The IAF’s also investing in the support aircraft that keep combat aircraft in the fight: it has two different Airborne early warning and control (AWE&C) programs ongoing – one indigenous and one with Israeli knowhow – and recently selected Airbus’ A330 MRTT for it mid-air refueling tanker/transport program. On the pure transport side, the U.S. has cleaned up at Russia’s expense, selling 12 C-130J Hercules tactical transports and at least 6 C-17 Globemaster III strategic airlifters to the IAF. It’s not all bad news for Moscow, however – the IAF has signed a deal with Russia to co-design and produce a Medium Transport Aircraft and is looking for replacements for its HAL-748 Avro, with Russian, Ukrainian, pan-European and Italian manufacturers ready to take part.
Where the scales start to tip away from Russia and toward the U.S. is on the rotary side: Boeing recently received preferred bidder status on two major helicopter contracts. India’s heavy attack helicopter will be an AH-64E Apache, while its heavy lift helicopter will be the CH-47F Chinook. Both wins were over Russian competition.
But again, that’s not the full story. Vladimir Putin recently signed a follow-on order for the Mil Mi-17 – the workhorse of the Indian Air Force, and while U.S. and Western suppliers are making inroads into the army’s needs – BAE Systems’ M777 light howitzer is on its way to Delhi – the navy remains a Russian-dominated affair (European design support for the indigenous aircraft carrier being built in Cochin notwithstanding).
Of course, all of this horse-trading and point scoring would be moot if India had an indigenous defense industrial base that could provide the military with what it wants. Right now, that’s just not the case. Whether it is the Tejas fighter, the INSAS rifle or the Arjun tank, India’s failure to develop systems that inspire confidence in its soldiers ensures that the subcontinent remains a world of opportunity for foreign defense manufacturers.
Unsurprisingly, the massive sums involved mean that the threat of corruption is never far away. Although local journalists complained at Aero India that it was a little short on news, organizers will feel that they dodged a bullet when – only three days after the show ended – Italian police arrested Finmeccanica CEO and Chairman Giuseppe Orsi and AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini on bribery charges relating to a USD 751 million deal for 12 helicopters. The AW101 helicopters in question were to be used to transport India’s prime minister, president and other VVIPs. Finmeccanica and its subsidiaries deny any wrongdoing.
Military corruption scandals have a long and storied place in Indian politics – the Bofors howitzer case ran for over two decades. Still, it is not clear that corruption has more of a negative effect on India’s military capabilities than its tangle of bureaucratic inefficiency and institutional petrifaction.
James Hardy is Asia-Pacific Editor of IHS Jane's Defence Weekly.
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S. Suchindranath Aiyer
Primarily, India has remained a navel gazing nation without a clue about what happens elsewhere. India's defence and foreign policy remains frozen, doggedly, in time. If India was to fight in the Second World War (Bangla Desh was a similar theater), India might do very well with brute manpower enhanced with slightly more contemporary field arms. India has not surfaced an effective threat perception from which to derive a lean and mean fighting machine model towards which to move. Instead of re-engineering, it is growing organically with most of its investments, costs, and ballasts in maintaining the ornamental and the absurd of yester years. The teeth to tail ratio has under gone a terrible degradation where India is almost all tail. India created, under the home ministry, further ballast of large numbers of para military forces ostensibly to man the borders, wage war on malcontent Indian citizens and so on. The main motive though was the "Nehruvian" inferiority complex driven suspicion of the military which was, in his day, led by British educated and trained King's Commissioned Officers who were far superior to his pitiful Civil Servants and politicians like himself. The para military, the Politican-Bureaucrat Nexus hoped, would provide them a bulwark against the Indian Armed Forces. Today, the Para Military are woefully unfit for purpose and it is the Indian Armed Forces that are called in to perform their duties, whether it be quelling rebellion, protecting the borders or disaster relief, rendering them even more unfit for purpose. India's Armed Forces have been rendered into an unfit for purpose para military equivalent, largely ornamental, and expected to frighten away predatory neighbours like a scarecrow placed to frighten away a swarm of locusts.
Mitch
Although it is interesting to see the level of investment, it seems as though these are all politically motivated as a means to avoid influence from any particular supplier… Which, in my opinion, means those considerations are at the direct expense of military sustainability… It seems the scattershot mix of sources sets up an unlikely ability to maintain smooth logistical abilities for repair, replacement, etc. in the light of any sustained conflict… Which, in the most charitable view, means they intend to only fight extremely brief conflicts which are probably more purely tactical and/or symbolic than anything… More likely, it just reflects a parochially influenced buying pattern which is ultimately corrupt and focused more on sparkling displays to people who don't know any better…
Anjaan
@ Mitch,
Your opinion is not entirely true …… Indians may be corrupt, but they are not idiots ….. your view that India only considers brief conflicts is not true either ….. India in next 30 odd years would likely emerge as a significant power, with serious capacity for force projection around the world.
India is a big country with huge human resources. It can take care of its own end of the logistical issues …. only if the suppliers would maintain their end of the bargain, of providing spare parts in time ……
Bongskie
Much is definitely needed to make India's military strong enough to ward a superpower's attack. They really should strengthen thmselves if they don't want their sovereignty disregarded or disrespected by neighboring bully or bullies. Even to India which seem far enough to China, the China threat is still very much felt especially in the northeastern province of Assam.
Kanes
China calls shots in South Asia as all South Asian countries are enhacing defence and naval ties with China. A notable exception is India.
Girish
@Kanes
Can you name a country in Chinese backyard which is establishing defence and naval ties with China? (ofcourse except NK)
Well this is how small countires balance their relationship with outsider when they live with a power and huge neighbours.
Good relationship with China for South Asian counties doesnt mean they want a hostile relationship with India. Infact they are only engaging more with China but not at the cost of India.
Srilanka has offered India to built second seaport which India is eager to built. Not to forget India is builsing seaports in Bangladesh and Myanmar as well (though less published news).
This is diplomacy.
Kim’s Uncle
It’s funny most Asian countries welcome India’s rise while china is perceived to be the anachronistic inheritor of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan! Chinese never learn from history so they will follow a path that will lead them to a dead end!
Ramesh Deshmukh
Kim's, you are correct ! China does not learn from history. China uses some scanty references in so called history which are favourale for it. For examlpe , to claim the Arunachal Pradesh area of India , China gives reason that in the history, one Dalai Lama was from Arunachal area. What a funny excuse!. China is bent upon creating many enemies simultaneously . Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, India, Philippines….. the list is long. China is following the foot steps of Nazi Germany The Chinese policy shall lead China to a dead end.
Sudha Kumar
I didnt much like ur concluding statement. Corruption is one of the most harmful aspects affecting Indian defense preparedness, not to say that bureaucratic and political inefficiency do not contribute. We need to have compulsory stints (Short Service Commission of 5 yrs) in d Armed Forces, for politicians n bureaucrats to “sensitize” them to d life of a soldier. The problem is also in spares and maintenance of eqmnt purchased. Corruption has prevented a robust indigenous defense ecosystem in d country.
sanjay
@free thinker
i totally agree – taosism and central mkingdom syndrom of china drive its teritorial ambision