According to the Deputy Chief of Army Staff (P&S) Lt General JP Singh, PVSM, AVSM current level of budgetary support of 1.83% of the GDP will not be sufficient for military modernization.
Delivering his keynote address at a seminar on military modernization organized by the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) here on Tuesday, Lt Gen Singh said that the Armed Forces should be optimally equipped to achieve the desired capability. In order to meet the requirements of military modernization, there was a need to bring on board all the stakeholders, he said and added that necessary steps were being taken to enhance the role and share of private sector industries in the defence acquisitions as Defence PSUs and Ordnance Factories alone cannot meet the increasing requirement of the military.
He said that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and R&D units of private and public sectors should see that core technologies are available to the Armed Forces.
“Production, procurement and offset policies are still being evolved. We need appropriate technology infusion and absorption,” he said.
He said guidelines have been issued by the Defence Ministry and strategic policies should be evolved on this basis. Keeping in view the developed strategic policies, appropriate budgetary allocations should be made. Planning should be done at level of the Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Speaking on the occasion the CLAWS Director, Brig Gurmeet Kanwal (Retd) brought forth various domestic and international nuances of military modernization. He said that China’s growing defence expenditure as compared to India’s lower budgetary allocation for defence, raises concern. According to Brig Kanwal military modernization means more than replacement of obsolete weapons and equipment.
Describing South Asia as the world’s second unstable region, only next to West Asia, he said that India faced both internal and external threats. India is surrounded by isles of instability. The internal situations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar prove this.
He said “India faces external threats from both China and Pakistan and internal threats from terrorists and Naxalites.”
Calling for modernization of all sectors of the Armed Forces, Brig Kanwal said : “modernization of Indian Artillery is lagging behind more than a decade. ATGM modernization is not taking place. Fire power resources need to be augmented.”
Lt Gen CKS Sabu, PVSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd) said :”Indian Army is undergoing 4th transformation since its inception. We must have a force employment policy. We need to invest in next generation technology and weapons. There is a need to develop totally new and revolutionary technologies and modernize the current production of weapons.”
He said that budgetary constraint was a great impediment and also lack of technical people in the system. He alleged the current Defence Budget did not provide a clear picture for modernization of Armed Forces.
Major General Sheru Thapliyal, SM (Retd) cautioned that war with China or Pakistan may be fought in the mountainous terrain and hence we need to increase our capability in mountain warfare.
General Deepak Kapoor, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM (Retd) said : “India has not acquired news guns since 1986.” He stressed the need for developing military infrastructure.
The Chairman of CII sub-committee on R&D, Technology and Indigenization and CEO, Tata Power (SED), Rahul Chaudhary said “keeping pace with the innovations and technological advancements, the modern warfare has drastically changed. Given the peculiarity of the Indian sub-continent, Indian military requirements are different than the rest of the world. Therefore, military modernization does not necessarily mean blindly buying military equipment and systems from abroad. Given the huge demand of newer military equipments and systems and up gradations of the existing ones, there exists enough scope for everyone – global as well as domestic industry.”
The two-day seminar has slotted discussions on the role of ICT, modernization for conventional conflict and sub-conventional conflict, infantry weapon systems, Excalibur trajectory correctable munitions, use of COTS technologies in design and engineering of C4ISR systems and protective technologies like Generalised Space Frequency Representation Techniques for Enhancement under Low Light Conditions.