Fund crunch tying hands of defence forces, stalling upgrades

NEW DELHI: Hit by a severe fund crunch, the armed forces are either slowing down modernisation projects or slashing operational requirements, while also delaying payments to defence PSUs and foreign armament companies for contracts inked earlier.
The grim situation can also be gauged from the fact that arms acquisition cases are piling up in the Cabinet Committee on Security without being cleared due to the prevailing shortage of funds. The armed forces, in fact, have told defence minister Rajnath Singh and top defence finance officials that there is a “critical requirement” for additional funds during the ongoing financial year, said sources on Monday.
TOI in mid-September had reported the over 15-lakh strong armed forces had projected an additional requirement of around Rs 80,000 crore more for modernisation, plugging critical operational gaps and paying “committed liabilities” at the revised estimates stage in December.
“While the entire Rs 80,000 crore may not be possible, at least 40% (Rs 32,000 crore) of the amount is now critical for the armed forces. IAF and Navy have already spent over 85% of their allocated funds. Payments to defence PSUs are being progressively stopped, and may come to a complete halt by December,” said a source.
Given the budgetary constraints the three Services are being forced to curtail their operational necessities on several fronts. The Army, for instance, has cut down its long-standing requirement for 5,719 new-generation sniper rifles by two-thirds to just about 1,800 guns now. Earlier, in April 2018, the force had gone in for a Rs 5.34 crore emergency purchase of 32 long-range advanced sniper rifles for troops deployed along the Line of Control with Pakistan.
Similarly, the Navy has been told to halve its requirement of 10 more Poseidon-8I long-range maritime patrol aircraft, which are packed with radars and weapons for anti-submarine warfare, at a cost of over $3 billion fromRead More – Source