More funds, firepower

In the backdrop of India’s two-front threat perception, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence has stressed that the enhancement of airpower is of ‘paramount importance’ and no compromise should be made in terms of combat capabilities and technology while inducting fighter jets into the Air Force. Alluding to China and Pakistan, the panel has said that the threat ‘on both sides of the Indian neighbourhood is a reality which cannot be ignored’. The progressive depletion of the squadron strength is indeed a cause for concern. This glaring gap needs to be plugged promptly, failing which hostile neighbours could pounce on it to the detriment of our national security.

The committee has also recommended that adequate budgetary allocations should be made available to the armed forces. The gap between the demand of the three services for capital outlay and the actual allocation suggests that the government and the defence top brass are not on the same page on the financial front. The panel’s warning that curtailment of funds could end up compromising the operational preparedness of the forces should not be ignored by the powers that be. It’s high time the Ministry of Defence fast-tracks the establishment of the non-lapsable defence modernisation fund that could be used exclusively for the procurement of critical defence assets in crunch situations.

Even as India’s arms imports have fallen by 21 per cent, the country was the world’s largest importer of major arms in 2017-21, accounting for 11 per cent of the total imports during this five-year period, according to a report released recently by Sweden-based think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Cutting down on defence imports should go hand in hand with greater efforts to secure export orders for indigenously developed military platforms. The ‘Make in India’ initiative in the defence sector should spur work on products that are good enough for our own use and for export purposes too. The sobering fact that the Defence Research and Development Organisation is facing a shortfall of 800-odd scientists — over 10 per cent of the sanctioned strength — must also necessitate timely course correction.

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