Blind men of Hindustan Army
The final journey of the brave Indian Army Jawan’s, who were martyred in Kargil war, was an imported coffin draped with scam written all over it. The Indian Army, an apologist for arms imports; imports almost all its major ticket items like tanks, artillery pieces, guns etc, and has a lion’s share of Indian arms imports. Such is the fervor for “phoren-maal” that the Indian Army General, returned from Poland, where he went for arms purchase evaluation, only after criticisms, while his army was fighting a pitched battle in Kargil. One of the rare examples of Indian designed equipment, the INSAS guns, which the brave Indian soldiers fought with in Kargil and innumerable counter insurgency battles, does not have a clear cut future road map, even though it has been proven under all conditions, in battle, in siachen and in the jungles.
Indian Army does have indigenous designed and produced such as Prithvi Missile systems, NBC warfare and protection equipment etc, but that’s only because most of these are either not available for imports, not glamorous enough for imports or rare streak good intentions due to a competent forward looking Indian Army office in charge. The utility vehicles are the other exceptions which Indian Army buys from home.
General Deepak Kapoor who, in September 2007, took over as the 23rd Chief of the Army Staff said “My top priority would be to step up the pace of modernization.” While India should have utmost respect for this fine soldier with PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM and ADC medals on his proud chest, let’s evaluate if he will deliver this time.
Induction of missile systems like Prithvi and Brahmos are not to be counted as “Indian Army Driven” mordernisation programme. Indian Army has no choices in these items.
Major components of Indian army that will go for mordernisations are 1) Armour 2) Artillery 3) Infantry 4) Information and Electronics warfare 5) Training.
1) Armour: Arjun Tank is the most sophisticated tank available with Indian Army. T-90S imported are not a match for it. However Indian Army prefers imported T-90S. Further imports and production of the T-90S tanks have become a big question. With Russia asking for escalation of the price of the Arms exports, T-90S costs per bang will be higher. As Indian Army will add more features to T-90S from other sources, the costs are going to be higher. The production of T-90S is not stabilized and has a long way to go in terms of indigenisation. Currently production of T-90S in 1000 quantities does not look like a viable proposition.
2) Artillery: After a lot of trials, Indian Army had selected best available option for artillery induction. Unlike Arjun Tank, which is made for Indian conditions, Indian Army had no foresight to develop this crucial component. There is another dimension to it. The current coalition government is headed by the same political party which has been accused of taking bribe during last purchase of artillery guns from Bofors. Since Indian Army had finalized guns from Bofors Defence (now owned by the BAE Systems) again, it’s unlikely the purchase is likely to happen. Another of the self propelled gun system from Denel, South Africa, which was under consideration, is now in cold storage because of a bribery case. The project is called “Bhim.”
3) Infantry: The Future infantry soldier as a system project (F-INSAS) aims at making soldier `a self-contained fighting machine.’ Currently, Indian Army is at logger heads and not accepting it as its 1 kilo gram more than the envisaged weight. This is a normal pattern for Indian Army which normally leads to delay in a project and then ultimately imports. On rifles front, Indian army does not have an indigenous option for many variants of guns like sniper guns. Currently with no visible or implied or expressed gun development program by Indian Army, it will again lead to imports. INSAS guns currently fielded do have some development program but it’s yet to be seen that if Indian Army will accept it.
4) Information and Electronics warfare systems: The most visible program for electronic warfare (EW) is Samyukta, which has not finished and is not likely to finish in near future as per the information available. Indian Navy, which started its own EW development program, has even operationalised it. Indian Navy program started well after Indian Army program was started. The trend of dragging the program till it is late as mentioned in F-INSAS project is visible here too.
5) Training: Currently Indian Army is training with foreign armies. Indian Army does have an edge in counter insurgency and sometimes tactics. Training with US and European forces will definitely expose Indian soldiers to technologies and equipment from overseas. It will lead to more imports. Indian Army inspite of all imports has failed to keep its soldiers better equipped.
Indian Army is unlikely to get modernized till the year 2020 because of the blind men of Indian Army. Barring one army chief, General Shankar Roychowdhury, there is no Indian General who has supported self weapon development and self reliance. India is yet to see a true General who will fight wars with Indian tactics, Indian weapons and Indian men put together. Perhaps Its time we import some Generals too.
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