Budget crunch hits IAF's new arms deals, upgrade of airbases

[Windjammer]

Budget crunch hits IAF's new arms deals, upgrade of airbases

Rajat Pandit : TNN | Updated: Oct 20, 2018, ..

NEW DELHI: A severe fund crunch is slowly but steadily impacting the operational preparedness of the Indian Air Force (IAF), forcing it to put on hold acquisitions of helicopters, "smart bombs" and missiles as well as repair of runways in crucial airbases on both the western and eastern fronts.

Sources on Friday said several deals, including the ones for 48 more Russian Mi-17 V5 medium-lift helicopters (Rs 6,900 crore) and 32 additional British Hawk advanced jet trainers (Rs 3,500 crore), have been put on the backburner due to lack of funds. "Similar is the case for Russian laser-guided bombs and other precision-guided munitions," said a source.

More alarmingly, the paucity of funds has also adversely hit the upgrade of infrastructure and runways in airbases around the country, with at least three of them being under the Shillong-based Eastern Air Command at a time when China continues to upgrade its military aviation set-up in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

"Apart from having 14 major airfields, advanced landing grounds and helipads in TAR, China is constructing underground hangers and parking bays for its fighters by digging tunnels into mountains at some of them," said another source.

On the western front, the IAF has already been taken to court by contractors involved in runway resurfacing works at Awantipur (J&K) and Chandigarh stations due to non-payment of outstanding bills. "Ongoing work at stations like Sirsa and Bakshi-ka-Talab (Lucknow), as also the IAF academy at Hyderabad, may suffer due to the same reasons," said another source.

The IAF, of course, is mighty pleased with the "two game-changing mega deals" inked for 36 French Rafale fighter jets for Rs 59,000 crore and five Russian S-400 Triumf air defence missile squadrons for Rs 40,000 crore.

While the Rafales are slated for induction in 2019-2022, the S-400s are to be delivered in the 2020-2023 timeframe. Though the money for these two "critical operational inductions" will be paid in instalments over several years, and is also linked to deliveries, it has virtually emptied out the already curtailed IAF budget.

The IAF had asked for Rs 77,695 crore under the capital (modernisation etc) outlay in the 2018-2019 budget, but got only Rs 35,770 crore. Under the revenue (day-to-day operating costs, salaries etc) head, it got Rs 28,821 crore instead of the Rs 35,261 crore demanded. The story is similar for the Army and Navy, which got just 60 per cent and 56 per cent of their projected requirements under the capital head.

Take the over 12-lakh strong Army, for instance. The force is saddled with 68 per cent "vintage" weaponry, 24 per cent "current" and only 8 per cent "state-of-the-art" equipment. It had asked for Rs 44,573 crore under the capital head but got only Rs 26,816 crore.

The allocated funds are not enough to even pay for "committed liabilities or instalments" of earlier deals, leaving virtually nothing for new modernisation projects. It is similar under the revenue head, which by far outstrips the capital outlay in a skewed 83:17 ratio due to a ballooning salary bill in the manpower-intensive Army, as reported earlier by TOI.



The allocated funds are not enough to even pay for "committed liabilities or instalments" of earlier deals, leaving virtually nothing for new modernisation projects. It is similar under the revenue head, which by far outstrips the capital outlay in a skewed 83:17 ratio due to a ballooning salary bill in the manpower-intensive Army, as reported earlier by TOI.

 

[Tom M]

IAF should knock the doors of IMF. I guess they will help our fly-boys.

 

[Crixus]

We can sell buffaloes and ask for mob funding too

IAF should knock the doors of IMF. I guess they will help our fly-boys.

 

[SuvarnaTeja]

Budget crunch hits IAF's new arms deals, upgrade of airbases

Rajat Pandit : TNN | Updated: Oct 20, 2018, ..

NEW DELHI: A severe fund crunch is slowly but steadily impacting the operational preparedness of the Indian Air Force (IAF), forcing it to put on hold acquisitions of helicopters, "smart bombs" and missiles as well as repair of runways in crucial airbases on both the western and eastern fronts.

Sources on Friday said several deals, including the ones for 48 more Russian Mi-17 V5 medium-lift helicopters (Rs 6,900 crore) and 32 additional British Hawk advanced jet trainers (Rs 3,500 crore), have been put on the backburner due to lack of funds. "Similar is the case for Russian laser-guided bombs and other precision-guided munitions," said a source.

More alarmingly, the paucity of funds has also adversely hit the upgrade of infrastructure and runways in airbases around the country, with at least three of them being under the Shillong-based Eastern Air Command at a time when China continues to upgrade its military aviation set-up in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

"Apart from having 14 major airfields, advanced landing grounds and helipads in TAR, China is constructing underground hangers and parking bays for its fighters by digging tunnels into mountains at some of them," said another source.

On the western front, the IAF has already been taken to court by contractors involved in runway resurfacing works at Awantipur (J&K) and Chandigarh stations due to non-payment of outstanding bills. "Ongoing work at stations like Sirsa and Bakshi-ka-Talab (Lucknow), as also the IAF academy at Hyderabad, may suffer due to the same reasons," said another source.

The IAF, of course, is mighty pleased with the "two game-changing mega deals" inked for 36 French Rafale fighter jets for Rs 59,000 crore and five Russian S-400 Triumf air defence missile squadrons for Rs 40,000 crore.

While the Rafales are slated for induction in 2019-2022, the S-400s are to be delivered in the 2020-2023 timeframe. Though the money for these two "critical operational inductions" will be paid in instalments over several years, and is also linked to deliveries, it has virtually emptied out the already curtailed IAF budget.

The IAF had asked for Rs 77,695 crore under the capital (modernisation etc) outlay in the 2018-2019 budget, but got only Rs 35,770 crore. Under the revenue (day-to-day operating costs, salaries etc) head, it got Rs 28,821 crore instead of the Rs 35,261 crore demanded. The story is similar for the Army and Navy, which got just 60 per cent and 56 per cent of their projected requirements under the capital head.

Take the over 12-lakh strong Army, for instance. The force is saddled with 68 per cent "vintage" weaponry, 24 per cent "current" and only 8 per cent "state-of-the-art" equipment. It had asked for Rs 44,573 crore under the capital head but got only Rs 26,816 crore.

The allocated funds are not enough to even pay for "committed liabilities or instalments" of earlier deals, leaving virtually nothing for new modernisation projects. It is similar under the revenue head, which by far outstrips the capital outlay in a skewed 83:17 ratio due to a ballooning salary bill in the manpower-intensive Army, as reported earlier by TOI.



The allocated funds are not enough to even pay for "committed liabilities or instalments" of earlier deals, leaving virtually nothing for new modernisation projects. It is similar under the revenue head, which by far outstrips the capital outlay in a skewed 83:17 ratio due to a ballooning salary bill in the manpower-intensive Army, as reported earlier by TOI.

Modi has been a curse for Indian defense.

 

[Crixus]

You are right we need Rahul Gandhi

Modi has been a curse for Indian defense.

 

[SuvarnaTeja]

You are right we need Rahul Gandhi

I cannot predict future but Modi's performance has been a disaster.

Defence budget as percentage of GDP lowest since 1962 war, says House panel
IANS|
Jul 25, 2018, 08.10 PM IST
defence budget as a percentage of GDP is lowest since the India-China war in 1962, a parliamentary panel has said and expressed its "unhappiness" over the share of capital expenditure in the defence expenditurebeing "abysmally low".

The Estimates Committee headed by BJP MP Murli Manohar Joshi, in its report on "Preparedness of Armed Force - Defence Production and Procurement", also said that "nothing concrete" has been done for implementation of strategic partnership model unveiled by the government in May 2017.

The committee presented its report in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Noting that the future warfare is headed towards cyber warfare, drones, automated warfare systems, stealth technology and precision guidance, the committee felt that preparation for futuristic warfare has to be undertaken without any compromise on conventional war preparedness.

"The government may take steps for constituting an institutional arrangement to oversee the state of preparedness of the country in futuristic warfare," the report said.

It said foundation of future warfare system is information technology and artificial intelligence and that it applies to all the three wings of armed forces.

The committee said that defence expenditure has marginally increased since 2014-15 and when compared to Central government's expenditure, the percentage has declined from 13.15 during 2014-15 to 12.20 during 2017-18.

"Defence expenditure when analysed as a percentage of GDP, in the last few years has ranged between 2.06 per cent (2014-15) to 1.56 per cent (2017-18)."

The report said that as per a Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) study, defence expenditure as a share of GDP of China and France has remained the same, increased in case of Saudi Arabia and Russia, and decreased in case of the USA and the UK in the last decade (2007-2017).

"Keeping in view the scale of GDP the developed countries have, the decrease of defence expenditure as percentage of GDP in India, as per government data, is more noticeable. The current defence budget as a percentage of GDP is at the lowest level since 1962 when India-China war was fought," the committee said.

It said that in the current geo-political scenario, a country of India's size cannot afford complacency on defence preparedness even for a two-front war while retaining its dominance in the Indian Ocean.

The committee said that allocation of adequate financial resources for defence preparedness both for current needs and expansion, and modernization plans "should be accorded highest priority" to enable the services to meet the challenges concerning safety and security of the country.

The Committee recommended that the capital procurement Budget should be in consonance with the projections made by the services as per Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) and said that resources allocated should be fully utilised.

"The committee members have expressed their unhappiness that the share of Capital Expenditure as a percentage of total Defence Services Expenditure is abysmally low and is continuously declining over the years. In the years 2012-13 and 2013-14, the share of capital expenditure was 39 per cent which in the year 2017-18 and 2018-19 came down to 33 per cent and 34 per cent, respectively."

The Committee expressed "serious concern" that dependence on foreign suppliers particularly for military hardware results in huge expenditure on import of defence equipment and also affects the security of the Country.

"During emergency situations the supplier may not provide us the required weapons or spare parts. Nothing concrete has been done for implementation of the strategic partnership model unveiled by the government in May 2017 which envisaged private players playing a key role in building military platforms like submarine and fighter jets in India in partnership with major global defence companies," it said.

Noting that the serviceability of aircraft was 60 per cent against the norm of 70 per cent, the panel stressed on addressing the issues. The committee called upon the government to take all initiatives for increasing production of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd not only for the three services but also for export to other countries.

Rapping the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), the committee said it has "not been able to meet the country's expectations.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...war-says-house-panel/articleshow/65137192.cms

 

[Mighty Lion]

Not a big issue.
IAF has got a capital expenditure of $5+ billion this year. More than enough.

 

[Foxtrot Delta]

Indian airmen can set up meetings and demand more funds from new up coming government. U guys have alot in reserves u can afford to spend a bit ... Unlike us which is sad.

 

[jaiind]

IAF should get some loan from IMF or uncle chiang

 

[Windjammer]

We can sell buffaloes and ask for mob funding too

Why Buffaloes and not Cows....so we can all benefit, i will enjoy Beef Biryani and you build yourself a toilet.

IAF should get some loan from IMF or uncle chiang

And here i'm thinking you are part of the IMF aka Indian Morons Fanclub.

 

[Crixus]

For you we have pigs cheap( as for pigs you don’t need to go to IMF) and a lot of meat you can enjoy pig birtani

Why Buffaloes and not Cows....so we can all benefit, i will enjoy Beef Biryani and you build yourself a toilet.



And here i'm thinking you are part of the IMF aka Indian Morons Fanclub.

 

[maximuswarrior]

The F-16s also still have to be bought...

 

[randomradio]

I cannot predict future but Modi's performance has been a disaster.

The defence budget is less than we need, but this was planned that way for this year. We need Modi for a second term. Post 2022, we will see the signature of some of the biggest defence deals around. By the middle of the next decade, we will be signing contracts which are as big as what we see in the US and China.

The problem right now is the major pay raises that the armed forces have seen, which is eating away into the revenue budget. So we will need another year for the situation to stabilise.

But, in the last 4 years, we have signed a lot of big ticket deals in a short time. It's more than adequate. The IA is getting new artillery guns and SAMs. The navy will have 11 new frigates and 6 new SSNs signed up. And the IAF got Rafales and S-400, and will soon see the signature of 83 LCA Mk1A. So defence modernisation has been more than adequate.

Not a big issue.
IAF has got a capital expenditure of $5+ billion this year. More than enough.

The problem is the revenue budget shortfall of 6.5kCr. Between Jan and Mar we will see some of the capital budget being transferred to the revenue budget.

 

[SuvarnaTeja]

The defence budget is less than we need, but this was planned that way for this year. We need Modi for a second term. Post 2022, we will see the signature of some of the biggest defence deals around. By the middle of the next decade, we will be signing contracts which are as big as what we see in the US and China.

The problem right now is the major pay raises that the armed forces have seen, which is eating away into the revenue budget. So we will need another year for the situation to stabilise.

But, in the last 4 years, we have signed a lot of big ticket deals in a short time. It's more than adequate. The IA is getting new artillery guns and SAMs. The navy will have 11 new frigates and 6 new SSNs signed up. And the IAF got Rafales and S-400, and will soon see the signature of 83 LCA Mk1A. So defence modernisation has been more than adequate.

Cutting defense budget will not ensure Modi's re-election rather building Ram temple will.

 

[randomradio]

Cutting defense budget will not ensure Modi's re-election rather building Ram temple will.

Of course, even the judgement alone will favour Modi. But let's stick to the topic, and consider the defence budget will play a more important part, because money has been diverted towards development instead.