Cancelling Pacts May Prove Counter-Productive
New Delhi: From Bofors to Barak, HDW to Denel — recurring defence scandals continue to hit the modernization of the Indian armed forces that have to deal with two potentially hostile, nuclear-armed neighbours as well as insurgencies within.
“The scams hit where they really hurt. Many a time, the best system is selected and paid for... but allegations of bribery or wrongdoings derail the acquisition projects. The guilty should be hung. Concrete action is required to clean up the system, right from the bottom to the top,” says a top military officer.
With the arms acquisition budget already being slashed by Rs 10,000 crore this fiscal, amid indications that there will be no concrete hike in the 2013-2014 budget, and with a scandal erupting over the VVIP helicopters, the worst fears of the military are again coming true. Critical defence projects will slow down, if not come to a grinding halt. The recent Naresh Chandra Committee report, incidentally, has also held that there is a need to take a relook at the entire process of cancelling arms contracts or blacklisting defence firms since they can prove counter-productive to the nation’s security.
Consider artillery guns first. The series of scandals, beginning with the infamous Swedish Bofors one in the mid-1980s and followed by the ones of South African firm Denel and finally Singapore Technology Kinetic’s (STK) in later years, has meant that the army has not inducted a single advanced 155mm artillery gun for the past three decades.
The over Rs 20,000 crore artillery modernization programme remains in limbo. The biggest artillery project stuck is the over Rs 12,000-crore project to buy 400 155mm/52-calibre towed artillery guns from the foreign vendor, followed by indigenous manufacture of another 1,180 such guns after transfer of technology.
The other planned acquisitions include ones for 814 mounted gun systems, 180 self-propelled wheeled guns and 100 tracked guns.
“Bofors proved its worth in the 1999 Kargil conflict. But sadly, the technology transfer envisaged in the original howitzer contract got derailed due to the scandal. It’s only now that the Ordnance Factory Board has come up with a new 155mm/45-calibre howitzer for trials,” said an officer.
Similarly, the Navy is vehement about the effectiveness of the Israeli Barak-I anti-missile defence systems fitted on its 14 frontline warships, including aircraft carrier INS Viraat, to intercept incoming sea-skimming missiles with “pin-point accuracy” at a nine-km range.
But the force is fast running out of Barak missiles now. The fresh acquisition case has been hanging fire due to the slow CBI probe into the kickbacks case into the initial Rs 1,160-crore deal for nine Barak-I AMD systems, along with 200 missiles worth Rs 350 crore, inked with Israeli Aerospace Industries and Rafael in October 2000.
The FIR was lodged in October 2006 but the probe has gone nowhere. The story in the HDW submarine scandal was the same. The submarinebuilding lines at the Mazagon Docks (MDL) in Mumbai lay idle since the early-1990s after the controversy erupted. It was only after years of delay that the government inked the French Scorpene submarine project, under which six vessels are being built at MDL for Rs 23,562-crore.
DEFENCE SCAMS & DEAL DELAYS
DELAY IN CRITICAL ARMAMENT PROJECTS
RAFALE DEAL | $20 billion medium multi-role combat aircraft project to acquire 126 Rafale fighters. The global tender was issued in August 2007 after much delay. Of six jets in contention, Rafale selected after extensive field trials. But deal yet to be inked SUBMARINES | The 50,000-crore acquisition of
SCANDALS IN THE PAST
JEEP | The Jeep scandal was the first defence scam in Independent India. In 1948, VK Krishna Menon, the then Indian high commissioner in Britain, was accused of bypassing procurement protocols to sign a deal worth 80L to buy 155 jeeps from
UK HDW SUBS | Allegations of 7% kickbacks in the
420-crore deal for four HDW submarines from Germany in six new-generation submarines, armed with missile capabilities and air-independent propulsion for greater underwater endurance, in the making for
mid-1980s. After the first two subs were inducted from Germany, two were built at Mazagon Docks. But the option to build two more subs was derailed after the scandal
BOFORS | Allegations of 64-crore kickbacks in the 1,437-crore contract signed in 1986 for purchase of Bofors 155mm field artillery guns. The Army has not been able to induct any new 155mm howitzer since then several years. But even the
initial RFP is yet to be issued
HELICOPTERS | The 3,000-crore acquisition of 197 new light-utility helicopters for IAF and Army. Russian Kamov Ka-226T helicopter pitted against Eurocopter AS 550 C3 Fennec but opening of commercial bids stalled for months due to complaints of technical deviations and corruption allegations
DENEL DEAL | Allegations of payment of 12.75% commission in five contracts signed with South African firm Denel between July 1999 and March 2005 for supply of 700 anti-material rifles, ammo & technology transfer
BARAK MISSILES | CBI filed kickback case in the 1,160-crore deal for Barak-I defence systems, with 200 missiles of 350 cr, from Israeli Aerospace Industries in 2000.
COURTESY:
Rajat Pandit & Josy Joseph TNN
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