyard Limited in Kochi, is wrong as well: the release mentions only HSL, its slipway and its senior officials, so Kochi has no part in the Fleet Support Ship programme as described.

The correct answer is Joint Squad for Health. That is the expansion of the acronym used by the Union Health Ministry for the squads being launched at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, which bring Class-I Officers, MY Bharat Volunteers and NCC Cadets together for community work against tuberculosis. Option B is wrong because the squads are not an organisation of a sanitation character and the acronym does not refer to sanitation at all; their work is awareness, testing and treatment completion for a disease. Option C is wrong because the teams deliberately work outside hospitals, taking the message to blocks, wards and neighbourhoods rather than running a hospital outreach scheme. Option D is wrong on the same count, since hygiene is not the subject and the word Jan does not appear in the name, although public participation, called Jan Bhagidari, is the spirit behind the effort. Only option A gives the official expansion.

The correct answer is off Paradip. The exercise was inaugurated by the Raksha Rajya Mantri on 7 October 2026 and the sea phase was set to be conducted off Paradip, on the Odisha coast, the next day. Thirty-two delegates from thirty friendly foreign nations were to take part in or observe the drill, along with representatives of international organisations. Option A, off Kochi, is wrong: Kochi is a major naval station on the Arabian Sea side but is not the location named for this exercise. Option C, off Port Blair, is wrong: although the Andaman and Nicobar Islands sit inside the Indian Search and Rescue Region, the exercise was not held there. Option D, off Visakhapatnam, is wrong as well: it is a large eastern port and naval headquarters, yet the venue announced for SAREX-2026 was Paradip and not Visakhapatnam. Remember that the exercise brought together the Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Coastal Police, ports, civil agencies and the shipping community in what was described as a Whole-of-Government and Whole-of-Nation approach.

The correct answer is iDEX, TDF, Make and other developmental projects of the Ministry of Defence. The waiver of proof and testing charges for this set of projects is the central financial relief in the revised Standard Operating Procedure, and the stated reason is the promotion of self-reliance in defence. Option A is wrong because no waiver was announced for foreign collaboration work; the measure is aimed squarely at the indigenous industry. Option C is wrong because the relief is defined by the type of developmental project rather than by the kind of establishment, and the procedure is written for the Indian defence industry as a whole. Option D is wrong as well, since no export value threshold was set for the waiver, although the document does say that it supports defence exports among its wider aims. Remember alongside this that the procedure lists the ranges and laboratories available with the Defence Research and Development Organisation, the Government Quality Assurance agencies and the three Services.

The correct answer is Observer Research Foundation. The dialogue is a thought leadership conference put together by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways together with the Observer Research Foundation, and its third edition is being held in New Delhi. Policymakers, maritime leaders and experts from around the world were welcomed to it by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a written message. Option A is wrong because NITI Aayog is the government's policy think tank but is not named as a partner for this conference. Option C is wrong because the Indian Council of World Affairs, although a foreign policy institution, has no role here. Option D is wrong because FICCI is an industry chamber and does not co-host the dialogue. Aspirants should link the event firmly to the shipping ministry and the Observer Research Foundation.

The correct answer is Air Force Station Hindan, Ghaziabad. The force completed 94 years of service on 8 October 2026 and held its ceremonial Air Force Day parade at Hindan, where the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, reviewed the parade in the presence of the Army and Navy chiefs, former air chiefs and other senior officers. Option B, Palam, is wrong: no part of this year’s ceremony was held there, although Palam has hosted the parade in earlier years, which is exactly why it works as a distractor. Option C, Chandigarh, is wrong because the station finds no mention in the account of the day. Option D, Prayagraj, is also wrong. The only other place named for this year is Namo Ghat in Varanasi, and that is for a separate aerial display on 25 October 2026, not for the parade itself. So the parade venue is Hindan and the later flypast venue is Varanasi.

The correct answer is about USD 9 billion. The minister described this as the current size of the space economy and said it could reach USD 45 to 46 billion over the next 8 to 10 years if the present momentum continues, crediting the expansion to the opening of the sector and the entry of a wider set of stakeholders. Option D is the trap: USD 45 billion is the projected figure for 8 to 10 years out, not the present one, and papers often ask candidates to tell the two apart. Options A and C are invented values placed between the real numbers. A useful companion point is that the opening of the sector has let young engineers find work at home in private startups such as Skyroot instead of going abroad, which is the brain-drain argument the minister was making to the students.

The correct answer is the Department of Telecommunications and the International Telecommunication Union. The workshop was organised jointly by the department, which sits in the Ministry of Communications, and the Union, and was inaugurated by Jyotiraditya M. Scindia at India Mobile Congress 2026 in New Delhi. Options A, C and D are wrong because none of those pairings is named as the organiser; they are offered as plausible combinations of Indian bodies and international agencies. Dr Bilel Jamoussi, Deputy Director of the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau of the Union, and Amit Agrawal, Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications, were among those present. The minister described the Lab’s move from Geneva to New Delhi as mirroring the path artificial intelligence must take from global talk to local solutions.

The correct answer is ₹38,424 crore. Speaking at the eighth annual session of the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers in New Delhi, the Defence Minister said exports of defence goods had touched this figure in the financial year 2025-26, the highest India has ever reached, and that the rise over the preceding year was more than 60 per cent. Option A is wrong because no such figure was given for the year in question. Option C is wrong as well; it sits between the achieved figure and the target but matches neither. Option D is wrong because it crosses the goal the minister himself described as still ahead, namely ₹50,000 crore of defence exports by the year 2029. Aspirants should hold on to three linked numbers from this event: the achievement of ₹38,424 crore, the growth of over 60 per cent, and the target of ₹50,000 crore by 2029.

The correct answer is Cochin Shipyard Limited, Kochi. Mangrol is the third shallow water craft for anti-submarine warfare delivered by that yard, and it will be commissioned at Naval Dockyard, Mumbai, with the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command presiding. Options A, B and D name other Indian defence shipyards, each of which builds warships for the Navy, but none of them built this craft. Candidates should connect the builder with two other facts from the same announcement: the ship has more than 80 per cent indigenous content, and it was constructed under the Make in India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiatives. Note also that the commissioning port, Mumbai, is different from the yard that built the ship, a distinction examiners like to test.

The correct answer is the Indian Air Force. Tarang Shakti is an air exercise, and the second edition was hosted by the Indian Air Force from 26 September to 12 October 2026, with the Defence Minister addressing the participants at Air Force Station Jodhpur. Option A, the Indian Army, is wrong because the exercise was built around flying operations — combat jets, transport aircraft, surveillance platforms and air-to-air refuelling tankers — and around joint mission planning between air forces, not around ground manoeuvres. Option B, the Indian Navy, is wrong for the same reason; the Navy Chief, Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, was present at the event as a dignitary, but the exercise was not a naval one. Option D, the Indian Coast Guard, is wrong because the Coast Guard is a maritime law-enforcement and search-and-rescue service and had no role of this kind here. The clue in such questions is usually the kind of platform named: Tejas and Prachand are an aircraft and a helicopter, which point to the air arm.

The correct answer is Deoghar, Jharkhand. The mela, named Sainya Sampark Mela - Sadaiv Aapke Saath, was held at Deoghar and was organised by the Indian Army together with the Deoghar district administration. It served ex-servicemen, Veer Naris and their dependents from across the Santhal Pargana region, which is why the venue was placed there rather than in the State capital. Option A names Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, which is not where this mela was held. Option C names Dumka, another town of the Santhal Pargana region, but the event was not located there. Option D names Bokaro, an industrial centre of the State, which also does not match. Candidates should fix the pairing of the mela with Deoghar, and remember that the Vice-President, C. P. Radhakrishnan, is a former Governor of Jharkhand.

The correct answer is Cyprus and Greece. The Ministry of Defence has said that the Defence Secretary, Rajesh Kumar Singh, will undertake an official visit to these two countries from 12 to 15 October 2026, with the Cyprus leg falling on 12 and 13 October and Greece forming the second half of the tour. In Cyprus he is to meet counterparts in the Cypriot Ministry of Defence and call on the leadership, while in Greece he will interact with the senior defence and military leadership. Options B, C and D each pair one correct country with one that does not appear in the announcement, or name countries that are not part of it at all. Candidates should note that both countries on the itinerary are members of the European Union, which is what links the visit to the India-EU Security and Defence Partnership.

The correct answer is Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers, Kolkata, where Shreyas, carrying the yard number 3040, was launched. Option A, Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders in Mumbai, builds destroyers and submarines for the Navy but had no part in this launch. Option C, Cochin Shipyard in Kochi, is the yard associated with the indigenous aircraft carrier, not with this class of patrol vessels. Option D, Hindustan Shipyard in Visakhapatnam, is another defence yard that is not involved in this programme. The point to remember is that the Next Generation Offshore Patrol Vessels are being built at two yards at the same time, Goa Shipyard Limited in Goa and GRSE in Kolkata, and this particular hull came from the Kolkata yard.

The correct answer is Tezpur. The Defence Correspondents Course ended there once the participating journalists had completed the Navy, Air Force and Army legs of the programme, and the valedictory function was held at the same place. It was chaired by Lieutenant General Neeraj Shukla, the General Officer Commanding of the Gajraj Corps, with the Additional Director General for Media and Communication in the Ministry of Defence and officials of the Directorate of Public Relations also attending. Options A and C name other cities of the North East, which makes them plausible choices for a course whose last leg was held in that region, but neither was the venue of the closing event. Option D names a city in Rajasthan and is therefore wrong as well. Only option B gives the place where the course concluded.