Hope you find this article by noted defence and strategic affairs analyst Bharat Verma as interesting as I found it to be.
Indian military capabilities shrink rapidly while the threats multiply
Instead of removing poverty, the politician turned poverty into business of vote-bank-politics. Result: Sixty-two years later Maoists control forty per cent of the Indian Territory and the insurgents in the border states have influence in another ten per cent, both with explicit support of external actors.
While the Army is battling insurgents for decades in Kashmir and in the Northeast, in all likelihood, it will be drawn into conflict with the Maoists to reclaim territories under their control.
This is a direct consequence to the demonstrated incompetence of the inept and crumbling Civil Administration. Resources of the Army, Air force and the Navy are already at an all time low and are over stretched, undermining the capability of the Indian military machine to fulfill its primary role of coping with the challenges of external threat.Beijing and Islamabad are delighted with New Delhi's clumsy response.
Couple the internal threat with burgeoning external threat - Beijing boasts of capability to create three-pronged mischief on the Indian Borders. First, China has built elaborate infrastructure and potent military capability in Tibet.
Second, it not only synergized anti-India activities with Pakistan but has also positioned elements of the PLA inside PoK.
Third, China quietly propelled their proxy Maoists (Nepal) to the centre-stage in Katmandu. Not to mention the advantage China gained in Sri Lanka while India lost some.
Beijing now influences almost 7500 km of land opposite Indian borders.
The Indian Navy - grappling with increasing incidents of piracy, securing the EEZ, the 7500-km of coastline and Sea Lines of Communications - now faces the prospect of confronting the Chinese Navy in the Indian Ocean. The competitive interests of the two rapidly growing economies for energy and transit can transform the Indian Ocean into an area of bitter conflict in the near future.
Apart from its wits, the Indian Navy will require a large and modern arsenal.
New Delhi's indecisiveness, inconsistent and callous approach to modernization of the Armed Forces, ignorance, and enormous bureaucratic red tape keeps the Army, Navy and the Air Force under-equipped and devoid of adequate material and human resources to meet the growing threats.
In addition, the ill equipped military requires power projection capabilities to safeguard India's strategic interests. Even as New Delhi's weakness allowed India built Zaranj Delaram Highway to slip under Taliban control in Afghanistan, the Chinese lead the great game near Kabul by successfully mining copper.
The irony is that while Indian taxpayer's money helps rebuild war torn Afghanistan, Beijing walks away with the riches.
To cope with a two-front war, the IAF requires 60 air-worthy combat squadrons. The professional assessment to tackle the challenge of a single front war and holding action on the other front requires 45 squadrons.
New Delhi sanctioned 39.5 squadrons, but has indicated intent to raise the squadron strength to 42 by the end of the current decade.
Of the sanctioned strength of combat squadrons, for the IAF only 28.5 remain air-worthy today. Discounting the obsolescent fleet of the MiG 21 as also other ageing aircrafts, the IAF is left with around 22 combat worthy squadrons.
At Aero India 2011, apart from the Su30 MKI display by the IAF,rest of it turned out to be nothing more than a vintage aircraft rally!
When the NDA government was in power, India negotiated for forty Mirages 2000-V. After prolonged negotiations, when the time came to ink the deal, the then Defence Minister decided that he would sign it after the general elections. The NDA coalition lost and the UPA government that came to power scrapped the deal.
Similarly, a deal for In-flight Refuellers negotiated over three years. When the deal was about to be inked, the Ministry of Finance suddenly declared that the tankers preferred by the IAF were too expensive. The tender was scrapped.
Moreover, after many years of trials and negotiations, the deal for 197 helicopters was thrown out of the window in the last minute. The tender for 126 MMRCA is languishing for the past eleven years and now runs into problems and complications with the unwieldy offset procedures and Transfer of Technology.
In the bargain, the vendors have lost millions of dollars on unproductive efforts. Worse, the nation lost credibility in its international dealings and the Air Force its combat power.
With its overall capability severely eroded especially during the last decade, the IAF today no longer spearheads national military power. There is hardly any strategic or tactical airlift capability worth the name. The air defence cover supported by obsolete systems, is porous and there is only a token representation of force multipliers.
The state of the IAF prompted the Chief of the Air Staff to state publicly that fifty per cent of the equipment in the IAF was obsolete. Clearly, the IAF is in no shape to support power projection by the nation or to confront its two main adversaries that are rearming and modernizing rapidly.
On the other hand, DRDO and the indigenous aerospace industry continue to devour precious resources that the nation can ill afford but have proved totally incapable of making the nation self reliant in respect of contemporary military hardware.
Global tenders for even desperately needed military equipment remain bogged down in the complex bureaucratic labyrinth of the Defence Procurement Procedure.
Ineptitude and apathy of the government is usually cloaked in fiery rhetoric that routinely emanates from the top echelons of national leadership and genuine modernization programmes continue to remain a distant dream.
For the past twenty-five years Ministry of Defence has found itself incapable of finalizing the induction of 155 mm guns for the Regiment of Artillery. The Kargil war was barely managed through extensive cannibalization just to have a few guns firing.
MoD floats tenders and cancels them with an unbelievable regularity.
The Indian Army's Combat Arms are in a state of crises because of obsolete equipment that was not replaced in the last sixty years.
Tanks and ICVs are night blind without night sights.The MoD is unable to decide between import of Thermal Imager Fire Control System (TIFCS) and Thermal Imager Stand Alone System (TISAS).
Pakistan forces equipped with night vision devices will be sitting behind blind Indian mechanized forces since modern wars will be fought largely at night.
The bewildering variety of antiquated artillery guns-120 mmmortars, 105 mm Field gun, 130 mm Medium gun, 155 mm Gun, 122 mm Howitzer, 122 mm Multi-barreled Rocket Launcher and now Pinaka and Smerch Long Range Systems are a logistician's nightmare.