Source: http://www.ibnlive.com
Showing posts with label kargil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kargil. Show all posts
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Friday, April 9, 2010
Lest we forget ...
For our tomorrow, they gave their today. Never make the mistake of forgetting them.
Jai Hind!
Saturday, March 20, 2010
India’s Stalled Arms Buying Leaves Its Army Outgunned by China
By James Rupert
March 12 (Bloomberg) -- India, which has tripled its defense spending in a race against China’s military buildup, is having trouble converting the funding into weapons and equipment its military says are urgently needed.
The government in five years has canceled two tenders for artillery guns, a contract for ammunition propellant and two helicopter tenders, together worth at least $4 billion. No contract exceeding $100 million has been awarded through competitive bidding in at least 23 years, said military analyst V.K. Kapoor. Defense Ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said he couldn’t immediately identify the last such deal.
India’s “military capacity and preparedness are being reduced because of the inadequacy of the procurement process,” said Uday Bhaskar, director of the National Maritime Foundation, a New Delhi research institute on strategic issues. The military’s upgrading is “on hold and its obsolescence is increasing.”
The cancellations have disrupted attempted weapons sales by Textron Inc.’s Bell Helicopter unit in Fort Worth, BAE Systems Plc and South Africa’s Denel Ltd. Bhaskar said they have hurt troop readiness along more than 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles) of Himalayan frontiers, where India has fought three full-blown wars with Pakistan and one with China.
India took 20 years to negotiate a 2004 contract for jet trainers, even as 157 pilots died in three decades of jet fighter crashes blamed partly on inadequate training craft.
Obsolete Weapons
The Defense Ministry, which wields the world’s 10th-largest military budget, has surrendered 3 percent to 9 percent of its announced budget in each of the past seven years because it couldn’t spend all the money allocated for arms, according to a January report by the New Delhi office of accounting firm KPMG and the Confederation of Indian Industry. Half of India’s weapons are obsolete, the report said.
China has almost quadrupled its official defense spending since 2000 to $78 billion for fiscal 2011, 7.5 percent more than in the previous year. India will spend $32 billion on defense this year, triple its 2000 outlay and 4 percent more than in fiscal 2010.
India has bought no artillery for more than 23 years, a period during which the government has sought to buy more than 1,500 155 mm guns for use mainly along the Pakistani and Chinese borders. Such guns were used to defeat Pakistan in a 1999 conflict at Kargil in Kashmir; India would have had too few had that fight grown into a full-scale war, said Kapoor, who is also a retired army lieutenant general.
Howitzer Delays
India’s military is adequately prepared on its borders and will benefit from an accelerating modernization program, Minister of State for Defense M.M. Pallam Raju said at a conference with defense companies in New Delhi on Feb. 16. “In the past five years we have created a faster, more transparent procurement process,” he said.
That process is being tested as India’s air force conducts flight trials in the world’s biggest fighter-jet purchase in 15 years. Chicago-based Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and four European builders are vying under a 2007 tender to sell India 126 warplanes worth $11 billion.
India is expected to sign a separate deal for 29 naval MiG- 29 fighters during this week’s visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
John Giese, a spokesman for Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, called the fighter tender “one of the most challenging competitions in the history of fighter aviation.” Given the complexity, “the competition has been very efficient, transparent and professionally managed,” Boeing spokeswoman Mary Ann Brett said in an e-mail.
European Competitors
Lockheed and Boeing are competing with Paris-based Dassault Aviation SA, Stockholm-based Saab AB, European Aeronautic, Defense & Space Co., which has headquarters in Paris and Munich, and Moscow-based OAO United Aircraft Corp.
While the military says rules last amended in November let it sign a contract within 20 to 34 months, it is too early to judge their effectiveness, said Gurpal Singh, a deputy director general for the industry federation in New Delhi.
The air force asked the government in 1983 to order advanced jet trainers because pilots taught mainly in subsonic jets were losing control of supersonic MiG-21 fighters that were more than three times faster. Political and bureaucratic battles under 11 prime ministers added to the delays before BAE Hawk jets were purchased.
India’s main political blocs -- led by the Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- have fought over arms buying since 1987. Indian newspapers reported then that Swedish artillery builder Bofors, now a unit of London-based BAE, bribed officials to buy its guns. The scandal scuttled most of the deal and helped drive the Congress government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to defeat in 1989 elections.
Reviewing Deals
India was still seeking artillery in 2004 when Congress was elected, and halted bidding as it reviewed defense deals under the previous BJP administration. When police investigated Pretoria-based Denel for paying illegal commissions in winning a 2002 army order for rifles, the government blacklisted the state-owned company.
Four more foreign companies were barred from defense contracts last year, after the Central Bureau of Investigation said they were being investigated on suspicion of bribery. That forced Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd. out of the race, leaving London-based BAE as a single vendor and prompting officials to halt the tender.
--With assistance from Gopal Ratnam in Washington. Editors: Anne Swardson, Mark Williams
-0- Mar/11/2010 19:30 GMT
To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Austin at billaustin@bloomberg.net,
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-11/india-s-stalled-arms-buying-leaves-its-army-outgunned-by-china.html
March 12 (Bloomberg) -- India, which has tripled its defense spending in a race against China’s military buildup, is having trouble converting the funding into weapons and equipment its military says are urgently needed.
The government in five years has canceled two tenders for artillery guns, a contract for ammunition propellant and two helicopter tenders, together worth at least $4 billion. No contract exceeding $100 million has been awarded through competitive bidding in at least 23 years, said military analyst V.K. Kapoor. Defense Ministry spokesman Sitanshu Kar said he couldn’t immediately identify the last such deal.
India’s “military capacity and preparedness are being reduced because of the inadequacy of the procurement process,” said Uday Bhaskar, director of the National Maritime Foundation, a New Delhi research institute on strategic issues. The military’s upgrading is “on hold and its obsolescence is increasing.”
The cancellations have disrupted attempted weapons sales by Textron Inc.’s Bell Helicopter unit in Fort Worth, BAE Systems Plc and South Africa’s Denel Ltd. Bhaskar said they have hurt troop readiness along more than 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles) of Himalayan frontiers, where India has fought three full-blown wars with Pakistan and one with China.
India took 20 years to negotiate a 2004 contract for jet trainers, even as 157 pilots died in three decades of jet fighter crashes blamed partly on inadequate training craft.
Obsolete Weapons
The Defense Ministry, which wields the world’s 10th-largest military budget, has surrendered 3 percent to 9 percent of its announced budget in each of the past seven years because it couldn’t spend all the money allocated for arms, according to a January report by the New Delhi office of accounting firm KPMG and the Confederation of Indian Industry. Half of India’s weapons are obsolete, the report said.
China has almost quadrupled its official defense spending since 2000 to $78 billion for fiscal 2011, 7.5 percent more than in the previous year. India will spend $32 billion on defense this year, triple its 2000 outlay and 4 percent more than in fiscal 2010.
India has bought no artillery for more than 23 years, a period during which the government has sought to buy more than 1,500 155 mm guns for use mainly along the Pakistani and Chinese borders. Such guns were used to defeat Pakistan in a 1999 conflict at Kargil in Kashmir; India would have had too few had that fight grown into a full-scale war, said Kapoor, who is also a retired army lieutenant general.
Howitzer Delays
India’s military is adequately prepared on its borders and will benefit from an accelerating modernization program, Minister of State for Defense M.M. Pallam Raju said at a conference with defense companies in New Delhi on Feb. 16. “In the past five years we have created a faster, more transparent procurement process,” he said.
That process is being tested as India’s air force conducts flight trials in the world’s biggest fighter-jet purchase in 15 years. Chicago-based Boeing Co., Lockheed Martin Corp. and four European builders are vying under a 2007 tender to sell India 126 warplanes worth $11 billion.
India is expected to sign a separate deal for 29 naval MiG- 29 fighters during this week’s visit by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
John Giese, a spokesman for Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed, called the fighter tender “one of the most challenging competitions in the history of fighter aviation.” Given the complexity, “the competition has been very efficient, transparent and professionally managed,” Boeing spokeswoman Mary Ann Brett said in an e-mail.
European Competitors
Lockheed and Boeing are competing with Paris-based Dassault Aviation SA, Stockholm-based Saab AB, European Aeronautic, Defense & Space Co., which has headquarters in Paris and Munich, and Moscow-based OAO United Aircraft Corp.
While the military says rules last amended in November let it sign a contract within 20 to 34 months, it is too early to judge their effectiveness, said Gurpal Singh, a deputy director general for the industry federation in New Delhi.
The air force asked the government in 1983 to order advanced jet trainers because pilots taught mainly in subsonic jets were losing control of supersonic MiG-21 fighters that were more than three times faster. Political and bureaucratic battles under 11 prime ministers added to the delays before BAE Hawk jets were purchased.
India’s main political blocs -- led by the Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- have fought over arms buying since 1987. Indian newspapers reported then that Swedish artillery builder Bofors, now a unit of London-based BAE, bribed officials to buy its guns. The scandal scuttled most of the deal and helped drive the Congress government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to defeat in 1989 elections.
Reviewing Deals
India was still seeking artillery in 2004 when Congress was elected, and halted bidding as it reviewed defense deals under the previous BJP administration. When police investigated Pretoria-based Denel for paying illegal commissions in winning a 2002 army order for rifles, the government blacklisted the state-owned company.
Four more foreign companies were barred from defense contracts last year, after the Central Bureau of Investigation said they were being investigated on suspicion of bribery. That forced Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd. out of the race, leaving London-based BAE as a single vendor and prompting officials to halt the tender.
--With assistance from Gopal Ratnam in Washington. Editors: Anne Swardson, Mark Williams
-0- Mar/11/2010 19:30 GMT
To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Austin at billaustin@bloomberg.net,
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-11/india-s-stalled-arms-buying-leaves-its-army-outgunned-by-china.html
Kargil war hero now fights a court battle
New Delhi: Almost 10 years after the Kargil war, the Armed Forces Tribunal has started hearing the first of Kargil war-related cases.
Brigadier Devinder Singh, considered to be the man behind the Batalik victory, has alleged that his seniors denied him and his formation their due contribution in this critical battle by fudging battle reports.
The hero of Batalik many believe led the Indian Army to one of its toughest and finest victories in the Kargil battle.
Now Brigadier Devinder Singh, then commander of the 70 Infantry Brigade, is fighting another battle at the Armed Forces Tribunal.
He has alleged that top commanders fabricated war records to deny him and his formation credit for the winning Point 5203.
At the centre of these allegations are serious irregularities.
The official citation given to Brigadier Singh for gallantry, a copy of which is with CNN-IBN hails his leadership. Yet all this battle valour meant nothing.
Brigadier Singh was passed over for promotion and received a Vishisht Seva Medal, normally given for peacetime duties.
The second big loophole is the citation that clearly says he personally led the critical battle and continued to fight unmindful of his personal safety.
But the battle performance report made by his senior, the then GoC of 15 corps, Lt Gen Kishan Pal said that Brigadier Singh had little to do with the success in Batalik.
The third lapse is an after-action report prepared by Lt Gen Pal's headquarters that claims that it was a certain Brigadier Duggal who had control of four battalions which led the assault.
Officers of these units have directly disputed the claim.
So where does the truth lie?
Brigadier Singh alleges that his senior and the GoC of 15 Corps Lt Gen Kishan Pal is trying to cover up his own error in judgement that only 45 terrorists were hiding in the Batalik sub sector instead of the 600 Brigadier Singh claimed he was confronting.
Brigadier Singh's assessment was later proved correct.
So who won Batlaik, were top generals protecting themselves from their gross underestimation? It's a battle that could well change the course of military history.
Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/111769/kargil-war-hero-now-fights-a-court-battle.html
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