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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Not battle-ready before 2027, admits Indian Army

Kartikeya Sharma & Gaurav Sawant

The Indian Army, one of the world's largest, has admitted it is far from being battle-ready. The force is 50 per cent short of attaining full capability.The admission is part of the army's internal assessment report submitted to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence. Headlines Today has exclusive access to the report.

The report says it will take around 20 years for the army to gain full defence preparedness. The infantry, artillery and the armoury would be fully ready for battle only by 2027. This means that in the event of a war in the next two decades, the country may prove to be a virtual sitting duck.

Going by the report, the force seems most vulnerable as far as combat helicopters are concerned. The report says the army has attained an abysmal 17 per cent capability in combat choppers. Full combat capability by helicopters would not be possible before 2027.


Another problem is the army's inability to develop a communication network. India will not have a real-time information sharing network before 2027. The current capability is just 24 per cent despite the country's stellar show in information technology.

What's really shocking is the shortage in fighting arms. The artillery has just 52 per cent of the total capability required to defend the country. The country will near 97 per cent capability in artillery only by 2027. The infantry too is struggling at a 65 per cent capability. The infantry wants to replace its indigenous INSAS rifles, acquire night-fighting capabilities, new generation anti-tank missiles and rockets. Shields for nuclear, biological and chemical warfare too are not properly in place.

The picture isn't rosy for the mechanised and special forces units either, which are way behind their required defence preparedness.

5 comments:

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USAF report from exercising with Indian Air Force during Cope India 04 suggests that India's air doctrine on one hand resembles that of Russian doctrine but on the other hand totally novice in its own right. That made India Air Force that much harder to beat back then. (USAF deployed their classic "barrage of missile" BVR doctrine and were consistently humbled both in BVR AND WVR by the maneuvering and data-linked IAF fighters.)

It's not the equipment that counts; morale, training, tactic and coordination arguably weight more, far more.

Perhaps India Army can probably learn an ink or two from IAF's splendid example.

very true anon 10:49, the quality of the people count rather than the technology.

they are saying before 2027 and people living at that time will see that what they meant was year " 2072 " and not 2027

Indian army is right.The reason for lack of preparedness not only with army but the Armed Forces as a whole.

A small instance Indians have supplied lot of Arms to the insurgents who are fighting a battle in Fata and swat....
These people have sold lot of INSAS rifles in open market on throw away prices due to poor quality of these rifles.most of the time these rifles jam & in instances barrel blurts at full Auto.
The quality is such that tribal s are not paid cash but can barter them with old Russian SkS rifles worth not more than Pak rupee 1500/ roughly USD 18/20 a piece.

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