No ammo, air defence obsolete: Army Chief to PM

[alok mishra]

leaked letter may hurt many indian but V K Singh not said any thing wrong.....

 

[IndianArmy]

whats ur views about title??

I have no idea..

 

[Paan Singh]

I have no idea..

Do u think that we dont have ammo?

 

[IndianArmy]

Do u think that we dont have ammo?

Hehehe , Obsolete and depleted does not mean we dont have ammo's and we will deal the enemy with sticks and stones. It can either be outdated according to our present doctrine or we dont have sufficient arms to support the same.

 

[S.U.R.B.]

Say something we can believe in.Unless there is some major corruption in the management.I can't see a country hell bent to burn it's resources on military exercises /expeditions and regular tests,getting short of ammo any sooner.

 

[harpoon]

Yesterday I saw a debate on TV about this letter in which the ex-IAF chief said that this type of maters pertaining to National Security matters should not be debated in public for which journalist Maroof Raza who is an ex-IA officer himself answered that people like him should come out of the Nehruvian era when normal people are considered incapable of understanding such complex matters. Due to the advent of internet people are much more informed about these matters than in the past. May be he is a regular visitor to PDF

 

[indiatester]

The chief has made a few good points. they were not meant for public consumption.

This raises a few questions:

Why did the chief wait until now to speak out?

Why is the procurement of important weapons systems left to apathetic and corrupt civilian bureaucrats?

It is a norm for the chief to write to the PM before his retirement.

The letter may have painted a grim picture but, sources say, it is the practice for service chiefs to write to the Prime Minister, shortly before they retire, on the state of the fighting arm they head.

from The Hindu : Today's Paper News : Army Chief's leaked letter to PM puts Centre in a fix
We are now shouting because it came into the public domain.
The chief also did not wait till now to bring these things to notice. Statements similar to what was said in the leaked letter were attributed.

Babu's and Politicians needed for checks and balances. Unfortunately, we are facing more problems from them rather than power grab by the army.

 

[Hafizzz]

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: Amidst the raging row over bribery allegations, Army Chief General VK Singh is reported to have written a letter to the Prime Minister, stating the country’s security might be at risk owing to the fact that tanks are running out of ammunition, air defence is going obsolete and the infantry is operating without critical weapons.

According to DNA, Gen Singh wrote the letter to PM Manmohan Singh on March 12, two weeks before making an explosive revelation that he was offered Rs 14 crore bribe to clear a defence purchase.

In the letter, the Army Chief – who also had a recent run-in with the government over his date of birth controversy – asked the PM to “pass suitable directions to enhance the preparedness of the Army”.



Gen Singh wrote to the PMO after he failed to get a response from the Defence Ministry. It is no secret that following the row with South Block —which houses the Defence Ministry — over his birth date, the Army Chief has had to face a bureaucracy that seems reluctant to process files.

Also, experts and observers have criticised the Manmohan Singh-led government, which first came to power in May 2004 and then won a re-election in 2009, for not having made any big ticket defence purchases.

“The state of the major (fighting) arms i.e. Mechanised Forces, Artillery, Air Defence, Infantry and Special Forces, as well as the Engineers and Signals, is indeed alarming,” Gen Singh wrote in his letter, reported DNA’s Saikat Datta.

In his letter, the Army Chief stated that while there is lack of critical ammunition for the entire tank fleet, the country’s air defence is “97% obsolete and it doesn't give the deemed confidence to protect…from the air”.

Also, the infantry is crippled with “deficiencies of crew served weapon” and lacks “night fighting” capabilities. Elite Special Forces, on the other hand, are “woefully short” of “essential weapons”.

Lamenting the complex and slow defence procurement procedures, Gen Singh said that there was “hollowness” in the present system.

He also hit out at indigenous ordnance factories, saying they produce weapon systems and other fighting material of poor quality with no sense of urgency.

Stating the shortcomings were severely eroding the Army's preparedness, he stressed on the need to “urgently mitigate” these “critical deficiencies” that are “impacting the operational capability” of a 1.3million-strong Army.

what a lame excuse to defend india from the title "world's top arms" importer

 

[lem34]

To be honest what I just don't get is why the Indians have to make such a song and dance just get on with it. In any event it is a poor showing that this is being played out in the public domain by people in positions who should know better.

 

[harpoon]

To be honest what I just don't get is why the Indians have to make such a song and dance just get on with it. In any event it is a poor showing that this is being played out in the public domain by people in positions who should know better.

Bcs we are a democracy and is not ready to brush such a serious matter under the carpet.

 

[lem34]

Bcs we are a democracy and is not ready to brush such a serious matter under the carpet.

India is a parliamentary democracy, but rather less than a fully free society. The human rights group Freedom House ranks India as a 2 (on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 the highest) for political rights and 3 for civil liberties. Elections are generally free but, notes Freedom House, “Government effectiveness and accountability are also undermined by pervasive criminality in politics, decrepit state institutions, and widespread corruption.” The State Department observes: “There were numerous reports that the government and its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings, including extrajudicial killings of suspected criminals and insurgents, or staged encounter deaths.”

 

[SQ8]

Wasnt this the same guy that made the statement of "being in Rawalpindi within two days"??

 

[lem34]

Wasnt this the same guy that made the statement of "being in Rawalpindi within two days"??

Makes me think Indian officer training and promotion needs to be looked at as well if this guy is anything to go by.

 

[The Great One]

Wasnt this the same guy that made the statement of "being in Rawalpindi within two days"??

He did?
When? Source please.

 

[SpArK]

Take it as positive.

This leaking is an excellent opportunity to modernize .

Defense industry around the world is in DefExpo showing their stuff.

Have a look at it , go with a heavy purse and get the best from the best at competitive prices.