A report prepared by TNN reveals that world’s second-largest standing 1.18-million strong Indian army is fast running out of ammunition,that may not have sufficient ammunition reserves to fight a full-fledged war for even 20 days. This is not with army only but all other units like the Tanks division , the air defence units,the artillery batteries and infantry soldiers are all facing the acute crunch of essential arms and ammunition. The Army is obviously forced to become tight lipped on the ammunition shortage.
With the huge shortages adversely impacting both operational readiness and training, the Army is so frustrated and helpless with present Government and the Defence Minister A.K.Antony that they are desperately awaiting the new government to take charge in May 2014 ,that could actively supports its ammunition road map of around Rs 19,250 crore, both in terms of fund allocations and time lines.
The situation is so precarious with the present Government and its long standing internal tussle between the two senior ministers the Defence Minister A.K.Antony and the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram that even the Army chief General Bikram Singh has to say in a recent statement that only if there is proper budgetary support (read : by the next government )for the new ammunition road map, the Army should have 50% WWR and three years of training ammunition only by 2015.
More reports suggests more critical information of gross negligence by the honest Defence Minister A.K.Antony,who was assigned number two designation in Dr.Singh's cabinet ahead of Chidambaram by Sonia Gandhi as none of the critical modernisation projects for new howitzers, helicopters, anti tank guided missiles or air defence guns have drastically failed to materialise till now, while the operational hollowness or critical deficiencies in ammunition and fuses for existing weapon systems have built up over the whole last decade.
The worst and most dangerous is related to our defence preparation against the aggressive Chinese front, where the crucial Army plan to kick-start the raising of the new XVII Mountain Strike Corps is disturbed and delayed. This raising of army unit , that will come into full force with over 90,000 soldiers over the next seven years, to add some much-needed teeth to its deterrence posture against China,along with the raising of 32 new infantry battalions, apart from armoured, artillery and air defence units, will be facing similar problems .
INDIA HONEST regrets on the way our political leaders even the young aspirant of PM post of ruling Congress party Rahul Gandhi failed to use their vision and national responsibility to safeguard the nation both externally and internally. A senior military officer categorically warned and said, “There is a glaring mismatch between operational and training requirements vis-a-vis budget allocations, imports and the inadequate production capacity of our 39 ordnance factories,” .
INDIA HONEST worries if the people of India is getting to know all that such gross neglect is done with the preparedness of our security force thus endangering our national security. Is it the reason,the Congress Government shamelessly tolerating the beheading of our soldiers by Pakistan and regular trespassing on our territory by Chinese forces.Are our political leaders afraid of enemy forces for our lack of necessary arms,ammunition and modernisation of equipments ?