Defense Deals- A hole in the pocket

The news of U.S defense secretary Chuck Hagel visiting India this week was not much highlighted one. Neither did it gather enough eyeballs. Defense secretary came with a convoy of Indians working in the defense department of U.S. so that the visit would be hassle free, and help making the deal through.

As per TOI article dated August 7, 2014, the talks between Chuck Hagel and his Indian counterpart Mr. Arun Jaitley were to range from sharing intelligence information, cooperation on counter terrorism, joint combat exercises, and deals on weapons.

U.S has brought India a big catalog of products. Let’s view a section of the same. U.S. plans to sell:

•  Unmanned Aerial vehicles
• Next generations Javelin ATGMS worth 2.5 Billion dollars
• 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy lift helicopters worth 2.5 Billion dollars
• Mine resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MARP)
• P-81 maritime patrol planes worth $ 1 billion
• 145 numbers of M-777 Ultra light Howitzers worth $885 Million

Further it plans to give away UGM 84L Harpoon missiles for 200 Million U.S. dollars.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. U.S has bagged $10 Billion plus defense deals in the last decade or so. The dipping U.S. economy has sent their salesman Hagel to target such markets and bring home some dollars.

U.S. apart, France, Russia, Sweden, Israel among others have found a big market for the sale of their home made defense technologies in form of India.

So what’s the big fuss about such meets? They happen along the course. The common man is neither interested nor much informed about the details. The money spent is public money generated out of taxes and deductions.

Have you wondered why these foreign defense deals happen? The cause lies in following reasons.

• Threats faced by India in current times.
• Failure of domestic institutions in developing indigenous weapons
• Foremost reason: Commissions paid to Politicians and bureaucrats for such foreign arms deals.

Threats that India faces today:

Let’s analyze the quantum of threat we are facing from our neighboring countries.

India, since 1947 has faced 5 major wars or conflicts: 4 with Pakistan, in 1947, 65, 71 and 99 and one with China in 1962.

In 1947, India was hardly prepared for any war. The arms depot was almost empty and we lost a chunk of ground in J&K. This “Lost Ground” has served as launch pad for terrorism. The origin of this menace lies in follies of the Nehru government committed 67 years back. Other conflicts with Pakistan have a different story.

Considering that India has a superior tally in ammunition compared to Pakistan, and that Pakistan’s economy being in a dwindling state, the threat is not that big. But both China and Pakistan have nuclear devices, proper command and control and technologies to launch them across border.

Real problem is China. China’s might is not new to the world. Having declared itself a communist state in 1949, it soon showed the imperialistic face within one year. Right from 1950, when Tibet with an area of 12, 21, 600 Sq. Kms became the first victim of Chinese forces.

When British left India, the moral responsibility of Tibet’s protection remained with India. Tibet’s conquest, followed by Panchasheel Peace process, which met its’ waterloo in 1962. China took away provinces in North. We also lost Maansarovar and other territories to Chinese might and are yet to recover them. The 1962 war which was supposed to be an eye opener unfortunately the “Dhritrashtras” of the Indian parliament were never going to see the light.

The 1962 war was a story that had a moral. But we missed it now and India faces fresh threats with roadways and railways making ingress at North Eastern frontier. China shares a big boundary with India and has problems on many fronts. Latest is Arunachal Pradesh. India and China have fought many times over the table on map and claims of land.

China is emerging as a superpower (also read Super threat) in economic, political, military and sports circle. It has Dollar reserved that can shame even U.S. Talking about its’ disputes with 11 countries it shares borders with, China has troubled a dozen countries. Chinese invasion on Taiwan, the threatening domination over marine bodies, disputed claims on marine petroleum blocks of other countries must concern India equally.

The conquest of Tibet way back in 1950 has shown the after affects in very recent years. China is utilizing the waters of the rivers originating in Tibet for its own developmental use. We are concerned especially about the River Brahmaputra. Putting it in other words, China is depriving India and other neighbors like Myanmar, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Laos of its share of waters.

This is not just the hijack of waters. It is an economic, political and social threat we are facing from China. This will deprive India of the waters, leave the agriculture in the region in tatters and affect the normal life of the Diaspora. China is planning a huge dam to generate electricity across the “Great Bend” of Brahmaputra which would be roughly ten times bigger in capacity compared to Narmada Dam.

The core reason for such domination lies in the military strength of the largest army in the world that People’s Republic of China possesses and the big depot of ammunition that it possesses.The comic fact of the story is Indian government is in its slumbers and the fact is unknown to the “Bharatiya Junta”. I hope the real picture of the threat is achieving more clarity.

New Delhi worries that China is building roads and other infrastructure along the disputed land border as well as bolstering its naval presence in the Indian Ocean that it considers its zone of influence.

Pakistan’s pseudo war strategy, Terrorism and internal threats like naxalism also require military will to be tackled. When Khalistan movement was in its’ peak, terrorists had bombed and blasted Indian Airlines plane Kanishka. India has been victim of attacks as Mumbai 2008, among blasts in various Indian cities from time to time.

Failure of DRDO and other institutions:

DRDO was established in 1958 with a view to be self reliant in terms of weapons, war planes, ships and other ammunitions. However, it has been reduced to a stagnant body being a mute spectator to foreign imports of arms. I do not intend to criticize the organization completely. They have been also successful in creating missiles for our space programs.

However projects like missile program, Arjun battle tanks, Light combat aircrafts, Cauvery jet engines etal have been either stalled, or are moving at a sloth pace. Moreover, Indian forces are not approving them due to technical disabilities.

Take the case of Antimissile Missile “Trishul”. The project was commenced in 1983, with scientists from DRDO, Bharat Electronics Limited and Bharat Dynamics Limited for about 24 odd years, only to be scrapped in 2006 without any result. 24 years of time, energy and resources was wasted. It is estimated that INR 300 Crores were spent on Trishul was seen as Anti-missile missile. It was supposed to curb and destroy the missile fired from an enemy ship during a naval war. This operation requires good speed as the missile launched by enemy ship will not allow much time scope.  Missiles possessed by Pakistan and China stay low in heights and are visible on Trishul’s radar only within 10 Kilometers distance from the ship. In short, the incoming missile would hit the ship in less than half a minute. Trishul‘s job is to measure the direction of the incoming missile, adjust its’ direction and speed accordingly and blow up the missile in mid-air. Trishul’s test trials were a failure as it was unable to destroy the incoming missile within the short time span.  Naval war situations require such missiles to launch counter missile well in advance to prevent the warship from sinking.

The Indian Navy was not in a position to wait any longer. Barack Missiles from Israel were purchased at a hefty price. The Barack missiles possess a better range, better speed and above all, accuracy of 90% in hitting the incoming missile. So, the missile that was supposed to be protector of Aircraft carrier-Viraat, Destroyers like Ranveer, Rannvijay, Delhi, Mysore and Mumbai died within the papers of DRDO recordroom.

Similar is the case of Indigenous battle tank “Arjun”. The project from DRDO was commenced in 1970’s, but the Indian Army was never convinced with subsequent trial versions.

Indian Army, in 2001 was forced to purchase T-90 from Russia, due to delays in development of Arjun tanks. T-90 was the main battle tank of Indian Army for long time. Army has cancelled all further orders of Arjun with DRDO.

Today, even a later version, T-72 is on verge of retirement without a suitable replacement.

It seems like a well planned eye wash that DRDO is working towards developing indigenous warfare ammunition.

Projects by DRDO are infected by deliberate delay, lack of accuracy, backwardness in technology and idiosyncratic bureaucracy and the consequence is that imported arms get a nod. The 35000 odd employees and almost half a century laboratories of DRDO are eating away the tax payers’ money without delivering any concrete result.

I don’t deny their capabilities. They can not only create a successful range of arms for Indian forces, but also the export market for such products is a possibility.

But Indian politburo does not want it. The indigenous development has gobbled up billions of rupees and the Indian Army, navy and Air force remain UNDER the safety mark in terms of weapon technology.

The long history of defense deal scams, “Under table Commission” and other follies

Post World War II, countries having excess stockpile of weapons were looking for new markets to sell out. India was a hot market then. Ignorance about the technology piped India and it became the cow of all arms manufacturers to be milked.

The defense budget has been sky rocketing year on year since 1947. It has been increasing year on year. The 2014 budget allocated 2.29 trillion Indian rupees ($38.35 billion) for 2014-15 for defense. This is a 12 % increase from 2013. 

According to Reuters, India has been the world's top arms buyer for the last three years, trying to replace an ageing Soviet-era military with modern weapons as a deterrent to a rising China, with which it fought a war more than half a century ago.

Whenever India has gone for a foreign arms deal, the question about the commissions arise. India always faces a sorry figure in this regard.

I am just highlighting the list of scams, only for the reference of the readers:

1.      Jeep Scam, 1948. Purchased from Britain. Indian diplomat V.K. Krishna Menon had purchased Jeeps from Britain without checking the quality. Many jeeps did not have even engines. The jeeps were used in World War II, but India had paid for them at prices of new vehicles. This is rather an example of folly of Indian heads.

2.      L-60 Antiaircraft Bofors Guns scam, 1950. Purchased from Sweden. This stuff from Sweden was preferred against the Czechoslovakian guns. Czech guns were more efficient, but India was fooled by Bofors and they hijacked the deal. The guns proved to be inferior and had a strategic disadvantage.

3.      Mirage 2000 fighter planes, 1985. Purchased from France

4.      FH-77, 155 mm field Howitzer Bofors guns, 1986. This was heavily publicized as Bofors Scam and involved top notch Congress politicians. The mud was also spilled on then Prime Minister of India, Late Rajeev Gandhi.

5.      Scorpene submarine, 2005. Purchased from France.

6.      Air Craft Carrier Admiral Gorshkov (INS Vikramidtya), 2004. Purchased from Russia.

7.      Other deals like MiG planes. MiG crashes have been in constant news and are aptly named as flying coffins.

Thankfully, Indians can rely on facts and figures revealed by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) about the expenditures made by the government and the frauds as well.

Time and again, it has been the defense deals that CAG cites to be ridiculously plagued by corruption scams. Purchases over years have been full of irregularities. Either the purchases are over rated, or the technology purchased is under rated. In some cases, the voice of defense advisors and experts is ignored. This provides lesser strategic advantage in a war situation, or with inferior parts, leading to the losses to the coffers and leading our defense personnel to coffins.

No government takes these reports seriously and the reasons are obvious.

The error in purchases has led India to a strategic back foot in case any battle field is thrown open by any of the neighbors in current time.

To protect the sovereignty of the country, is the primary objective and needs to be fulfilled at any given cost. What must India do in such case and situation is worth pondering a thought.

First, we must encourage the development of indigenous weapons. Technical assistance must be sought instead of purchasing the arms.

Secondly, research pertaining to the weapons can be outsourced to private companies. This will add more jobs in India and add answerability in terms of time span and quality.

BrahMos is an example of a DRDO success story. More of such sort can be developed and even be exported to countries. We must work towards developing more markets. The point I am trying to drive home is that can Modi sarkaar wake up and clean up the institution, give them the required budget and autonomy.

All this in long run can enhance the economy. Outflow of dollars will transform into inflow. The borders of the nation need protection, Mr. Arun Jaitley. It is the call of the hour.