friends we had listened, read, and talked about what World have to say about Rafale's selection now we are goin to read the ranting of our eastern neighbour pakistan.
So enjoy, he we go.
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Why India is building-up military arsenal
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Why India is building-up military arsenal
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NEW DELHI: India's planned purchase of 126
fighters from France's Dassault marks the latest
stage in a huge military procurement cycle that
has turned the world's largest democracy into its
biggest arms importer.
The final Dassault contract is expected to be
worth $12 billion and India is preparing further big
ticket purchases over the coming years, including
of helicopters and artillery.
In a report to be published next week, Jane's
Defence Weekly forecasts that India's aggregate
defence procurement spending between 2011 and
2015 will top $100 billion.
What is less clear -- and the subject of some
heated debate -- is why New Delhi is so hungry
for costly modern weaponry and where the
country's strategic priorities lie.
Some argue that India is simply playing catch-up
and using its growing economic wealth to effect a
pragmatic, and long overdue, overhaul of a
military arsenal still loaded with near-obsolete,
Soviet-era hardware.
But others sense a more combative impulse,
driven by the military modernisation efforts of its
rivals and neighbours Pakistan and China, as well
as the need to secure energy resources and
supply lines outside its borders.
In testimony Tuesday to a Senate Select
Committee, the director of US national
intelligence, James Clapper, said India was
increasingly concerned about China's posture on
their disputed border and the wider South Asia
region.
"The Indian military is strengthening its forces in
preparation to fight a limited conflict along the
disputed border, and is working to balance
Chinese
power projection in the Indian Ocean," Clapper
said.
In order to secure the modern weaponry it needs
to buttress its defence imperatives, India has little
choice but to spend big in the global arms
market.
Its long-stated ambition of sourcing 70 percent of
defence equipment from the home market has
been hampered by weak domestic production --
the result of the stifling impact of excessive
bureaucracy.
Consequently, statistics from the Ministry of
Defence show that India still imports 70 percent
of its defence hardware.
"Where India has had some success is in joint
ventures, and building foreign equipment under
license," said James Hardy, Asia Pacific analyst at
Jane's -- a respected industry publication.
"The licensed production route seems to be
working and at this point in India's development
is a good way of overcoming the bureaucratic
challenges of indigenous production."
The proposed contract with Dassault envisages
the purchase of 18 Rafale aircraft, with the
remaining 108 to be built in India.
India's need for a multi-combat fighter is, in part,
based on its geographical size which spans
several operational theatres with wildly varying
topographies.
"The aircraft they have just get worn out," said
Hardy. "They want aircraft that can fly, land and
take off anywhere from the Himalayas to the
deserts of
Rajasthan."
While the Indian Army has traditionally taken the
lion's share of the national procurement budget,
the focus has begun to shift in recent years
toward the air force and navy.
In December, Russia handed over a nuclear-
powered attack submarine to India on a 10-year
lease -- a deal greeted with alarm and anger by
Pakistan.
The Akula II class craft is the first nuclear-
powered submarine to be operated by India since
it decommissioned its last Soviet-built vessel in
1991.
India is currently completing the development of
its own Arihant-class nuclear-powered
submarine and the Russian delivery is expected to
help crews train for the domestic vessel's
introduction into service next year.
India is particularly keen to strengthen its
maritime capabilities, given China's pursuit of a
powerful "blue water" navy which Delhi sees as a
threat to key shipping routes in the Indian Ocean
and Indian energy assets in the South China Sea.
But many Indian observers reject suggestions
that India is even thinking of getting into an arms
race with China.
"The Chinese have a huge, huge lead. They are in
a different league," said strategic analyst Uday
Bhaskar.
"The gap in conventional terms and WMD
(weapons of mass destruction) is so wide in
China's favour, that it's just not valid to say India
is trying to catch up or seek any kind of
equivalence.
"India is simply seeking what it sees as a level of
self-sufficiency, and is being constrained by its
modest outlay and a decision-making process
that drives everyone up the wall. That's why we
top of the list of arms-importing nations,"
Bhaskar said.
China, meanwhile, seems content to gently mock
what the Communist Party mouthpiece, the
People's Daily, in December described as the
"persecution mania" driving India's military
modernisation.