Paranoia grips Pakistan :: Indian Arms buying spree unabated
Sunday, October 16, 2016
By: Defence News
The Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has mapped out that India needs $233 billion to meet its weapons and equipment requirements in 11 years. This has been calculated according to the Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) for 2012-2027. The Indian weapon purchases are so massive and diversified that it would require several research papers to explain them.
The following is only a brief attempt in that direction.
According to reports, from 2004 to 2014, 75 percent of all of New Delhi’s weapons imports came from Russia. This is understandable considering the relationship between the two countries and the kind of weapon systems used by India.
From 2009 to 2013, India and Russia struck defence deals of around US$30 billion. On the other hand, during the same period, the Indian government signed contracts worth $30 billion with France and $11 billion with the United States. These were besides what the Indian government had signed with Israel and other countries. This means that in only four years, the Indian government had signed contracts more than US$70 billion with only three countries.
The figures are staggering.
Again, from 2012-2013 to 2014-2015 fiscal years, 162 arms purchase contracts were signed by India, among them 67 with other countries, including Russia (18 agreements), the United States (13) and France (six). The Russian defence deals with India exceeded over $5 billion and with the United States around $4.4 billion.
The kind of weapon systems that India plans to purchase is stupefying and scary.
The Indian Army wants to equip all of its 382 infantry battalions and 44 mechanized infantry units with a fourth-generation shoulder-fired fire and forget anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system. So India is procuring 321 ‘Spike’ systems, along with 8,356 missiles, from Israel. India is also purchasing one medium-range surface-to-air missile (MRSAM) regiment, composed of 18 firing units, from Israel that is known of manufacturing state-of-the-art weapon systems.
It has been reported that US defense contractor Boeing alone has won bids to supply the Indian military with 10 C-17 Globemaster-III strategic airlift aircraft (worth $4.1 billion), eight P-8I maritime patrol aircraft (worth $2.1. billion), 22 AH-64E Apache, and 15 CH-47F Chinook helicopters (both helicopter deals have a combined worth of $2.5 billion).
Moreover, the French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation has finalised a contract for the sale of 36 Rafale fourth-generation multirole fighter jets to the Indian Air Force at an estimated cost of $9 billion. The European defense contractor EADS will supply six Airbus A330 Multirole Tanker Transport aircraft for the IAF for $1 billion.
India's planned major naval assets include 24 submarines over a period of 30 years. Six Scorpene class are being built at the Mazagaon Docks. All six are expected to join the Indian Navy by 2020. Purchase of six more was cleared in 2015. The next decade will see India fielding 3 Aircraft Carrier Battle Groups effectively enforcing pure dominance in the Indian Ocean Region.
Not to forget is the license production for Kamov 226 helicopters in India, purchase of 145 ultralight howitzer artillery guns from US, purchase of 100 155mm tracked artillery guns, purchase of 280 aero engines from Honeywell for Jaguar aircraft and purchase of five units of Russian-made S-400 advanced air defense systems that can effectively stop all Pakistani ballistic nuclear missiles.
Conclusion ::
Pakistan is insanely worried about the kind of money being thrown around by India for weapon systems which the Islamic Nation of Pakistan cannot possibly match even in their dreams. It has thus resorted to an intensive Proxy War with India confined mainly to the state of Kashmir as it cannot match India man-to-man and penny-to-penny.
http://www.defencenews.in/article/Paranoia-grips-Pakistan--Indian-Arms-buying-spree-unabated-8752
Good luck with that
