Great misses of UPA on Defence front

Under fire in the wake of the resignation of the Indian Navy Chief, the UPA government has in a jiffy given a green signal to the One Rank One Pension (OROP) with an eye on the impending polls. The soldiers’ agitation for the demand has been going on for some years and saw some emotional turns like the veterans returning their bravery medals, but the government repeatedly refused to commit funds to it. 

So much so Arackaparambil Kurien Antony – the longest continuously serving defence minister of the country for 7 years 5 months – expressed inability of the government to give funds for the acquisition of crucial equipment for the armed forces. But as the second term of the Congress-led UPA government is coming to an end here and Antony became notorious for inaction in practically all spheres, making the trust with the Armed Forces its first casualty. Here is a glimpse of the hits and misses of the government vis-à-vis the armed forces – 

Status Quo ­– More than seven years after his appointment, the majority of defence acquisition deals that materialized were with the US. The crucial requirements of the forces are from being fulfilled. The letter of General VK Singh to the Prime Minister two days before his retirement punched holes in the military preparedness of the nation. He highlighted how the second standing army in the world did not have enough firepower – ammunition and artillery. On the artillery front nothing has happened and the last gun that the Army purchased was in 1987.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has been grappling with a string of accidents and has been still awaiting the replacement of its MiG fighter jets and to augment its fighter squadron strength. But a cautious Antony, who earned the sobriquet of Mr. Clean, threw his weight behind the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) – an aircraft in making for over 25 years. The Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft deal is yet to see the light of the day.

The state-of- affair of the Indian submarine arm has been known for a long time. But apart from the fructification of the deal to acquire nuclear-powered Akula class submarine, the dwindling strength of the conventional Submarines, failed to wake the Government from its deep slumber. And the result has been loss of manpower. The relation between the civilian government and the forces saw another low as Indian Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi put his resignation taking moral responsibility of the accidents and the government swiftly accepted it.

6th Pay Commission- The 6th Pay Commission was touted as the biggest gift of the UPA government to the armed forces. But the forces rued that in the garb of the pay structure was the constant downgrading of the officers of forces in relation to their civil counterparts. 

Defence Minister AK Antony even sided with the three Service Chiefs demanding a representation in the Pay Panel, but nothing happened on this front. The Armed Forces have been demanding fixing of six core anomalies in the 6th Pay Commission. The main demand is granting of Non-functional upgrade in the pay to the armed forces on the lines of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

National War Memorial- The country has completed 67 years of its independence but its martyred soldiers are yet to get their National war Memorial. Conceptualised in 1960’s, it has not seen any progress. While the three forces have been seeking the memorial to be made at the India Gate, the memorial built by the British to honour the soldiers who sacrificed their lives during World War-I.

The armed forces decision has been governed by the fact that Indian Gate is central and easily accessible to people. The project in limbo for the last few decades has been stuck as the regulatory bodies like Delhi Urban Arts Commission, North Delhi Municipal Corporation, Central Vista Commission and Heritage Conservation Committee have objected to this contending the additional structure will spoil the ambience of the site.

OROP ­­– And it has not been an easily fulfilled demand for the veterans. The veterans of the forces after giving the best part of the life in the service of nation had to fight really hard to get it before the government paid heed to their demand. The veterans even returned their bravery medals to protest the government’s apathy, but the government remained steadfast that they did not have funds for it.

Mishandling of the Age Controversy – The dilly dallying of the Defence Minister on the age controversy and lack of decisiveness saw an unprecedented development as a serving Army Chief General VK Singh took the government to the Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court’s decision favoured government, the episode saw the internal feud of the Army being fought in public and the disregard for the armed forces reputation peeved many ranks and files.

General Singh is joining the BJP today.

VVIP Helicopter Deal- Even as the government continued to go slow on armed forces modernisation, the deal for 12 VVIP choppers from Augusta Westland went through like lightening - compared to the standards of the UPA government. The government was later put in a Catch-22 situation as report filtered about the corruption in the purchase of the expensive rides for the VVIPs of the country.

Field Marshal SHFJ Manekshaw demise - When Field Marshal SHFJ ‘Sam’ Manekshaw – who scripted the India’s decisive victory against Pakistan in 1971 - bid adieu to this world in 2008 neither the Defence Minister nor any of the three armed forces chiefs turned up during the state funeral accorded to him. Antony famously cited that the rank Field Marshal was not included in the protocol list.

The rank of Field Marshal or its equivalent Marshal of the Air Force and Admiral of the Fleet is not there in the protocol list. 

The country’s only surviving five star officer Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh had also rued to me during an exclusive interview in 2008. “It was a surprise for me (senior ministers not attending the funeral). You do not need a rank to be in the protocol list to attend his (Manekshaw's) funeral. He had served the country very well. They should have gone," Singh had said.

Aiming without Arming

The Indian defence establishment has been talking about a grown assertiveness in its dealing with its giant neighbor in the East – China. Two separate developments earlier this month marked a sense of maturity in the defence outlook of India – the Special Representatives talks on the boundary issue with China and the largest edition of Milan naval exercise with 16 countries from the Indian Ocean Region and South China Sea.

On the face of it the two events look unrelated, but Indian Mandarins in the South Block seem to have taken a leaf out from the Chinese strategy of seeking a peaceful resolution of disputes while continuing to assert its might. India conducted war games with 16 countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand – which are having disputes with China in the South China Sea region - in the Bay of Bengal from Feb 4-9. And then Indian National Security Advisor (NSA) met China’s State Councillor Yang Jiechi to decide to start dialogue on maritime security, an important aspect of Indo-China relations considering their rivalry vis-à-vis energy security.

File Photo of Exercise Milan

The only difference between the strategic maneuvering of the two countries is that China can actually back them up with firepower. India seems to be aiming virtually with no gun. The gap between the requirements of the Indian Armed Forces and the grant from the government is ever widening – as reflected in the recent budget. On the face of it, the defence budget has got a 10 percent hike. But probe a bit deeper, and it reflects an Indian defence establishment, known to have inertia to change; acquisition process takes decades, any force augmentations come after years, domination of reactive rather proactive approach towards bulwarking its defence and so forth and so on.

The announced Defence Budget for the year 2014-15 is 2.24 trillion rupees. The major reason for the enhanced budget is the increased pay and salaries of the three forces and the hiked revenue expenditure of the Indian Army, which is raising a Mountain Strike Corps along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) along China. However, the other requirements like getting new artillery guns have been hanging fire. And also the IAF had to bear a cut in relation to the current year.

Indian Defence Minister AK Antony dropped the bombshell at the flagship biennial Indian defence exhibition DefExpo-2014, that there was no money for the purchase of the 126 Medium Multi-Role Aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force (IAF) – an acquisition that has the force has been awaiting for nearly a decade now and the delay has been keeping it from bidding adieu to all variants of the MiG-21s.

India has been trying to hide behind the comforts of its ‘superior’ navy with a greater experience of projecting force beyond its border. The Indian Navy officials have been boasting about the successful operation of a flat-deck carrier for decades. A claim which has been bolstered by the recent addition of Admiral Gorshkov, rechristened as INS Vikramaditya, in its fleet. The Chinese Navy that recently acquired Soviet-vintage aircraft carrier Varyag is already working towards acquiring second such warship. India presently has two aircraft carriers – one of which will be retiring soon and will be replaced by an indigenous one. And the Indian defence establishment instead of taking honing this indigenous capability further and sanctioning the construction of the second aircraft carrier is bidding time.

Another crunch staring the Indian Navy in face is the rapidly dwindling numbers of its submarines. The force has been left with only 14 conventional submarines in its flotilla and it is only after considerable delay that the government has decided to give its nod to the construction of six submarines under Project-75 I.

Another major project in limbo has been the construction of six strategic rail links along the LAC. The Indian Army had initially proposed construction of 14 strategic lines in Ladakh and North Eastern Regions. Out of this six lines were accorded top priority by the MoD. These lines will entail an estimated cost of Rs. 80,000 crore.

The rail lines are as such important to link the two regions with the country, however, the inaction on the part of the Indian government becomes more glaring as China has already laid down 10,000 km long rail network in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). This has given China the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) the capability to mobilize 4,50,000 soldiers to the border in 30 days.  Some of the important railway projects in North East are Missamari (Assam) to Tawang (Arunachal Pradesh), North Lakhimpur (Assam) to Along (Arunachal Pradesh) and Murkongselek (Assam)-Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh). Tawang is strategically important to India and is one region in the North east claimed by the Chinese. Inclement weather in the region makes it difficult to maintain supply routes. 

While the Defence Minister has received a pat on his back for managing to spend every penny of the defence budget during his tenure, the last year 2013-14 has been very lackluster on his resume.

Ambala to station first squadron of MMRCA fighters

The first squadron of the 126 air dominance Medium Multi-role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) to be purchased under the $10.2 billion mammoth deal will be based in Ambala in Haryana that was attacked by Pakistan in both 1965 and 1971 wars.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has already zeroed in on the French Rafale fighter jets as its choice and presently the cost negotiations are on. The contract is expected to be signed by the end of the financial year. 

“The IAF plans to station the first squadron of the Rafale at Ambala,” a top IAF official said. Ambala is presently home to the British-built Jaguars and MiG-21s. Prior to the induction, the Ambala airbase – one of the oldest and largest airbases inherited from the Royal Air Force - will undergo refurbishment of the runway and infrastructure building to accommodate the new war birds that are expected to join the IAF’s inventory in 2017.

“The plans is to base two squadrons of the MMRCAs in Western Air Command (WAC) bordering Pakistan and two squadron in the Eastern Air Command (EAC) bordering China,” the official added.

One of the biggest open tender defence deals of present times, the MMRCA’s value is likely to go up to $20 billion. After the contract negotiations are over there will be eight more stages left - four of which lie with the defence ministry. There will be "scrutiny" by Defence Finance and independent monitors of Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). Then the deal will go to Finance Ministry, from there to National Security Council (NSC) and Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

The WAC had recently inducted a squadron of frontline fighter jets Sukhoi Su-30MKI in Halwara, Punjab. With MiG-21s and MiG-27s scheduled to be phased out in the coming years and MiG-29s undergoing an upgrade programme, the IAF needs to bolster its assets in the region. The force is soon going to induct another Su-30MKI squadron in the command followed by the Rafales.

The IAF has also undertaken massive deployment and upgradation programme in the Eastern sector – keeping in view the modernization done by China on its side of the border. The force has already inducted two squadrons of the Su-30MKIs, it is upgrading many of the runways and advanced landing grounds in the region and intends to station the two squadrons of the yet-to-be-acquired Rafales to keep a rising and more assertive China at bay.

On 80th anniversary IAF gears up for inventory sans MiG-21s

As the Indian Air Force (IAF) turns 80 on October 8, it is gearing up for an inventory without Soviet-vintage MiG-21s often dubbed “Flying Coffins” for their dubious flight safety record – first it will stop training its young pilots on the fighter jet and thereafter retire it by 2015-16.

The present acquisition spree and the phase out of the obsolete platform will ensure that the air force gets younger even as it crosses 80^th anniversary mark.

The IAF had taken the decision to stop training its pilots on MiG-21s in 2011, when IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal announced after a spate of crashes that the last batch of pilots was being trained on the fighter jets.

Confirming this, the Air Chief Marshal Browne said: “Last batch of pilots is being trained. Now these three squadrons’ batches will be the last batch and all the training will shift on Hawk (Advanced Jet Trainer) aircraft.”

After their first two levels of training, half the pilots used to go to British-built AJTs and the rest to MiG Operational Flight Training Units (MOFTU). However, the present batch of MiG-21s Type 77 – the oldest of the MiG-21s that were the force’s mainstay in 1971 Indo-Pak War – will finish its syllabus by January 2014 paving the way for their retirement. Whereas the two squadrons of Type-96 MiG-21s will revert back to operational role from training and will continue to serve the force.

“We need to keep force levels going. By 2015 they will continue to serve,” the IAF Chief added. In fact four squadrons of MiG-27s will be retired in a phased manner by 2016-17. “MiG-29s will be the last of the MiG series aircraft remaining,” Air Chief Marshal Browne said. MiG-29s are presently undergoing an upgrade and the programme will conclude in 2020.   

According to data, the IAF had purchased a total of 872 MiG aircraft of various types between1966-1980. The MiG series aircraft were inducted starting from MiG-21 in 1960s/1970s to MiG-29 in 1980s. Nearly half of the procured MiG aircraft - 482 - met accidents between financial year 1971-72 to 2012-13. A total of 171 pilots, 39 civilians, 8 service personnel and 1 aircrew lost their lives in these accidents. The causes of accidents were both human error and technical defects.

The fourth largest air force in the world is now entering its biggest modernization cusp as it has already signed contracts worth Rs.1.50 lakh crore in the past five years. The force has planned to raise four more squadrons of frontline fighter jets Sukhoi Su-30MKI – two each for western and eastern border. The 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) – French Rafale – shall be inducted in the services by 2017 giving a major firepower to the force.

Besides the fighter jets, the IAF is also modernizing its transport and helicopter fleet as it plans to acquire state-of-the art heavy lift transport C-17 Globemaster and one more squadron of  special operations transporter C-130 Js and 300 different types of helicopters- ranging from attack and medium lift helicopters. 

126 fighter jets deal back on track, price negotiation resumes

July 10: The multi-billion dollar deal for 126 fighter jets was stalled following complaints of irregularities is back on track with the contract negotiations re-starting following independent monitors giving a thumbs up to the procedure followed in the selection of French Rafale.

 

“The Contract Negotiation Committee (CNC) has resumed its talks with the French firm Dassault for arriving at the final price this month (July),” sources said.

The government had down-selected Dassault to supply Rafale to the Indian Air Force (IAF) under a deal estimated to be valuing $11 billion on January 31. Within a few weeks, the Defence Ministry received a letter from then Telugu Desam Party MP MV Mysura Reddy raising questions over the process followed at arriving at the lowest bidder in one of the biggest defence deals in the world.

The Defence Ministry immediate put the Contract Negotiation with the French aerospace major on hold and set up independent monitors to look into the “loop-holes” suggested in the letter. The three independent monitors were appointed by the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and included former bureaucrats from Finance and Defence Ministry.

The acquisition process for the 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft, often dubbed as “Mother of All defence deals” for its size, had commenced in 2007.  European Eurofighter and French Rafale had entered the final round of the dogfight for the multi-billion dollar deal. Rafale finally knocked out Eurofighter for having a cheaper price tag. The lowest bidder has been arrived at by including per unit price and the life cycle cost that would mean the cost of operating the two aircrafts for 40 years or 6,000 hours.

The two were zeroed-in after grueling flight trials that judged six fighter jets in fray – F-16IN and F-18/1A from the US, SAAB Gripen from Sweden, MiG-35 from Russia, Eurofighter and Rafale – on over 660 parameters. The commercial bids of the two aerospace major was opened on November 4.

The deal is expected to be inked this financial year if any of the vendors do not put spoke in the acquisition process.

IAF, which is facing rapidly depleting strength of its fighter squadrons, will get its first 18 aircraft in fly-away condition three years after the signing of the contract and the rest 108 will be manufactured in India under license. The 211-page Request for Proposal (RfP) issued by the IAF in 2007 also stipulates that 60 percent of the aircraft’s technology be transferred to India in four phases to give a boost to the indigenous agencies. The tender also makes it mandatory for the winner to re-invest 50 percent of the total value of the deal in the domestic defence and civil aviation market as offsets.

IAF Chief flies in Rafale

IAF Chief in France, will visit Rafale production line

In a first high-level visit post selection of French Rafale as the lowest bidder for the 126 fighter jets, the Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne is in France for a four-day visit. The Chief will also be going to the production facility fo Rafale "to get a first hand impression of the MMRCA". 

Hers is IAF release-

"Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, is on a four day goodwill visit to France. During the visit, he is scheduled to call on Mr Jean-Yves Le Drian, the new French Defence Minister, Admiral Édouard Guillaud, French Chief of Defence Staff, Ingenieur Général de l'Armement (IGA) Laurent Collet-Billon, Director-General of the French Defence Technology and Procurement Agency (DGA) and General Jean-Paul Paloméros, Chief of Staff of the French Air Force, to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues on the ongoing defence cooperation between India and France.

The visit that aims at expanding the already robust bilateral military to military ties between the two countries, would see the IAF Chief visit, Cognac, Istres and St.Dizier airbases of the French Air Force (FAF). At St.Dizier, he would be visiting the Rafale Squadron to get an first hand impression of the MMRCA, selected by the IAF, as also to see Rafale’s Production facilities at Mérignac, besides overseeing the progress of the various projects being carried forward as joint ventures between the two countries. He would also be interacting with the IAF’s Project Management Team members for the Mirage- 2000 Upgrade Project.

The visit is significant, as it is the first high level official visit from India to France after the new government has taken office.

The Chief of the Staff, French Air Force, General Jean-Paul Paloméros, had been on a Air Force to Air Force visit to India during September last year, where he had also visited some of the IAF’s airbases including Jaisalmer and Gwalior."