National Security Doctrine for Global Reach continues....

This means that the re-equipment process of India’s conventional armed forces weaponry have had little or no new acquisition and modernization. Considering that the rupee is continually devalued by market forces, and the weapons acquisition from abroad has to be in hard currency, even these Rs. 1500 crores shrink further in value over the fiscal years, even if this outlay was diverted wholly to conventional defence services.

There should not however be any doubt that India’s armed forces urgently need updating of its weapons system besides replacement of its ageing hardware that have to be decommissioned soon. For example, during the next two years, India will lose one of the two aircraft carriers (i.e., 50% reduction), a 50% loss in our frigate force from 14 vessels to 7, and a 40% de-commissioning of our submarine fleet (from 19 to 11). The Standing Committee on Defence of Parliament had opined that in order to maintain a fleet of 120 vessels for the Indian Navy, India needs to commission 6 vessels per year. And if Indian government decides to upgrade the naval reach, rather than keep the status quo, then a minimum of 8 new vessels would have to be commissioned every year. This is only for the Navy. The obsolescence in Air Force and Army weapons system is much faster. They require however longer periods for procurements, which has to be through hard nosed negotiations.

The current cost of an aircraft carrier is about Rs. 550 crores; that of a submarine, of tanks and aircrafts, are also exorbitant. That is why the three Defence Services Chiefs had estimated in a pre-Budget exercise in 2001 that the rock bottom Budget provision for maintaining India’s armed forces at the current levels is 30% higher than actually budgeted by the Finance Minister. There is no rationale, therefore, for having scaled down the Defence Budget allocation any further.

to be continued...

( This account is maintained by Har Anand Publication)