The Issue at hand
Currently, China is expanding its military offensive and defensive capabilities, at a lightning fast rate. It is dominating the Indian Ocean with it ships and nuclear submarines, passing quiet close to the Indian borders. They have a huge and robust network of roads, airstrips, military outposts and railway lines along the Indian border, where today, we are not only lagging behind, but also we are looking as a compromised state.
Pakistan is growing its nuclear arsenal at a lightning fast speed and today, it has more nuclear weapons than any of the state in the world, being our neighbor, undoubtedly, Pakistan is ahead of us in the nuclear war.
To begin with, China has built 27 airbases in just Tibet for military use whereas we do not even have 27 airstrips in the whole country! PLA has been repeatedly intruding within our borders and we don’t seem to get an inch of sweat, I am not sure whether this is confidence or over confidence, against a nation that has always proven to be superior in military equipment’s. They are providing aid to the insurgents (Maoists) in India as previously mentioned. Beijing continues to assist nations such as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Pakistan through monetary and military means, in an effort to create a “string of pearls” to encircle us and limit us within the boundaries of Indian Ocean. All these examples indicate China’s expansionist policy that not only poses a grave threat to the northeastern borders but also to our north and northwest borders and even our maritime interests.
On the other hand, Pakistan is growing its nuclear arsenal at a lightning fast speed and today, it has more nuclear weapons than any of the state in the world, being our neighbor, undoubtedly, Pakistan is ahead of us in the nuclear war. They are rapidly modernizing their equipment’s with the help of PLA. These two nations are jointly constructing a highway across the Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin: both which belong to India rightfully. This highway further connects to Gwadar where China is building a port. Islamabad and Beijing are jointly involved in producing long range bombers and fighter aircrafts.
Islamabad has many times, violated the ceasefire agreements and still continues to harbor militants on its soil, providing them various means to attack and provide designate targets on Indian soil. Growing Chinese military might and its cordial relations with Pakistan means that we must be prepared to sustain and win a combined attack by them. In reality, we are far from doing so and if the present state continues, we may find it difficult to sustain and win even against Pakistan. Our defense budget is USD 40 billion whereas China’s defense budget is USD 145 billion and Pakistan’s defense budget is USD 7 billion.
It is out most important for us to develop strategies to resolve internal conflicts in various areas within the country through unconventional ways and if the hour of the need requires, then by force, but elimination of non-state actors operating with the realm of our boundaries, is absolutely important.
Our defense budget is USD 40 billion whereas China’s defense budget is USD 145 billion and Pakistan’s defense budget is USD 7 billion.
Doing this will internally assist us in strengthening our borders rather fighting an endless battle, within the boundaries of our nation. Rural population is the hardest hit, they are frustrated on the inability of the government to respond to this situation and they are lured to take up arms against the government and security personnel which as a matter of fact are deployed with the sole task to protect them. Moreover, Indian intelligence agencies found evidence of involvement of Pakistan’s ISI in funding the insurgents as their leaders continue to take shelter in China. They are damaging most crucial infrastructure resources such as bridges, roads, railway tracks, power transmitters and water pipes and are regularly involved in gun battle with security personnel.
Combating insurgents is getting harder and harder as we speak, as they have horned their guerilla tactics and hide inside the forests before any attack takes place. The government has to understand that every life lost means, one step backward to defeat they have to understand that dealing with an insurgency requires a permanent solution, not some endless. An interstate coordinated strategy is a must. Government must eradicate them as they pose a grave threat to the integrity of the nation.
It is absolutely need of the hour, that we successfully eliminate the growing insurgency in the central and eastern India, prevent further attacks on citizen, demonstrate our power in the Indian Ocean Region, protect our borders, deter Pakistan and China from attacking us and protect India’s sovereignty, civilians and our future. In order to perform these objectives successfully, it is absolutely necessary that we expand our Indian Armed forces right from its present state. We have to ensure that the morals of our soldiers remain high. In order to expedite our change within the military, reviving the local production is a must along with simultaneous involvement of private sector and foreign firms. India must accelerate the speed of procurement, construction and induction of new weapons.
India needs to strengthen its grip on defense contracts and weed out corruption in defense procurements.
Most importantly, India needs to strengthen its grip on defense contracts and weed out corruption in defense procurements. Defense related scams had previously been headlines. Corruption not only describes how compromised or incompetent our government functioning is but also hampers the image of the armed forces, making them unable to use top notch technology in the modern warfare. Some of them include the tatra truck scam, VVIP chopper scam, ordinance factory scam and some others. The government should create transparent and efficient ways of defense procurement. This policy could help government eliminate the chances of corruption and wrongdoing as well as satisfying the needs of our armed forces.
The Role of the Government – Accountability, Responsibility, Involvement and Ability to Function
The Indian government, especially the Indian cabinet has the complete responsibility and authority to safeguard country’s interests and protect the country by every means possible. All four armed forces namely army, air force, navy and coast guard come under the Ministry of Defense. Minister of Home affairs is responsible for internal security of the nation, Minister of Finance is responsible for clearing finances for defense equipment procurement and this process is closely monitored by the Prime Minister. The Cabinet is at the core of formulating the national defense policy.
Most defense projects have suffered through years of delay and cost overruns due to the slow, inefficient bureaucracy and lack of effective coordination between different ministries, armed forces and Public sector defense production units. Important files regarding necessary defense purchases keep juggling around between the ministries to get clearance. The current government has been very active in clearing defense projects compared to the previous government. Although there are still many needs that need to be completed. We want to make sure that our military gets what it needs to project our country. Our cabinet has also taken a tough stance on security and cancelled peace talks with Islamabad because of their repeated violation of ceasefire and their support of Kashmiri separatists.
Our cabinet has also given importance to defense sector in the “Make In India” project to attract defense manufacturing. In order to collaborate with foreign companies/government on defense technology, the current cabinet has raised the cap to 49% from 26% in direct foreign investment (defense sector).
The government should overview the much lethargic and inefficient public sector (government owned) defense production units and increase their speed and quality of production.
Conclusion
There are numerous solutions of this wide subject. However firstly, to begin any of the step, the government has no choice but to increase the defense budget and simultaneously avoid an international attention. The cabinet should eliminate all the missing pieces, doubts and queries on the issue of defense equipment procurement, coordinate properly within the development agencies, production units, and final users, followed by performance audits to remove any doubt of corruption.
The cabinet should also increase the foreign direct investment in defense sector to 100% from current 49% in an effort to attract foreign firms in India, thus reducing the costs on foreign design procurements. The cabinet should also involve private sector in defense manufacturing and production, in an effort to build trust with the private sectors. The government should overview the much lethargic and inefficient public sector (government owned) defense production units and increase their speed and quality of production. These steps with boost India’s defense production, manufacturing and exports.
Besides this, it is imperative for the government to create an efficient strategy against Pakistan and China if they were to advance towards the Indian borders or threaten India’s point of interests. India should also focus in nurturing relations with neighboring countries and especially the neighbors of our enemies. The government should also consider on building Foreign Operating Bases in areas which is vital for India’s expansion and regional power projection. Foremost the government should ensure that the needs of the Armed forces are met and they have enough ammunition and equipment to fight at least two years of intense fighting.
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The cabinet should also focus on development of a clear counter terror strategy throughout the nation. The cabinet should also take steps to boost the morale of soldiers and provide them with different incentives. The government should take steps to present armed forces as an attractive carrier with benefits.
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There is a general impression among the general public and defence officers that modernization means purchasing costly equipments from foreign country keeping the same number . But it is the other way round. For a manager, modernization means to reduce the inventory of equipments and increase production at lower cost. Different types of lathes were used to manufacture one machine part. Where as one CNC machine will do the entire operation with less time and maintain far better quality. The machinist used to check the measurement using hand held gauges. One CNC machines will save operational time, and space. This is applicable to fighter planes and other equipments used by Army, Navy and Air force. After the 1971 war PAF said that IAF achieved air superiority because India had 44 squadrons of fighter planes and the bombs used by PAF were not effective and IAF was able to repair the air field run ways within a short time. IAF said that India only 34 effective squadrons, each of which consisted of 12 planes . So in 1971 IAF had 408 effective planes. Now we have 582 effective fighter planes. SU-30Mki is one of the best in the world. I was all along writing fighter planes, Bombers, War ships, Air craft carriers and submarines are only weapon carrying vehicles. The requirement of fighter planes and other equipments should be based on effectiveness of the weapon or ammunition used to neutralize enemy fire power or enemy formation. Now IAF is calculating their requirements on the basis of enemies inventory of fighter planes. This is a wrong concept. Requirement of weapon carrying vehicles should be calculated on the basis of destructive power of the weapon. USA had used only two planes to drop atom bombs in world war II. A thermonuclear weapon weighing little more than 2,400 pounds (1,100 kg) can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 1.2 million tons (1.1 million tonnes) of TNT.[2].. It is very easy to calculate the requirement using software’s. We are a super power in the missile technology and we have some best missiles in the world. We know the destructive power of our missiles. We know the enemy installations and enemy formations in every sector along the LOC in the case of Pakistan and China. We have no plan to attack any other country like USA and western countries. We believe in “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu”. Exact area can be found out using GPS. “GPS can calculate the area, and display the results in acres, square feet, square miles, hectares, or square kilometers.” Similarly we can find out how much area one particular missile can destroy. Develop a suitable soft ware which can give the requirement if we feed these data in the Computer . Computer will give the number of missiles required and how many sorties to be conducted if we use different types of fighter plane and missiles to destroy each enemy concentrations and Installations. Defense officers have only one answer. They want to match Chinese Navy and Air force. They are good fighters but bad managers. We need not require any more fighter planes, warships, Air craft carriers and submarines. We have to improve the missiles range , accuracy and its Avionics ( capacity to jam enemy radars). This exactly Russia has done. They have only one Air craft carrier and no plan to construct new.A manager should have control over expenditure. Instead of Assault rifles India should develop laser guns. This has many advantages over assault rifles. Very light, no sound and need not carry bullets. They may carry a few spare batteries. These batteries can be charged using solar panels or a dynamo rotated by hand. In the Second world war wireless batteries were charged using dynamo rotated by hand.