“Lackadaisical approach on Defence” : CAG

Very critical of the Government’s ‘casual’ almost ‘lackadaisical’ approval on Defence matters, the Comptoller & Auditor General (CAG) in its report presented on 9 March 2017, has stated that “this approach would adversely affect the country’s defence preparedness as well as hit the morale of the armed forces”. The Army has got only 60 per cent of the funds it had sought for modernisation in the 2017-18 budget. The Navy and IAF, in turn, got 67 per cent and 54 per cent. Out of the coming fiscal’s total defence outlay of Rs 2.74 lakh crore, only Rs 86,488 crore have been earmarked for ‘modernisation’. What makes matters even more serious is that the bulk of this capital outlay will be used to pay “committed liabilities” of earlier arms contracts instead of new projects.

The Navy has been allocated Rs 18,000 crore as the capital budget when its pay-out for committed liabilities already stands at Rs 22,000 crore for 2017-18. The Navy plans to be a 212-warship and 458-aircraft force by 2027, but is making do with just 138 warships and 235 aircraft at present, “with many of them on their last legs.” There are massive deficiencies in authorised and existing level of ships, submarines and aircraft,” according to the CAG. As for the Indian Air Force, this service today fields only just 32 fighter squadrons, while some 42-44 are needed to tackle the “collusive threat” from China and Pakistan. The Committee opined the number of combat squadrons would go down to 19 by 2027, with the progressive retirement of MiG-21s and MiG-27s (although this has not accounted for new inductions over the same period).