Posted on 02/25/2005 11:05:13 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
India to raise defence spending, eyes new arms
Friday February 25 2005 12:16:17 PM BDT
NEW DELHI, Feb 24: India is expected to increase annual defence expenditure by at least 10 percent to pay for a modernisation programme, military experts said on Thursday, before next week’s federal budget, reports Reuters.
India, one of the world’s biggest arms importers, is looking to wrap up a long running deal this year to buy six submarines from France and advanced rocket launcher systems from Russia, despite the lessening of tensions with nuclear rival Pakistan.
New Delhi has also sought bids for 126 new combat planes for its accident-prone air force, and this week hosted a U.S. defence team making a presentation on the expensive Patriot anti-missile system, a move that has triggered alarm bells in Pakistan.
“We are in the middle of a modernisation programme, and you would expect the government to sustain it. There would be a modest increase in the budget,” said Uday Bhaskar, who heads the government-funded Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who will present the budget for 2005/06 (April/March) on Monday, set defence expenditure at 770 billion rupees last year — a rise of nearly 17 percent compared with the previous year.
India’s defence bill, which is running at over 10 times the amount it spends on health and education, has been rising since the previous Hindu nationalist-led coalition embarked on a huge programme to re-equip the world’s fourth-largest military.
Before leaving office, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition, which carried out nuclear explosions in 1998, clinched a string of big ticket arms deals aimed at rebuilding the 1.3-million-strong military after years of neglect.
It ordered Phalcon airborne radar systems from Israel in a deal estimated at $1.1 billion that would enable the air force to pry deep into Pakistani air space.
New Delhi signed a $1.5 billion deal with Russia for an old aircraft carrier to ensure the navy was a key player in the Indian Ocean with an edge over China. It also ordered 66 trainer planes from Britain after 15 years of on-off negotiations.
“Some of the money has been paid for in these contracts, much more has to be paid as we take deliveries. So you will see some of that reflected in the budget,” said a defence ministry official.
“This is a large country, with a large military which has to be prepared for tomorrow’s war, not yesterday’s,” said Bharat Karnad, a security expert at the Centre for Policy Research, an independent New Delhi think-tank. “There will be an outgo, the point is how well you do it.”
Indian defence planners have begun reducing dependence on Cold War ally Russia for weapons and turned to Israel, South Africa and, in the last couple of years, to the United States, in a clear shift of arms procurement strategy, analysts said.
“We are trying to change the mix, to stop the Russians from taking us for a ride,” said independent strategic affairs analyst Jasjit Singh.
More than 70 percent of India’s military hardware is of Soviet origin, but in recent years Israel has become the second largest supplier of arms ranging from surveillance planes to assault rifles.
India and the United States have warmed to each other in recent years on the back of booming economic relations, opening the way for arms trade, although differences remain over India’s nuclear weapons programme.
New Delhi has bought artillery finding radars from the United States that are being deployed on the Line of Control that divides disputed Kashmir with Pakistan, and is eyeing the Patriot missile systems as a deterrent to its nuclear-armed neighbour.
“The fact that the Indians and Americans are quietly talking about the Patriot sends a strategically important signal,” said Jasjit Singh.
“It’s clear India matters, and with some $4.0 billion worth of arms acquisitions each year, I don’t think the Americans would want to shut themselves away permanently from the Indian defence market.”
Pakistan said on Wednesday any move by the United States to sell the Patriot would trigger a new arms race on the subcontinent
Force wants to arm frontier stations at Punjab, J-K and Rajasthan with precision missile capabilities
SHIV AROOR
Posted online: Thursday, February 24, 2005 at 0158 hours IST
NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 23: Looking to arm its frontier stations in Punjab, Rajasthan and J-K with precision missile capabilities, the IAF has proposed its Sukhoi-30 fighter to DRDO as a platform for the Indo-Russian BrahMos air to ground missile.
The IAF had expressed its intention of operating Su-30 fighters from frontier positions under the Western Air Command that may include Halwara and Jaisalmer. Su-30s are presently operated from Pune and Bareilly.
The newly-housed Su-30s will also make use of IAF’s mid-air refuelling Ilyushin-78M squadron in Agra, providing what the Force feels will be a lethal strike capability along the border with Pakistan.
The fact that the BrahMos is not capable of delivering a nuclear warhead makes it suitable for the IAF, considering the country’s no first strike policy under the nuclear doctrine. The IAF is keen on a precision strike non-nuclear missile like BrahMos capable of eliminating enemy arsenals at short notice in case war breaks out, official sources said.
Feasibility studies on compatibility have been carried out and structural changes have begun on the Sukhoi’s airframe, fire control system and cabling to accommodate the supersonic cruise missile. Work has also begun on stiffening the Sukhoi’s wings so that they can carry the relatively bulky Brahmos missiles.
‘‘The Brahmos will be fitted with a reduced booster, since the Su-30’s velocity provides carrying momentum, pushing the fired missile to about three times the speed of sound, and a standard range of 290 km. The combination will be lethal,’’ said DRDO chief controller (R&D) Dr A Sivathanu Pillai. He added that once the design documentation was finalised with Russia, the implementation would be dovetailed along with the licensed production of Su-30s at HAL’s facility in Nashik.
India and Russia will also be opening two integration centres in both countries (Hyderabad in India) to integrate the Sukhoi and BrahMos, possibly creating a separate product for the export market under the joint project.
The Su-30s will be BrahMos-ready in about two years. The sea-to-land BrahMos variant has already been inducted into the Navy’s INS Rajput — missiles with actual warheads will be fitted later this year. Next year, BrahMos missiles will be fitted onto more Navy ships using vertical launch stations. The BrahMos project team has already identified platforms for inclined, vertical and submarine launch.
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=65286
India and the United States have warmed to each other in recent years on the back of booming economic relations, opening the way for arms trade, although differences remain over India’s nuclear weapons programme.
How much a year do you spend on the military ?
Umm,in dollar terms it's tricky to give an estimate.But from 2000/01 till now,over 13 billion US$ has been spent per year(Defence spending is around 2.5% of the GDP)-with increases every year.This year,the figure may go to around 18 billion.There are plans to gradually increase defense spending till it touches 3% of the GDP.Anyway,India spends far lesser amounts of it's GDP on defence than Pakistan or China.
But how much is spend on new equipment and investments ?
Ok-the figure I gave you was close to 18 billion,now out of that around 7.5 is spent on new systems,the rest on salaries & maintainance.
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