National security can't afford military delivery delays

Air chief marshal AP Singh's blunt assessment — "Not a single project that I can think of has been completed on time" — strikes at the core of India's defence preparedness. Despite headline-making progress in indigenous production, such as the Tejas fighter or Akash missile systems, chronic delays continue to hobble operational readiness and derail modernisation. These delays, often accepted at the contract-signing stage itself, highlight systemic inertia and a culture of over-promising. With adversaries modernising swiftly and conflicts becoming technology-intensive, the price of sluggishness is steep. It's not just a matter of budgets or bureaucratic red tape, it's about national security.