CAG slams Navy for buying MiGs without weapons

[Major Shaitan Singh]

New Delhi, September 8
Pointing to a sheer wastage of public funds, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report slammed the Ministry of Defence and the Navy for buying war planes that do not have weapons. It also pointed a finger at the Indian Air Force (IAF) for having ‘let off’ three of its officers who caused a loss of Rs 302 crore when a sensitive aerostat radar got damaged.

The CAG, in its report tabled in both Houses of Parliament, said the Indian Navy followed a flawed approach in acquiring its fighter aircraft fleet by not finalising the associated weapon package. The CAG said that 11 out of 16 MiG 29K aircraft, acquired at a cost of $740.35 million (Rs 3,405.61 crore), been delivered in December 2009 and May 2011. No matching armament, for which a contract was signed in March 2006, has been delivered as on October 2010, thereby adversely affecting the operational capabilities of the aircraft.

Further, the Navy has selected a ‘beyond visual range’ (BVR) missile with an unsatisfactory track record. Lastly, the complete armament package finalised for the aircraft contains certain ammunition, worth $20.98 million (Rs 93.68 crore) which did not have the approval of the competent authority.

The MiG 29K is a deck-based fighter meant for seaborne aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya (Admiral Gorshkov). At present, the fighters are based at a land base in Goa as the aircraft carrier itself has not arrived.

The agreement was signed under an Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) between India and Russia in October 2000 for the procurement of an aircraft carrier along with the MiGs for onboard operations. The Ministry of Defence in January 2004 concluded a contract with Russian Aircraft Corporation (RAC-MIG) for procurement of the MiG 29K aircraft. The weapons package was postponed and de-linked from the negotiations for the aircraft.

 

[LiberalAtheist]

CAG is the dying coughs of the non corrupt and people trying to work and fix a rotten system the whole policy on procurement is skewed with weird policies and clauses preference should not be given because of the country but because of the performance of the weapon we would have been better off ordering french BVR's or making one in a JV with Israel what about our Astra missile?

 

[illuminatidinesh]

CAG is doing overtime now days......

 

[sancho]

To order R77 is not really necessary at the moment, because IN can train their pilots on IAF Mig 29 trainers and their weapon stocks if needed. More important is the take off and landing training at INS Hansa and later the procurement and training of anti ship weapons, which IAF might not have and use on their Migs. Also there were reports about Mig offering to integrate airlaunched Klub S missiles to them, which the navy operates on their Kilo subs as well, so as long that is not cleared, it makes sense to not buy other weapons from the start. Not to mention that these fighters will be fielded in operational service only when the carrier is available, which takes several more years.

 

[Jon Snow]

how is this the navy's fault.... The article itself mentions that the contract for the weapons has already been signed as of 2006 - if the weapons have not arrived then please go bash the oem not the navy

 

[T90TankGuy]

cag is a bunch of accountants who have not seen what its like to be in the field.

 

[Archie]

how is this the navy's fault.... The article itself mentions that the contract for the weapons has already been signed as of 2006 - if the weapons have not arrived then please go bash the oem not the navy

Technically the only Missile which Indian Navy really needs is the Kh135 Antiship missiles , Rest can be shared with IAF BVRAAM stocks of missiles for Mig29s and MKIs

 

[Mani2020]

So are they really that confident of mig-29's capabilities that they decided to fly it out without weapons?

 

[mayankmatador]

So are they really that confident of mig-29's capabilities that they decided to fly it out without weapons?

u mean kamikaze

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

So are they really that confident of mig-29's capabilities that they decided to fly it out without weapons?

There are separate tenders for weapons IMO.
The current Mirage 2000 upgrade tender has two sub contracts IIRC,one for Dassault and co. and another for MBDA.

 

[Archie]

So are they really that confident of mig-29's capabilities that they decided to fly it out without weapons?

Read the article again, it specifically states that armament were ordered in 2006 and were not delivered till October 2010 , well thats true , since the first shipment of Arms comprising mainly the ground attack kits of 250 Kg, 500 Kg and 1000 Kg bombs were delivered along with 32 Kh135 AntiShip Missiles , in May 2011 along with 5 Mig29K fighters
Next Shipment comprising 200 BVRAAM and WVR missiles will be delivered in January 2012 ALONG WITH remaining 5 aircrafts of the Black Panther Sqd

Also u need to understand that Aircrafts dont need to fly with weapons during pilot training which is currently being carried out at Naval Station INS Hansa
If so required Navy can tap into IAF's arsenal of 1500 Russian made BVRAAMs as well as Antiship Missiles used by 2 Dedicated MKI sqds stationed in Gujrat and Andaman and Nicobar Islands

 

[janon]

So are they really that confident of mig-29's capabilities that they decided to fly it out without weapons?

No. Did you read the article?

 

[luckyyy]

the complete armament package finalised for the aircraft contains certain ammunition, worth $20.98 million (Rs 93.68 crore)

CAG slams Navy for buying MiGs without weapons ????

i think CAG running after sansationalizum now and has absolutly no knowledge about defence matters..
the IN migs are presently in training mode , armament were ordered in 2006 and will be delivered in 2012 , which is a actually a good thinking coz these weapons do have a expry date ( 7-8 years only) , had these wepones delivered in 2006 itself they would have expired by now , what's the use of having weapons in traning period and just see them expired...
CAG has provided themself a priod in this matter !!!

 

[tvsram1992]

So are they really that confident of mig-29's capabilities that they decided to fly it out without weapons?

yes mig29k will come and hit aircraft carrier at mach2.5 with 5000kg payload and pilot ejects just before collision

 

[SpArK]

Its on training mode anyway. Will be operational only when AC arrives..

Why buy now? Buy new..