NEW DELHI -* Indian soldiers are likely to be crushed by Pakistan Militarypower if India goes to war with Pakistan right now because of the poorquality of weapons and vehicles that have been deployed at the borders withPakistan. *
If India were to go to war against Pakistan right now , its soldiers wouldbe at risk on a very basicfront -the vehicles that carry them into the battlefield are outdated – atleast three decades old – and are not equipped withmodern night vision devices, a key vulnerability in modern warfare, NDTVhas reported.
Eight years ago, the government cleared the acquisition of more than 2,000Infantry Combat Vehicles (ICVs) for the army – the deal is worth Rs 60,000crore.
But a series of delays and a tangle of red tapes have meant that even now,not a single new vehicle has been ordered, let alone entered service. As aresult of the delays, the army continues to fight with Russian- designedBMP-2 ICVs, unreliable and prone to technical snags because to keep themrunning, their engines have been overhauled beyond their prescribed limits.
Documents accessed by NDTV lay out the serpentine process within theDefence Ministry where different wings have been unable to reach aconsensus on how the project is to proceed. Worried at the consequences ofthe delay, G Mohan Kumar, the last Defence Secretary, documented hisconcerns. In a file noting in April last year, Mr Kumar warned that”raising doubts over the evaluation methodology or changing it at thisstage will not be consistent with the established procedure.” His ownministry, he said, was “delaying inordinately [the] acquisition of criticalequipment for the army.”
Infantry Combat Vehicles (ICVs), also known as Armoured Personnel Carriers,lie at the heart of the army’s operations in any war against Pakistan. Akey element of army combat teams, each ICV carries 10 fully-armed soldiersinto the battle-field. ICVs often follow tank formations which are meant tostrike dagger like blows across the border as the army fights deep insideenemy territory.
Highly mobile and equipped with anti-tank missiles, ICVs support tankoperations and also accompany artillery formations, bridge-laying tanks,and air defence units. They are designed to protect the soldiers they carrywithin against all small-arms fire but cannot withstand the impact of atank shell.
The army’s saga to acquire a new Infantry Combat Vehicle began in inOctober 2009. The new ICVs were to be made in India in a bid to encourageindigenous manufacture of key weapon systems. The army issued an Expressionof Interest – which solicits quotes and bids – in 2010 to Tata, MahindraDefence Systems, Larsen & Toubro and the government-run Ordnance FactoryBoard.
Then the delays began -and kept piling up. In December 2012, the army’sExpression of Interest was withdrawn because of a reported difference ofopinion in how the army’s experts and the Defence Ministry’s team evaluatedthe proposal that had been submitted by defence manufacturers. Unable tofind common ground, the main file on the ICV project was returned to thearmy four years after the process first began.
The instructions given were to wait for a new set of government guidelinesmeant to specify rules for private sector Indian defence manufacturers.According to a document accessed by NDTV, “This decision was likely todelay the project by another 2 years.”
Under intense pressure from the army which realised that its existing BMP-2was utterly obsolete, the Defence Ministry agreed to a fresh Expression ofInterest in April 2014. 10 Indian companies responded to this followingwhich it took the Defence Ministry another year to decide how it intendedto evaluate the prototypes provided by each firm.
Five private firms and the government’s Ordnance Factory Board said theywanted to be considered and the Defence Ministry submitted an evaluationreport on each proposal on November 25, 2016.
In late 2016, in perhaps the biggest setback to the ICV project, thosereviews or evaluation reports were rejected by the Defence Ministry’sDirector General (Acquisitions) because the “the methodology for selectionwas at variance with [the] Defence Procurement Procedure 2008,” thegovernment manual being used to process this deal.
This recommendation was overruled by Mr Kumar, the Defence Secretary,claiming that “the option of scrapping the present process and issuing afresh expression of interest may not be in our best interest consideringthat this will put us back by a few years and render all effort so far madeinfructuous thus delaying inordinately acquisition of critical equipmentfor the army.”
He could not have stated the consequences more baldly. Two meetings of theDefence Production Board were held late last year. Since then, one of thefirms competing for the order has raised questions about three competitors.With a formal complaint lodged, a panel of independent experts was formedin November. Senior Ministry sources have told NDTV that no decision hasbeen taken on how to proceed with the army’s Infantry Combat Vehicleproject.