bala wrote:When we are poised to get to a 10T economy soon, the value of long term planning assumes significance even more. Strategic thinking, planning for the long term, managing resources optimally, a bigger vision/goals, anticipating needs/responsibility viz-a-viz the competing nations of the world are paramount for a nation the size of India. When our babus/politicians/leaders get off their collective backsides and roll up their sleeves then we in India will see tangible progress in all areas. Tis a pity to see a productive sub manufacturing line go idle, can we double the number of subs in the short term and continue production for the next few years.
Bala-ji, I keep seeing that bolded line on BRF, on twitter, in news articles and in interviews. By 20XX...India will be a 5T economy, by 20XX...India will be a 8T economy, by 20XX...India will be a 10T economy, etc. The problem is while our economy is growing, India is not making the requisite investments in National Defence. That is an afterthought in India. Pakistan and China are our enemies, so we must buy platform X, Y and Z for deterrence. And we are not even doing the bare minimum for deterrence, we are hitting well below that mark.
We are playing Russian Roulette with National Security. Some weird and inexplainable thought is rooted in our decision making. The services only seem to want to buy imported toys and could care less about proven local platforms. They will wait for eternity for those imported toys to arrive, while continuing to ignore the available local platform. The services have mastered the art of writing RFIs that no phoren OEM in the world can fulfill. But yet it is pursued with dogged determination for eons. The same services then ask for the impossible - which even the Almighty will not be able to fulfill - from local OEMs.
India opened her economy to liberalization in the 1990s. India today is far richer than she was 30+ years ago. But yet that has not translated into anything tangible in Indian Defence. We are still following the same ad hoc practices and adopting the same band-aid solutions. 30 years from today, India will be even more wealthier than she is now, but I doubt anything will change in our thinking when it comes to National Defence.
* What has Naval HQ or MoD really done to move the file for a modern torpedo for the Kalvari Class boats?
* With India's long coastline, we have a pathetic six modern SSKs and 1 upcoming aircraft carrier (Vikrant).
* What is the progress on the acquisition of minesweepers? For a blue water Navy, India has none right now.
* What did Naval HQ really learn from the HDW 209 episode, when the skilled workforce went idle? We are back at square one!
But our Admirals at Naval HQ got time to write RFIs for Project 75I, a 65,000 ton super carrier with EMALS and nuclear power, multi-role carrier borne fighters and other similar gold dust sprinkled fables. The Air Force and Army are no better either.
The Navy is becoming more of a
Friendship of the Seas service, than a warfighting one. Retire all our surface & sub-surface combatants and invest in cruise ships which feature laughter clubs onboard. Switch out the naval whites for a multi-colored psychedelic uniform with a peace symbol and perform aerobatics for the aam junta, while surfing on the back of killer whales. Get rid of the Indian Navy's
Shano Varuna motto and adopt
Make Love, Not War instead. That would be apt.
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Our Admirals, Air Marshals and Generals need a much overdue dose of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw.
A battalion employed in the Mizo Hills, paying perhaps a little more attention to the welfare of its troops and, in the process, a little less than desirable to the operational side received a rude reminder that 'someone up there' was watching, very keenly, every move that was made. A parcel of bangles was delivered to the commanding officer with the compliments of the army commander with a cryptic note: 'If you are avoiding contact with the hostile give these to your men to wear.” Needless to say, the next few weeks saw a flurry of activity by this battalion resulting in another, more soothing message: 'send the bangles back.'