Adnan Faruqi
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India steps up effort to improve border roads
With China rapidly modernising its military infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India has also stepped up efforts to improve road, rail and air network in border States and long term perspective plan lays stress on this aspect.
This apart, the Defence Ministry will be able to utilise the entire capital outlay of Rs 66, 143.81 crore in acquiring weapon systems and ongoing upgrade of various platforms like Mirage-2000 and meeting contractual obligations for aircraft carrier Gorshkov renamed INS Vikramaditya.
The Government has identified strategically important border roads for development along the Indo-China border and as per the long term perspective plan approved by the Defence Acquisition Council earlier this month, other roads and strategic railway lines have been identified for development along the India-China and India-Pakistan borders, Defence Minister AK Antony informed the Rajya Sabha last week.
There are 14 strategic railway lines in Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Rajasthan besides more than 70 strategically important roads in the States bordering China.
Antony said that the Government is closely watching all activities along the border areas and reviews the threat perception regularly. Required measures were initiated for strengthening, optimising and modernising force structure, including military bases as well as infrastructural development in consonance with the threat perception to secure borders, he said.
As regards the capital outlay, Antony said that budget estimate for 2011-12 was Rs 69,198.81 crore and this was revised to Rs 66,143.81 crore by the Finance Ministry at a revised estimate state in 2011-12, adding that the total allocation was expected to be fully utilised.
In an apparent reference to Army chief General VK Singhs letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in March regarding paucity of weapons for maintaining operational readiness, Antony said the artillery equipment procured or upgraded in the past two decades includes Pinaka and Smerch rocket system, BrahMos missiles and upgrade of 130mm gun to 155mm/45 calibre.
He said procurement of new generation artillery is in consonance with Artillery Profile 2027. This profile has a mix of 155mm/39 calibre, 155mm/45 calibre and 155mm/52 calibre gun system.
The Army has not procured a single long-range artillery gun in the last 25 years after the Bofors gun controversy in mid-1980s. The Army needs more than 1,500 long, medium and short range artillery guns and howitzers and the proposed budget is about Rs 20,000 crore.
The Army chief had mentioned in his letter about obsolete air defence system, shortage of artillery guns and slow pace of acquisition of weapons and other systems for the elite Special Forces.
In this background, Antony informed the Upper House that the Army follows a philosophy of having a mix of legacy equipment, equipment with matured technology and state-of-art equipment. The guns presently held with Air Defence are not of World War II vintage and ammunition levels are not low as reported in media, he said adding some deficiencies do exist in some categories of ammunition.
The minister maintained that operational preparedness of the Armed Forces continues to remain at the desired level and in a state of readiness to meet any eventualities and shortage of any weapons and ammunition, as and when reported, is adequately addressed through indigenous production and import.
Modernisation of Army is going on a continuous basis and a number of proposals for upgradation of the existing air defence guns and procurement of ammunition are at various stages of implementation or procurement, he said.
Elaborating on the long term perspective plan, he said it is for a 15-year span till 2027 besides five-year Services Capital Acquisition Plan (SCAP) and Annual Acquisition Plan (AAP) adding these plans also cater for the Northern and Chinese borders.
India steps up effort to improve border roads
With China rapidly modernising its military infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), India has also stepped up efforts to improve road, rail and air network in border States and long term perspective plan lays stress on this aspect.
This apart, the Defence Ministry will be able to utilise the entire capital outlay of Rs 66, 143.81 crore in acquiring weapon systems and ongoing upgrade of various platforms like Mirage-2000 and meeting contractual obligations for aircraft carrier Gorshkov renamed INS Vikramaditya.
The Government has identified strategically important border roads for development along the Indo-China border and as per the long term perspective plan approved by the Defence Acquisition Council earlier this month, other roads and strategic railway lines have been identified for development along the India-China and India-Pakistan borders, Defence Minister AK Antony informed the Rajya Sabha last week.
There are 14 strategic railway lines in Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Rajasthan besides more than 70 strategically important roads in the States bordering China.
Antony said that the Government is closely watching all activities along the border areas and reviews the threat perception regularly. Required measures were initiated for strengthening, optimising and modernising force structure, including military bases as well as infrastructural development in consonance with the threat perception to secure borders, he said.
As regards the capital outlay, Antony said that budget estimate for 2011-12 was Rs 69,198.81 crore and this was revised to Rs 66,143.81 crore by the Finance Ministry at a revised estimate state in 2011-12, adding that the total allocation was expected to be fully utilised.
In an apparent reference to Army chief General VK Singhs letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in March regarding paucity of weapons for maintaining operational readiness, Antony said the artillery equipment procured or upgraded in the past two decades includes Pinaka and Smerch rocket system, BrahMos missiles and upgrade of 130mm gun to 155mm/45 calibre.
He said procurement of new generation artillery is in consonance with Artillery Profile 2027. This profile has a mix of 155mm/39 calibre, 155mm/45 calibre and 155mm/52 calibre gun system.
The Army has not procured a single long-range artillery gun in the last 25 years after the Bofors gun controversy in mid-1980s. The Army needs more than 1,500 long, medium and short range artillery guns and howitzers and the proposed budget is about Rs 20,000 crore.
The Army chief had mentioned in his letter about obsolete air defence system, shortage of artillery guns and slow pace of acquisition of weapons and other systems for the elite Special Forces.
In this background, Antony informed the Upper House that the Army follows a philosophy of having a mix of legacy equipment, equipment with matured technology and state-of-art equipment. The guns presently held with Air Defence are not of World War II vintage and ammunition levels are not low as reported in media, he said adding some deficiencies do exist in some categories of ammunition.
The minister maintained that operational preparedness of the Armed Forces continues to remain at the desired level and in a state of readiness to meet any eventualities and shortage of any weapons and ammunition, as and when reported, is adequately addressed through indigenous production and import.
Modernisation of Army is going on a continuous basis and a number of proposals for upgradation of the existing air defence guns and procurement of ammunition are at various stages of implementation or procurement, he said.
Elaborating on the long term perspective plan, he said it is for a 15-year span till 2027 besides five-year Services Capital Acquisition Plan (SCAP) and Annual Acquisition Plan (AAP) adding these plans also cater for the Northern and Chinese borders.
India steps up effort to improve border roads
