NEW DELHI – The Indian Army link> atpresent lacks capability to fight an intense war for more than 10 days withPakistan Army at borders due shortage of equipment and funds, said topGeneral in Parliament.
The top General has told the parliament that it was running short of Rs6,380 crore to build ammunition stocks necessary for fighting an intensewar for 10 days.
India allocated Rs 2.95 lakh crore for military spending in 2018-19, amodest hike of 7.8% over last year’s budget of Rs 2.74 lakh crore. ButIndia’s defence spending continues to be on the decline measured againstits GDP, Hindustan Times has reported.
The government has set June 2018 as its target for meeting criticalshortage of ammunition held by the force — a deficiency that, experts say,limits the force’s ability to fight prolonged wars.
“The state of defence preparedness is indeed a cause for concern and armymodernisation has begun at last, but at a painfully slow pace,” saidmilitary affairs expert Brig Gurmeet Kanwal (retd). Terming the “Make inIndia” initiative as a great step taken by the defence ministry, he saidthere was not enough money available for the army to take up projects underthe programme.
The reports said that the allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernising theforce was not sufficient for the “committed payment” of Rs 29,033 crore for125 ongoing schemes and emergency requirements. The air force and navy arealso lacking money for new schemes, according to the reports.
The defence ministry is expected to respond with an action taken report inParliament.
The army is authorised to stockpile ammunition for 40 days of intensefighting, known as war wastage reserves (WWR) in military parlance. In casethat is not possible for all types of ammunition, the requirement that WWRmust last for at least 20 days was made mandatory by the government twodecades ago.
The army also told the panel that it was saddled with old weapons andsystems — 68 % of its equipment was vintage, 24% current and only 8% stateof the art. “Modernisation gets a mere 14% (of army budget), which isgrossly inadequate…I feel it has to be anything between 22 and 25%,” anarmy representative who was unnamed told the panel.