The Long Term Debilitating Effect Of Arms Imports

[Zarvan]

This is not the first instance where a foreign arms vendor has put defence preparedness in jeopardy. The only way out for the armed forces is to engage the Indian industry and slowly invest in an Indian military complex.

The Economic Times has recently reported that India is likely to sign a deal with Russia for easy supply of spare parts for the Indian Air Force’s Su-30MKI frontline fighters. While indicating that the serviceability levels of the aircraft will reach 70% once the proposed deal is operationalised, the report also says that the current serviceability levels are around 50%.

What this means is that at any given point of time only half of the Indian Air Force’s front-line, mainstay Su-30MKI are considered to be flyable. The remaining half are grounded due to lack of spare parts or for routine maintenance activities. The Su-30MKI is probably the most advanced fighter aircraft the air force possesses. It is also the pride of the air force – they fly it routinely during flypasts and other ceremonial occasions. If this is the state of the Indian Air Force’s most advanced, newest fighter aircraft it is only reasonable to assume that other aircrafts suffer from lower or similar serviceability levels.

INDIA-DEFENCE-AEROSPACE

The Russians, it appears, have sold us the aircrafts and are making us run around the park for spares. Having sunk thousands of crores into buying 270+ Su-30 aircraft the air force has no option but to suffer the Russian roulette. The spare parts fiasco also exposes another long held myth about technology transfers from foreign vendors to Indian companies. The HAL has been for some years assembling Su-30 aircrafts in its factories after what was termed as ‘technology transfer’ from Russia. Typically, all that India receives through such technology transfer programs are screw-driver technologies: the vendors turn up to teach Indian engineers how to assemble semi-knocked down (SKD) or completely knocked down (CKD) kits supplied by the Russians.

This is not the first instance where a foreign arms vendor has put defence preparedness in jeopardy. The infamous Bofors guns suffered for a long time due to lack of spares. The Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH (HDW) submarines had to be carefully maintained because India cut links with the vendor following corruption allegations. The Air Force’s Il-76/78 planes regularly suffer from serviceability issues due to lack of parts. The navy suffered multiple accidents because of faulty equipment not being replaced on time. Twenty navy personnel have been killed due to accidents mostly attributed to faulty equipment.

Partly, faulty equipment and lack of spares can be blamed on the Ministry of Defence’s bureaucracy taking its own time to finalise contracts and get supplies organised. But for the most part spares, ancillary equipment and ammunition is where foreign vendors milk the Indian military budget dry. Much of this does not become media headlines because the amounts involved are much smaller and the nitty-gritties don’t really make for sexy headlines – say, unlike a major aircraft acquisition deal.

The only way out for the armed forces is to engage the Indian industry and slowly invest in an Indian military complex. That way our supply chain of arms and ammunition can be insulated from blackmails and extractive prices. This may take decades but a start has to be made. The ‘Make in India’ program provides an excellent platform to get this going.

The Long Term Debilitating Effect Of Arms Imports | Swarajya