SEE PAge 12 February-March 2018 Volume 15 No. 1 `100.00 (India-Based Buyer Only) Latest EDITION SP’s AN SP GUIDE P UBLICATION Reserve Your Own Copies, Now! [email protected] www.spsmilitaryyearbook.com WWW.SPSLANDFORCES.COM ROUNDUP THE ONLY MAGAZINE IN ASIA-PACIFIC DEDICATED TO LAND FORCES IN THIS ISSUE >> LEAD STORY IlluSTrATIoN: Anoop Kamath PAGE 5 Assault Weapons and Assault rifles Assault weapons are guns/fire arms that fire one round each time the trigger is pulled. They are not assault rifles or machine gun. Lt General V.K. Kapoor (Retd) PAGE 6 Infantry Modernisation Neglected The modernisation of infantry has lagged behind due to complete neglect and apathy on part of military, bureaucratic and political leadership to speed up the process of modernisation of the Indian Army. Lt General V.K. Kapoor (Retd) PAGE 7 Trijicon — pioneer in aiming Solutions Defence Budget: Personal weapons of the soldiers must have the latest technologies inbuilt for counter terrorist and counter insurgency missions including day/night vision solutions. Assured Allocations Rohit Srivastava PAGE 8 Special Forces – more Focus Required to Achieve the Goals Delays in replacing the legacy weapons system with the more modern systems have hampered the operational readiness of armed forces. It is time to look for measures to mitigate the shortfall. LT GENERAL V.K. KAPOOR (RETD) that in any future conflict, India would “stores”. In last ten years, the percentage Special Forces are being used strategically AND ROHIT SRIVASTAVA be using three to four decades old weapon of pay and allowance in the revenue bud- world over to further national interests of systems. This is a disturbing scenario for get of Army, the most manpower intensive their countries. Their employment is actually NDIAN DEFENCE IS IN need of sub- our armed forces. service, has increased from 54 per cent in an extension of their foreign policy. stantial investment to replace its leg- 2007-08 to 75 per cent in 2017. Similarly acy systems, which are facing obso- Budget Trend the other two services have also seen their Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd) lescence. Most of the systems can’t be As the data suggests (see tables), the avail- pay and allowances increasing from nearly further upgraded, and thus require ability of money for capital acquisition, in 30 per cent to over 50 per cent of their allo- PAGE 10 Ireplacement with more modern systems to real terms, has shrunk. The modernisation cations. This obviously has an effect on the India Enters Wassenaar Arrangement confront rapidly modernising adversaries budget during the 2007-17 shows that other heads under the Revenue Budget. Membership to the Wassenaar Arrangement like China. In last few years, number of in 2007 the modernisation budget was Defence expenditure as a percentage and Australia Group would give India a acquisition programmes that have been $7.5 billion which became $10.75 billion of central government expenditure, in last chance for a closer interaction with member postponed or cancelled thus adversely in 2017-18. This was not enough even decade, has remained unchanged and hov- states and also hold up its credentials, affecting the modernisation of the armed to mitigate the inflation over a ten year ers around 12 per cent. But in terms of per despite not being a signatory to the Non- forces. In addition, many programmes are period. Defence inflation is always higher cent of GDP, from 2009-10 when it peaked Proliferation Treaty. running years behind their schedule, lead- than the general inflation. Unlike equip- to 2.1 per cent, it has seen a downward Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd) ing to substantial cost escalation. This has ment, ammunition is procured from the trend and was 1.5 per cent in last finan- a negative impact on modernisation and revenue budget and the critical shortages cial year. In the current financial year, PLPLUS availability of funds for other programmes. reported in the media from time to time are `2.95 lakh crore have been earmarked NNews in Brief 11 It would not be out of place to mention due partly to reduction in the budget for for defence which accounts for 12.10 per 1/2018 SP’s LAND FORCES 1 >> LEAD STORY Chief Minister in March 2017, it in an atrocious state, surveillance at a cost of `12,280 crore for the in time, it is a clear case of neglect became business as usual. Arun assets such as unarmed aerial three services. This clearance by the government. Jaitley who was dual- hatted, and vehicles (UAVs) and their combat also included light machine guns A similar case was regarding brought back to defence ministry variant, and various categories of & sniper rifles. the cancellation of the negotiated once again, could not be expect- missiles, night fighting capability A major doubt arises is re- USD $500 million deal with Israel ed to handle two vital ministries for our tanks and infantry weap- garding the various proposals. for the Spike Anti-Tank Guided both of which required fulltime at- ons, and various categories of Are the proposals of January 13, Missile (ATGM). As per reports, tention of its Minister. ammunition to build up the stocks 2018 and February 13, 2018 go- the deal was to be inked soon Nirmala Sitharaman, took over of war wastage reserves to fight ing to be merged or will two differ- and in anticipation the Israeli com- as India’s first full-time woman a war of a given duration in the ent procurements be made and if pany, Rafael Advanced Defence defence minister on Thursday, 7 future. This is the state at a time that be so then the army will have Systems, had even set up a mis- September 2017. Her dynamism when we are possibly facing a three types of rifles namely the sile sub-systems manufacturing to get things done was seen as a two front scenario with Pakistan rifle of January 16, proposal, the unit near Hyderabad in partner- During the UPA regime (UPA I positive development by the Ser- in the west and China in the north rifle of February 13, proposal and ship with the Kalyani group. After and II) the situation with regards vices she was seen actively pursu- and east. the current INSAS rifle to be re- Putin s visit the fate of this deal to modernisation and replacement ing her goals, however nearly two On January 16, 2018, we placed by the improved version of hangs in balance. of old equipment had deteriorated decades of neglect will not be easy were informed by the media that the INSAS by the DRDO! Has any Why are our governments, po- EDITORIAL considerably and it was widely ac- to overcome in a short period. the Defence Acquisition Council thought been given to the logistic litical leaders, bureaucrats and the claimed that the new Narendra The army has been the great- (DAC), chaired by Raksha Mantri problems of repair, maintenance senior military hierarchy so indeci- Modi Government which took over est sufferer with regard to mod- Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, met and and the ammunition? Will the am- sive? We leave the judgment for the reins of the country in May ernisation because it needs re- cleared procurement of 72,400 as- munition be common to all three? our readers. 2014 would rectify the situation. placement of nearly all its weapon sault rifles and 93,895 carbines on The announcement of Febru- While the then technology systems starting with the assault fast track basis for `3,547 crore. ary 13, 2018, follows the terror at- savy Defence Minister, Mano- rifles, carbines, air defence weap- On Tuesday, February 13, tack on the army family quarters at har Parrikar, who took over in ons, towed, mounted and self 2018, the Defence Acquisition Sanjuwan, Jammu, on February November 2014, did bring dyna- propelled howitzers for the moun- Council cleared `15,935 crore 10, 2018, after which it seems the mism into the bureaucratic func- tains, plains and desert terrain worth of proposals including the poor state of weapons in the infan- tioning of the Defence Ministry, respectively, reconnaissance and one to procure 7.40 lakh Buy try has suddenly dawned upon the but with his departure to Goa as observation helicopters which are and Make (Indian)’ assault rifles hierarchy where as if we go back Lt General V.K. Kapoor (Retd) cent of the government expenditure and is around the lowest figure as a ratio to overall Defence Expenditure as a % of GDP government expenditure since 1950. One third of the total allocation approximately 2.300 has been earmarked for the capital expendi- 2.189 ture of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The 2.200 Capital allocation for Ministry of Defence under BE 2018-19 is 33.1 per cent of the 2.100 2.029 total Central Government Expenditure on 1.980 Capital Account, which is `3,00,441 crore. 2.000 1.956 The total allocation for defence for 2018-19 represents a growth of 7.8 per 1.900 1.838 1.828 cent if BE figures are taken and 5.9 per cent 1.812 if RE figures are taken. It is not enough to 1.800 1.757 even cater for the likely inflation. Thus bearing in mind the requirement 1.700 1.651 of the Services and the economic woes of the 1.633 1.578 country, it would be advisable to hold a holis- 1.600 tic review of the defence budget to decide on the future course of action. The respective 1.500 strengths and weaknesses of each service should be taken into account to decide upon 1.400 the capabilities required and focal areas of expenditure of the overall Capital budget 1.300 allocated to the three Services and priorities 07-08 08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12 12-13 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17 RE 17-18 BE should be fixed accordingly.