M A I N   N E W S

Defence reality: Ageing aircraft, low firepower & scarce ammo
Ajay Banerjee/TNS

New Delhi, April 30
The dismaying details of the country’s lack of defence preparedness are out. Ageing aircraft fleet, scarcity of choppers, not enough tank ammunition and shortage of artillery guns, the picture is far from perfect on the defence front.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, has in a forthright report tabled in the Parliament today revealed these stark realities.

The committee’s report assumes importance as the Army Chief General VK Singh had written a letter to the Prime Minister revealing critical shortages. The letter had got leaked to the media.

Headed by Satpal Maharaj, a Congress MP from Uttarakhand, the House panel said: “There is a huge gap between the required and the existing force levels.”

"There is an urgent need to build defence capabilities to face any challenge, including the worst scenario of a two-front war....The committee may like to emphasise that India is surrounded by difficult neighbours and as such there is an urgent need to allocate adequate outlay to the Services," it said.

Comparing the sanctioned and the existing strength of choppers with the Army Aviation, the report said: “There is a shortage of 18 Cheetah, 1 Chetak, 76 Advance Light Helicopters (ALH) and 60 Advance Light Helicopters (Weapons Systems Integrated) (ALH-WSI).”

“Tank ammunition is another area of concern. The blacklisting of Israel Military Industry has further compounded the problem. The whole contract with them has fallen through and other alternate routes are now being activated,” said the panel.

“Blacklisting of the companies ultimately results into blacklisting of the rarest technologies. There’s a need to find some solution,” the report said. A total of six companies have been blacklisted following a CBI report. The committee said it was “ alarmed at the way deficiencies have been allowed to persist”. The House panel was particularly critical of shortage of artillery guns.

“Blacklisting of the companies ultimately results into blacklisting of the rarest technologies. There’s a need to find some solution,” the report said. A total of six companies have been blacklisted following a CBI report. The committee said it was “ alarmed at the way deficiencies have been allowed to persist”. The House panel was particularly critical of shortage of artillery guns.

“The IAF data indicates that most of the aircraft were three decades old. While MIG-27 and MIG 29 were inducted 25 years ago, the choppers — Mi-25/35, Mi-8 and Mi-17 — were more than 29 years old,” it said.

The committee said the IAF, at present, has 34 fighter squadrons against the sanctioned strength of 42. Th strength is likely to reduce further to 31 during the 12th Plan period - 2012-2017. "The defence expenditure of India is lowest as compared to US, China, Pakistan, Russia and France," the report said. The committee said military expenditure in terms of percentage of the GDP in all these countries except Pakistan is increasing over the years.