The parliamentary panel on defence has suggested that the government build capabilities to face any challenge, including the worst scenario of a two-front war, and asked it to allocate funds towards it. It also underscored the need to fast-track procurement of ammunition for the Army considering that the situation is critical.
“The committee members are alarmed over the way the deficiencies have been allowed to persist leading to criticality in the Army aviation and ammunition … all the issues confronting delay in procurement should be dealt with to put the procurement procedures on a fast-track mode and with decentralisation of financial powers. The issue of critical gaps should be addressed without any further delay and also within the stipulated timeframe,” the panel said in its latest report to Parliament.
This observation by the Standing Committee on Defence came while examining the Demands for Grants for this financial year and also in the backdrop of the letter of Army Chief General V.K. Singh to the Prime Minister drawing attention to problems in defence preparedness.
The Army Chief had flagged a few areas of concern — tanks do not have critical ammunition, and air defence having obsolete guns. The committee disapproved of the way the deficiency of the gun system has been allowed to reach to the criticality.
It strongly recommended that at least now the Ministry take the initiative and put procurements on the fast-track mode. The committee had sought to know the reasons behind delay in upgrading the Bofors field guns even after the government had paid for transfer of technology.
The report mentions “huge gaps” between the sanctioned and the existing machines with Army Aviation, pointing to the shortage of 19 Cheetah/Chetak helicopters, 76 Advanced Light Helicopters and 60 Advance Light Helicopter (Weapons Systems Integrated). Recently, the government appointed a committee to resolve the issue since there are differences between the Army and the IAF over Army Aviation.
On the Air Force, the House committee noted with concern the huge gap between the required and existing strengths of Squadrons that would rise to 11 during the 12 Plan (2012-17). At present, the IAF has 34 fighter squadrons against the sanctioned strength of 42 and would be further reduced to 31. The IAF plan envisages 45 squadrons by 2032.
Keywords: Parliamentary panel, defence procurement process, fast-track court, Standing Committee on Defence
Agreed, the Politico-Bureacratic-ArmsDealers' Traid is pushing the Fast-Track! There however are shortages in the Forces - this is a fact. The Soldiers cannot fight with sticks and stones. We Indians forget the lives lost in the many Indo-Pak, Indo-China, Kargil and other proxy-wars. Reason - the enemy was better prepared! Why is the life of the Indian soldier so cheap? Would we rather have the Pakistani army sitting in Kashmir and Punjab? Would we rather have the Chinese sitting in Arunachal, Sikkim and Assam? I agree we need better Inetl-Gathering equipment for CI ops and not just Defence equipment. But these are 2 faces of the same coin. We are weak on both fronts. Why do the US soldiers have such low attrition at war or CI when compared to our conflicts?...food for thought....the answer is "tech". By the way, the Rafale is a great fighter, better than the Gripen, MiG35, F16 and F18. The Typhoon is brilliant but lost out on cost! Lets not criticize the procedure...just its speed.
Why this fast track procurement now? There is no one in the world who can announce war on India. Congress govt understood that it will not be in power for next 5 to 10 years and therefore it wants some way to loot the money (which is required for investing to get back to power). Defence deals are the best method known to them. Being they have been with defence scams since Rajiv Gandhi's period.
I know some one will come up and answer terrorism. I would like to mention the equipment used in preventing terrorism is nothing to do with defence deals. this is purly to purchase huge high cost defence equipment like fighers, tankers etc... those are with outdated technology or the technology on which no-one in the world is ready to purchase (Like happened in case of jet fighters deal to an french based firm)
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