India’s Arming Blitz

Contributing Editor Air Marshal (Retd) AYAZ AHMED KHAN focuses on heavy expenditures by India on arms and equipment.

The whopping Rs 130 billion i.e. 28.2 percent increase in the Indian defence budget announced on February 28, 2000 has dangerous implications, because it is sure to trigger an arms race, and will hurt efforts for peace in South Asia. The allocation of Rs 585.87 billion to the military is the highest ever, and poses a threat to the security of India’s small neighbours. In dollars terms Indian defence budget has climbed to US Dollars 13.5 billion, from last year’s defence budget of dollars ten billion. The increase of 3.5 billion dollars is equal to the entire defence budget of Pakistan. Inspite of the staggering defence allocation of US dollars 13.5 billion to the Indian military, the Government of Pakistan has refused for the time being to react or be trapped in a weapons race with India. Pakistan has not wavered from its earlier announcement of reduction in its own defence spending, which already is one fourth of that of India. This is a clear proof of the peaceful intentions of the military government. But what has escaped the public eye is that the actual spending by the three Indian fighting services is planned to be far more than the indicated 3.5 billion dollar i.e. 28.2 percent budget increase. And this should be of concern to the Pakistan government and to the people. Pakistan cannot behave like an ostrich, while India embarks on massive nuclear and conventional military buildup. Intensified shelling across the LoC, threats by the Bharati Prime Minister, defence and interior ministers, procurement of powerful offensive weapons, military buildup and deployments in Kashmir and exercises in Rajastan and in the Arabian Sea must be watched with utmost vigilance. While the people are encouraged by Chief Executive’s pronouncements that Pakistan Army is not wearing bangles, the reality of the situation demands that we must start planning for future eventualities.

It must be noted that the Indian defence budget of 13.5 billion dollars does not include allocations which are now being made to the three Services for the procurement of new weapons and munitions. The Indian Army budget was increased by dollars 543 million to 6.7 billion dollars i.e. twice the entire Pakistani defence budget. But allocation of dollars one billion for the purchase of three hundred Russian T-90 main battle tanks are being made separately. During and after Kargil defence officials had revealed serious deficiencies that were the cause of high Indian Army casualties. The Indian Army needs self-propelled guns, 155 mm Bofors, Bofor shells, weapon locator radars, multi-barrel rocket launchers, UAV’s and electronic warfare systems. This is in addition to high-altitude clothing, snow shelters, heated bunkers, better rifles etc. Clearly the dollar 543 million increase over last year’s Indian Army budget cannot buy all the Indian Army requirements needed after the Kargil debacle. The budget increase can hardly cater for the recurring expenditure of No 14 Corps and other Army units deployed at Leh-Ladakh, Siachin and north of Zojila on mountain tops west of Drass, Kargil and Batalik.

In a move to provide lethal teeth to the Indian Armed Forces the government of India on Wednesday April 19, 2000 approved major defence acquisition deals. For the Indian Army procurement of 300 T-90 Russian made MBT’s self-propelled guns, weapon locator radars and state of the art V-SAT based communication system to link GHQ with the Leh, Kargil, Siachin region, and other remote areas. It could cost over two billion dollars. Indian Army needs two hundred thousand (200,000) 155mm shells for its 550 Bofors from South Africa and Sweden. This will need lot of money. With the upgradation of Indian Army’s communication hardware by adding the third generation of ASCON lll i.e. Army Static Communication Network, GHQ Delhi now has direct uninterrupted communications with field commanders. The recently launched INSAT 3 B Satellite has dedicated KU band transponders for the Army and this will give boost to the uninterrupted communication capability of Indian land forces. Inspite of twice as many MBT’s as Pakistan, the procurement of 300 T-90’s from Russia will greatly enhance the land threat from Bharat. Pakistan must counter enhance Indian electronic surveillance, jamming, communication, RPV spying capabilities and the armour gap with India at the earliest.

Besides the enhanced defence budget of the Indian Air Force, billions are being provided to the Indian Air Force to acquire new weapon systems. Millions of dollars are planned to be spent to augment IAF’s air defence capability by increased radar surveillance by fixed and mobile radars and RPV capability, augmented by satellite imagery. Sixty six (66) advanced jet trainers (Hawk AJT’s) are being procured from UK at an estimated cost of over six billion dollars. Two billion dollars have been sanctioned for outright purchase of Hawk jet fighter trainers, while four billion dollars will be spent to create the infrastructure for the assembly and progressive manufacture of British made Hawk AJT’s at Bangalore.

Various armament suppliers and queueing up to sell weapons to India. General Jean Pierre Kelche the French Chief of Defence Staff arrived in New Delhi post-haste and has offered an equal number of French made Alpha jet trainers (AJT’s), Mirage 2000 fighters and advanced fire and forget missiles to India. But the IAF reportedly has selected the superior Hawk AJT. However, the French CDS succeeded in selling ten Mirage 2000 H fighters and unknown quantity of AA missiles to the IAF. The 50 Mirage 2000 equipped with state of the art laser guided missiles is a potent threat, which must be contained.

On the advice of the Standing Committee on Defence ten additional Su 30-K multirole fighters have been procured from Russia. This has raised the strength of the powerful force multiplier Su 30 K fleet to fifty aircraft. With this the Indian air threat to Pakistan and China will be more pronounced than before. Many IAF commanders claim that the strike and combat capability of the fifty IAF’s Su-30 K multirole aircraft is more than of the entire 750 other combat aircraft of the Indian Air Force. All VP’s in Pakistan are now vulnerable, and so are the cities and military targets in South China. Pakistan must not shut its eyes to this very serious Su-30 air threat from India.

Russian President Putin who is visiting India in the near future is expected to sign protocols for the assembly of Su 30 K’s in India and for the supply of AWACs i.e. Aerial Warning and Control Systems, UAV’s i.e. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, mid-air flight refuelling aircraft, and Mig - 29 upgrades to the Indian Air Force. This will cost India a couple of billion dollars. It will greatly enhance the offensive and air defence capabilities of the IAF. The Standing Committee on Defence has recommended further budget enhancement to allow the Indian Air Force to go ahead with the major acquisition programmes for the year 2000-2001. The Russian AWACs are high priced systems, and each AWAC aircraft could cost Rs ten billion a peace. Russian AWAC System mounted on a IL-76 aircraft would be in India soon for user trial exercises with the IAF. The IAF AWACs would be looking deep inside Pakistan. China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Indian Ocean. With deeper surveillance of Pakistani airspace, detection and interception of PAF aircraft will be facilitated. Pakistan must take serious note of the emerging AWAC threat from India; and Peoples Republic of China must not ignore it.

With the procurement and induction of Hawk AJT the degradation of pilot training in the IAF will come to an end in a few years time. Since twenty years inadequate training has caused the death of hundreds of IAF fighter pilots. Reportedly over 200 IAF fighter pilots have been killed in avoidable air crashes during the last two decades. They have been killed needlessly in aircraft crashes, because politicians and bureaucrats would not release funds for the purchase of vitally required advanced jet trainers for the training of IAF fighter pilots. The transition from slow propeller aircraft to supersonic Mig-21 fighters was far too demanding. The hundreds of crashes among under training pilots and non-operational pilots in the IAF fighter squadrons could be attributed to the dangerous policy to force the young pilots into supersonic aircraft they could not handle.

French weapons for India

With their induction the ten new Mirage 2000 H fighters, the IAF will have a fleet of fifty multi-role Mirage 2000 fighters. This is a preferred weapons system and was used extensively in the Kargil battle to destroy Mujahideen bunkers on the 161 mountain tops. These ten Mirage 2000 and the latest missiles that go along with them will cost India over a billion dollars. France has also offered to convert Air Bus Industries wide body jets into AWACs for the IAF. Paris specially sent General Jean Pierre Kelche the French Chief of Defence Staff to New Delhi to press India to buy 66 Alpha Jet trainers instead of British Hawks, at lower price and complete technology transfer. India may well take the bait. Accompanied by General Gerad La Rosa Engineer General Armaments during his five days visit, the French CDS held extensive discussions with Defence Minister George Fernandes, Defence Secretary T.S Prasad, Defence Production Secretary Prabir Sen Gupta, Foreign Secretary and Army Chief General Ved Prakash Malik. French are exceedingly clever weapons producers and salesmen, and will try to hugely profit from Indian urge and ambition to arm India to the teeth.

Meanwhile Defence Minister George Fernandes had demanded massive addition allocation of funds for the Indian military. He has stressed that the desired level of modernization of the three armed services i.e. Indian Army, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy requires three percent of the national income i.e. GNP to be spent on defence. So far Indian defence pundits were forecasting the collapse of Pakistan economy, because it has been spending over three percent of its GNP on defence. One has to see what they have to say about their own country, where the percapita income is lower than that of Pakistan, but the expenditure on defence is eight times more after massive defence procurement plans are added to the enhanced defence budget for the year 2000-2001.

Procurements for the Indian Navy

With massive additional allocations over and above the budget allocations the Indian Navy plans to buy Russian aircraft carrier Grechkov, four advanced cruisers/destroyers fitted with Prithvi SSM’s and nuclear submarines. This will tilt the balance of naval power dangerously in favour of India. Pakistan Navy has its own plans for the manufacture of advanced French submarines and locally designed frigates in Karachi Shipyard and at the Naval Dockyard. But the balance of naval power must be corrected to avert the serious Indian naval threat.

Indian Naval exercise in the China Sea

Indian Navy has plans to threaten the Chinese navy in the later part of the year, by holding joint exercises with the South Korean Navy and the Vietnam Navy in the South China Sea. India Navy plans to participate in this joint exercise by initially sending one Kilo-class submarine, and a maritime reccee aircraft. This was stated in a handout issued after the recent Naval Commanders conference in New Delhi. It said that the Indian Navy would be sending war ships to hold bilateral exercises with the South Korean and the Vietnam Navy in October-November 2000. Later Indian ships and submarines will conduct unilateral exercises in South China Sea. The force profile of the Indian Navy will be re-tailored. The Indian Naval Chief is weighing the idea of the Indian Navy acquiring a capability to send expeditionary naval forces into other seas. This thinking is in line with Defence Minister George Fernandes speech made on April 14 on the occasion of commissioning of INS Brahmaputra that, “The Indian Navy’s interests lie from North of Arabian Sea to the South China Sea. “He said that the Japanese Navy and the Vietnam Navy will work with the Indian Navy as strategic partners in the Indian Ocean and in South China Sea. The US in its Naval vision 2010 document exchanged with India has suggested sending of expeditionary naval forces abroad. Indian Naval High Command has copied the American document for its blue water role in the unfolding decade. The planned exercise in the South China has ignored the diplomatic aspect, especially the potential of creating suspicion in the minds of nations bordering South China Sea. It is worth mentioning that Indian Navy’s guided missile destroyer INS Delhi had conducted naval manoeuvres in South China Sea along with South Korean and Vietnamese ships in 1998. Indian Navy has been routinely exercising with the Singapore Navy and navies of South China littoral states. Indian Navy’s aircraft carrier Virat visited Abu Dhabi-Dubai last year to demonstrate its fire power. Such visits are part of the gameplan to influence smaller states. It is worth seeing as to how Peoples Republic of China will react to Indian Navy’s unilateral naval exercises which will include several destroyers, frigates, submarines, and maritime reccee aircraft! Indian plans to provoke China surely are with US connivance and will have Washington’s blessings.