Brigadier Arun Bajpai (Retd)
With China and Pakistan having openly joined hands militarily, India currently is under maximum threat both from its Western and Eastern Borders. At this time when we should be at the peak of our Defense preparedness the pathetic state of Indian Army has already been revealed in the leaked letter of Army Chief to the Defense Minister AK Antony recently. State of Indian Air Force is also no better. It is crashing at alarming rate.
Recently the Defense Minister AK Antony admitted in Parliament that since 1971, 482 MIG Fighter Aircrafts, the main stay of Indian Air Force, have crashed killing 171 Fighter pilots and 48 others. These MiGs were not all that old as they were made out to be. Most of them were at their mid life with 2000 to 3000 flying hours still left. The problem lies in the training of fighter pilots in MIG series of fighters. The MIG fighters are unique in design and are very capable but they do not permit any error. Their landing speed itself is 300 km an hour, the highest for any fighter. For a very long time the Indian Air Force has been demanding from the Ministry of Defense (MOD) good Intermediate Jet Trainers so that new pilots graduate to MIGs only after a decent level of jet flying in safe aircrafts. All their pleas had fallen on the deaf ears of the Babus sitting in the MOD while the loss of life and crashes continued. It is only now after the public outcry over the Army Chiefs leaked letter that has shaken the lethargy out of MOD and the sanction has been given for the purchase of 75 Swiss made Pilatus jet trainers at the cost of 2900 Corers.
The other most important factor for these large scale crashes is purchase of spurious spares. Some time back at the height of MiG crashes when these planes earned the nick name of flying coffins, Russians had openly blamed India of purchasing sub substandard spare parts of MiG series of fighter aircrafts from Ukraine. This should not surprise us. How the Neta Babu combine controlling the MOD fleece the Nation at the cost of National security has been amply highlighted in the recent unraveling of Tatra Gate Scam where sub standard Tatra trucks were being purchased for more than two decades from a fictitious source by the Defense PSU BEML at twice the market value.BEML then claimed that it is producing these trucks in India when in actual fact it only did 20 percent screw driver work balance was all imported. Nothing is impossible in Mera Bharat Mahan even when the country is taken for a ride at the cost of its security and life of its soldiers.
The other most important factor is the shoddy overhaul by the Public Sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics and equally poor maintenance by the Air Force itself. HAL with the prevalent PSU culture in Defense production is not quality conscious. As for the Air Force, with the limited pay scales and lack of motivation Saab Chalta Hai concept is being followed by its maintenance crew. It should be eye opener to all that since 1971 we have lost 1010 Air Force Planes which amounts to half the Chinese Air Force in crashes alone. Out of this 39 percent crashes have been attributed to human error. This is a really large percentage and need immediate correction.
China has recently declared that by 2020 it will have a most modern Air Force consisting of 2700 Fighter Aircrafts. Pakistani Air Force currently has 450 Fighter Air crafts. As against this combined strength India which has a sanctioned strength of 42 Squadrons could only boast 39.5 Squadrons at its peak some time back with each Squadron having 16-18 Fighters. Since then due to phasing out of old aircrafts and the new ones not available it has come down to 34 Squadrons. It will further go down to 31 Squadrons. Only by 2027 IAF will have 42 Squadrons.
Needless to say this is criminal neglect of India’s Defense preparedness by the Indian political masters. In MOD Netas come and go with no knowledge of matters military. The Babus staffing the MOD hide behind the façade of their political masters besides being equally clueless. They do not allow the Chief of Defense Staff system meant to provide single window military advice to our political masters to be implemented due to vested interests. Let us be clear in our minds that still if we do not wake then up we are heading for a major catastrophe. Till the CDS System gets implemented it is now imperative that the Parliamentary Committee on Defense must call the three services chief s from time to time and should take stock of the state of Defense Preparedness of the country regularly.
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