India's defence spend doubled in the past five years

[RAM]

India's defence spend doubled in the past five years

New Delhi: In keeping with the government’s commitment to modernisation of the forces, India spent around Rs140,000 crore on defence purchase in the past five years. The amount is almost double the money spent on capital acquisitions in the previous five years.A senior official in the ministry of defence (MoD) said the three services entered into 465 contracts worth over Rs135,000 crore in the past three years alone. The official said there was a steady increase in funds being committed to modernisation and this was evident from the fact that in 2004-09, MoD spent Rs137,496 crore on capital acquisitions. In the five years before that, i.e. during 1999-2004, the total capital acquisitions were worth only Rs62,672 crore.

If the trend of the past five years is anything to go by, India could end up spending almost Rs850,000 crore on defence deals in the decade starting this year. The capital expenditure, however, is only 39% of the defence budget. The defence budget of Rs141,703 crore this fiscal was a 23.65% increase over the revised budget estimates of last year.

The MoD official said the government, which has been returning thousands of crores annually because of delay in procurements, was confident of spending the entire capital allocation this year. According to the defence expenditure review committee, which looked into MoD’s spending methods and suggested several reforms in its recently-submitted report, the drawbacks in the acquisition process resulted in the three services wasting the opportunity to utilise Rs42,691 crore between 2000-01 and 2007-08. But this year has been different. MoD has already spent 35.99% of its capital outlay in the first six months. The corresponding figure for last financial year was 13.65%.



India's defence spend doubled in the past five years - dnaindia.com

 

[dineshchaturvedi]

We should see the result of this spending in coming years, god knows when we will finalize the artilery gun.

 

[sandeepdg]

$50-bn defense deals since Kargil
India Steps On The Gas: 465 Arms Contracts In Last 3 Years, $30bn To Be Spent In Next 4-5 Years
Rajat Pandit | TNN

New Delhi: In the decade since the 1999 Kargil conflict, India has inked deals worth over $50 billion to acquire fighters, warships, tanks, missiles, other weapon systems and platforms, the overwhelming majority of them from abroad.

That is not all. India is poised to spend well over $30 billion over the next four-five years to import military hardware and software, which will only serve to reinforce its position as the developing world’s biggest arms buyer.
China, of course, spends much more — its ‘declared’ defence budget this year is $70 billion compared to India’s $30 billion — but it’s difficult to do number-crunching about its military acquisitions, hiding as it does more than revealing.
Pakistan, on its part, is not too far behind. It even pipped India, for instance, in 2006 by notching up arms import deals worth $5.1 billion, compared
to India’s $3.5 billion.

Disclosing the defence ministry’s official figures on Thursday, top sources said India spent Rs 62,672 crore on ‘direct capital acquisitions’ in the 1999-2004 timeframe.

‘‘This has more than doubled in the last five years (2004-2009) to Rs 1,37,496 crore. It becomes Rs 1,78,496 crore if one adds the Rs 41,000 crore earmarked for net capital expenditure this fiscal,’’ said a source. The scorching pace set can be gauged from the fact that the defence ministry inked as many as 465 arms contracts worth Rs 1,35,000 crore in just the last three years.

Russia continues to lead the pack of defence suppliers to India, with annual sales worth around $1.5 billion, followed by Israel, which adds $1 billion or so to its kitty every year. Then come others like France and UK. But it’s actually the US which is now increasingly muscling into the lucrative Indian arms market, having already bagged the $2.1 billion contract for eight Boeing P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft and the $962 million deal for six C-130J Super Hercules planes. There is, however, quite a bit of disquiet over whether India actually gets the biggest bang for its buck, given the lack of concrete long-term strategic planning to systematically build military capabilities in tune with the country’s growing geo-political aspirations. Nevertheless, the sharp upward trajectory in modernising the armed forces is considered imperative since India is the only country with long unresolved borders with two nuclear-armed, largely hostile neighbours. Then, of course, there is the deadly threat of unconventional warfare, as was underlined by the 26/11 terror attacks.

LOCKED & LOADED Big Defence Deals Inked

US | 6 C-130J Super Hercules aircraft for $962 million (2007)
8 Boeing P-8I planes for $2.1 billion (2009)

Israel | 3 Phalcon AWACS for $1.1 billion (2004) Rs 10,075 cr project to jointly developmedium rangesurface-toair missile systems (2009)

France |
6 Scorpene submarines in a Rs 18,798 crore project (2005)

Russia | Admiral Gorshkov and 16 MiG-29Ks in $1.5 billion package deal 230 Sukhoi-30MKIs for $8.5 billion

UK | 66 Hawk AJTs in a Rs 8,000 crore project (2004)

Big Projects In Offing
Rs 42,000 cr project for 126 multi-role combat aircraft
Rs 30,000 crore project for 6 newgeneration submarines after Scorpenes
Rs 20,000 cr artillery modernization programme to acquire 1,580 towed guns, 814 mounted gun systems, 180 self-propelled wheeled guns, 100 self-propelled tracked guns and 140 air-mobile ultra-light howitzers
Rs 20,000 cr for around 800 helicopters, ranging from VVIP and heavy-lift to attack and light utility

Article Window