Maintaining the edge for the Bharatiya Vayu Sena - An Ethmos Perspective

Bhartiya Vayu Sena is the air wing of the Bharatiya armed forces; it has always performed its due with vigil and attention.  In modern times the air forces of other nation are adapting rapidly as compared to their Bharatiya counterpart in the term of aircraft number and modernization.

*Bharatiya Air force has the strength of 1,27,000 active personal as per the data of the Military Balance 2010, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). According to Flight Global estimates there are around 1588 aircrafts in the service with IAF.

The Bharatiya Raksha Mantralaya heavily depends upon the military relation with Russia, the erstwhile USSR. Russia has been the prime supplier of the defense equipment to Bharatiya armed forces. Bhartiya Vayu Sena is no exception.  The majority of the fleet comprises of MIG -21, MIG -29, Sukhoi (SU) 30 MKI with one or two exception in the form of Mirage 2000 (French) and the famed HAL HF-24 and HAL Tejas (both more or less “tractors with wings that don’t fly”).  In the span of nearly 60 years Hindustan Aeronautics Limited [ HAL ] is able to deliver only two fighter aircrafts from its stable.  The most overhyped aircraft of modern times, HAL Tejas, has been inducted recently in the month of Januar 2015.  As far as the modernization of the air force of various countries is concerned Bhartiya Vayu Sena is actually moving at a snail’s pace.  It is imperative on the part of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited [HAL] to come up with defense equipments to suffice the needs of Bharatiya armed forces.  HAL has been involved in the preparation of fifth generation fighter aircraft, but these preparations are yet to see the shining light. 

For the layman public, please understand that “fifth generation fighter” are the most advanced fighter jets developed so far and the one and only one so far inducted into any Air Force is the F-22 Raptor inducted by the US Air Force in 2005 and manufactured by Lockheed Martin.  Many countries including Russia and China are trying frantically to develop a similar one but those are still under testing/prototype stages (Russia is making the Su PAK FA while China is making the Chengdu J-20 and Shenyang J-31).  The best part of these countries is that these air crafts do actually fly! (No puns intended please)

So coming back to our point; the defense spending is at an all-time high, it is quite obvious to have large defense budget for a country like Bharat.  However this budget could have been curtailed to an extent if the government defense manufacturers would have performed at least to the extent to which they are being paid for.  It may seem bitter to the people sitting in those establishments to read this but these are the hard facts which needs to be embraced and corrective action need to be taken.

Number crunching - pure mathematics:  Are you joking Mr. Nobody?

Si no	Name	Unit Cost	Nos	Amount
1	Dassault Rafale	$ 101 million	100	$ 10.10 billion
2	HAL Tejas	$   31 million	100	$   3.10 billion

Cost of acquisition of air crafts

In the cost of 100 Rafale we can purchase at least 300 HAL Tejas but the bone of contention is that our Tejas is just not battle-ready and cannot perform at par with its peers.

Another interesting story about Tejas is that during its designing and testing of its engines, the engines were not performing up to the mark despite pouring in millions of rupees and wasting around 5-6 years.  Finally our brilliant scientists imported an engine from General Electric Corporation (USA) and just renamed it as Kaveri engine!

Why is it that our state run defence manufacturers are unable to come up with the equipments that are of world-class standards.  Nobody is willing to purchase our defense equipments other than minions like Nepal and Bhutan who just don’t have the budget or even the requirement to go for heavy mainternational standards.chinery from US or Europe.  The most probable reason is that our equipments  are just not of 

Defence Budgets:

The following is the data regarding the defence budgets of various countries as a percentage of their GDP. 

  

Country	% of GDP as defence budget	Amount (in dollars)
US	4	106
China	2.5	131
Bharat	1.74	39.8
Pakistan	3.5	N.A.

It is a universally accepted fact that the defense expenditure of 3% is helpful for the social economic development. The per capita expenditure of Bharat is $10 whereas the average expenditure of the top 10 Asian nations is $800.  Similarly the soldier to citizen ratio is 1:22 which is at a lower side.  China has already increased the defense budget by 12.2 % compared to last year.  The way PLA has been modernising the defence shows that Bharat has been doing the same at a snail's pace.  In order to restore the balance among the South East Asian countries or among Asia, it is required for Bharat to modernise the armed forces at a faster pace.

Enough of the criticism – what is the solution?

1.  Permit and encourage private defence players:  The examples all around the world (as stated above) are before you to see.  FA-22, F-16, etc. for the USAF has been made by Lockheed Martin; MIG-29 is made by Migoyan Corporation; Rafale is manufactured by Dassault Corporation; J-series fighter jets for China are manufactured by the Chengdu Corporation – WHERE IS THE CORPORATION FOR OUR BHARAT??? HAL ???  A big NO.  The performance of HAL is just not up to the mark – not much because of the lack of funds but because of the lack of talent as well as corruption.  The governments efforts towards “Make in India” and creation of SEZ for setting up defence manufacturing units are totally welcome and should be encouraged at a faster pace.
2. More research should be promoted at the grass-root level, i.e. the engineering colleges and universities spread across Bharat and good minds should be nurtured and watered so that they don’t migrate to foreign shores or end up becoming hopeless civil servants or bankers rather than the brilliant scientists that they could have been had a proper environment been given to them.
3. Fix accountability at government institutions like HAL, DRDO, ordinance factories, etc. for not meeting the required targets and make the documentation process easier.  If scientists are wasting their times in getting monetary sanctions, then when will they do the research??

The fact as of now remains that we are not modernising at the level that we are expected to restore the balance of power in Asia.  

In modern times the modernization of armed forces is need of hour. Probable solution could be

Restrict the purchase of the foreign defense equipments.

Encourage the Bharatiya private player in the defense equipment manufacturing market with supervision of defense ministry. This will create a healthy competition among the Government defense equipment suppliers.  Government should encourage more green field projects in this area and probably some day we will be able to outperform countries like Russia, US, and China.  Even though these projects will cost us heavily but it is the need of the hour.  A complete new industry will come into the foray in Bharatiya economy. Proper appraisal system should be in place in these state run defence manufacturers so that quality of the end product should be ensured. Innovation should be given the prime importance at these facilities.

When are able to send the CHANDRAYAAN to the moon, why can’t we have our expert defense equipment manufacturer who are better than their international counterparts.

A famous military saying goes that Battles are first won in the minds and then on the fields.  Perhaps its time to prove our mettle.

Happy ETHMOS