Leaked Letter of Indian Army Chief Reveals India's Military Weaknesses

India's tank fleet lacks ammunition, its air defences are "97 percent obsolete" and its elite forces lack essential arms, the country's army chief wrote in an explosive letter. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

NEW DELHI: India’s tank fleet lacks ammunition, its air defences are “97 percent obsolete” and its elite forces lack essential arms, the country’s army chief wrote in an explosive letter leaked Wednesday.

The letter to the prime minister dated March 12 – widely reported by the Indian media – lists the shortcomings of the armed forces in embarrassing detail in a blow to the government and the Asian giant’s military prestige.

Its publication also ups the stakes in a public battle between army chief General VK Singh and the government which began with a dispute over Singh’s retirement earlier this year.

“The state of the major (fighting) arms i.e. mechanised forces, artillery, air defence, infantry and special forces, as well as the engineers and signals, is indeed alarming,” Singh wrote in the letter, DNA newspaper reported.

The army’s entire tank fleet is “devoid of critical ammunition to defeat enemy tanks”, while the air defence system is “97% obsolete and it doesn’t give the deemed confidence to protect… from the air,” he wrote, according to DNA.

The infantry is crippled with “deficiencies” and lacks night fighting equipment, while the elite special forces are “woefully short” of “essential weapons”.

Singh also told The Hindu newspaper this week that he had informed Defence Minister A.K Antony of a $2.8 million bribe offered to him in 2010, leading to embarrassing questions as to why the government did not order an enquiry.

Antony told parliament on Wednesday that he was aware of the letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and he would reply appropriately.

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Corruption Scandal of Indian RAW

The CBI was asked by a Delhi court to inform of the actions taken by it on Gen V K Singh’s complaint against RAW officials for their alleged irregularities in purchasing some communication gadgets.“Issue notice to the CBI to inform the court about the status of the complaint and if the matter is still under progress, how much more time would be needed to finally dispose of the complaint,” Special Judge Pradeep Chaddah said.In his complaint to the CBI Director in 2008, Singh had alleged corruption in procurement of ultra and very high frequency antennae and other communication equipment for Research and Analysis wing and Special Protection Group at exorbitant prices and without mandatory clearance.Gen Singh had sought registration of the corruption and criminal cases against various senior officials of the two security agencies for their alleged roles in the dubious deals.Singh said his complaint evoked no response and when he sought information under the RTI Act in 2009.

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Indian Army General Indicting in Phone Call Tapping of Defense Ministry

Defense minister A K Antony held a one-on-one meeting with Army chief General V K Singh on Wednesday in the backdrop of the phone call tapping of Defense Ministry of India in which he asked Gen VK Singh to commit his offense and stop soliciting Indian Army against defense ministry.

A feud between General VK Singh and Defense ministry was started with the age controversy of Indian General and then series of allegations were imposed from the rivals of both sides and Gen Singh petitioned the case to the apex court regarding this issue.

Adding pain to injury, later V.K Singh accused Defense Ministry of not giving them proper funds for ammunitions and reported them with a brief that Indian Army is left with only two days ammunition if waged in war with Pakistan.

The on-going dispute between Defense Ministry and Indian Army General has created frustration in Indian Army and they are highly disconcerted with these controversial statements against themselves leading an upheaval in Indian Army as they claimed that this monstrous act was committed by Lt Gen (retd) Tejinder Singh, who was former chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency, along with "some disgruntled serving officers of the Military Intelligence, against whom disciplinary and administrative actions are in the pipeline.

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Police Arrests RAW Agent from Malir

KARACHI: Police arrested an alleged Indian spy from Malir Khokrapar, in Karachi, early Wednesday morning, Express News reported.Dinesh Chandar was arrested by the members of the Police Special Branch. They also recovered an Indian identity card and maps of villages and cities in Pakistan.Special Branch’s prosecution cell has registered a case against the alleged spy. He is currently being held at the Mithadar police station.In late February, Hyderabad police claimed to have arrested an Indian agent spying on the Pakistani army’s bases and troop movement and conveying that information to the Indian army.DSP Yaqoob Jat had said that the alleged spy had been living in Pakistan under the alias of Inayatullah Mir, who hailed from Azad Kashmir. However, his real name turned out to be Owais Saleem, who belonged to Indian-occupied Kashmir.
KARACHI: Police arrested an alleged Indian spy from Malir Khokrapar, in Karachi, early Wednesday morning, Express News reported.Dinesh Chandar was arrested by the members of the Police Special Branch. They also recovered an Indian identity card and maps of villages and cities in Pakistan.Special Branch’s prosecution cell has registered a case against the alleged spy. He is currently being held at the Mithadar police station.In late February, Hyderabad police claimed to have arrested an Indian agent spying on the Pakistani army’s bases and troop movement and conveying that information to the Indian army.DSP Yaqoob Jat had said that the alleged spy had been living in Pakistan under the alias of Inayatullah Mir, who hailed from Azad Kashmir. However, his real name turned out to be Owais Saleem, who belonged to Indian-occupied Kashmir.

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45% Of Indian Air Force Crashes Due To Incompetent Pilots

NEW DELHI: A whopping 45% of IAF air crashes in the last six years have taken place due to human error.The IAF has informed the parliamentary committee on defence that it had recorded a total of 74 air mishaps between April 2004 and March 2010, of which a high of 42% was due to technical faults in the aircraft and a mere 6% due to bird-hit.The figures in percentage would mean the IAF has suffered 33 crashes out of 74 due to human errors, 31 due to technical errors in the aircraft and another 4 due to bird hit. Reasons for the remaining six crashes have not been given to the committee.The committee, in its latest report submitted to Parliament, noted with concern that these mishaps were taking place in the backdrop of the IAF facing a crisis due to shortage of trainer aircraft and obsolescence of simulators for its pilot trainees.It pointed out with concern that the IAF’s Hindustan Piston Trainer-32, a basic trainer aircraft, had remained grounded for over a year now following a mishap early last year and the Kiran Mk-II HJT-16 simulators were in disuse.The committee, headed by Congress MP Satpal Maharaj, said the Defence Ministry should take all steps to acquire new trainer aircraft and upgrade the simulators “so that adequate training is provided for pilots, which would definitely result in reduction of accidents due to human failure.”The IAF has faced problems with HPT-32′s engine and airframe, even as it spared all its Kiran trainers (usually used for secondary flying training) to enable rookie pilots to learn flying skills.It also had a gap in its training syllabus due to the lack of an Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) when pilots moved on from Kiran aircraft to MiG-21 supersonic fighter jets.After a protracted process lasting 20 years, the IAF contracted to buy 66 BAE’s Hawk AJTs in 2004 and the first lot were inducted for training pilots in 2008.

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Indian army has only two-day war stock: Gen V K Singh

India army is seriously short of ammunition, said the top General.

And in the event of war, it may run out of stocks in two days, highlighted in a letter written by Army Chief General VK Singh to Defence Minister AK Antony, reported by the Indian Express.

It also warns of shortages in artillery and air defence ammunition and says that the blacklisting of firms has contributed to the situation.

With reports hinting at cuts in defence spending in the next budget, the army may well see further degradation of its capability.

This comes even as China has announced that it will increase its military spending by 11.2 per cent in 2012. According to an official spokesperson, China will spend nearly 106.4 billion dollars on defence in 2012.

The country has witnessed double-digit rises in the defence budget across the last two decades

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