‘Military priority is to have adequate inventory for war’

NEWDELHI: The Defence Planning Committee (DPC) has made it clear that the priority of the military should be to have adequate ammunition inventory for a 30day war rather than acquiring hi-tech high value weapons platforms from foreign arms makers, according to defence ministry officials familiar with happenings at its first meeting.

Headed by national security adviser Ajit Doval, the DPC, which has the three service chiefs, and the defence, foreign and expenditure secretaries as members, met on May 3.

South Block officials who spoke on condition of anonymity told Hindustan Times that the apex committee came to the conclusion that the armed forces just about had adequate ammunition for a short 10-day war but were keen on buying high value futuristic platforms.

The DPC decided that before the Indian armed forces commit to acquiring any platform in the future, the manufacturer will have to set up an ammunition factory through the joint venture route in India. The DPC advocated that ammunition purchase should be an on-going process with 25% of inventory dedicated for training purposes.

This decision was taken after it was brought to the notice of the recently created DPC that the armed forces largely bought ammunition from the revenue budget and appeared more focused on acquiring big ticket hardware such as aircraft carriers and top-end fighter planes from their capital budget.

Focusing on ammunition as part of capability development, the DPC said, according to the officials, was the need of the hour.

Before India undertook surgical strikes in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir in 2016, it made emergency purchases of ammunition, laser guided bombs and missiles from Russia.