Will Indo-Russian defence ties survive

The bear hug appears to be losing its warmth and it is time for India also to become realistic about relationships. There was a time when the Soviet Union provided for our defence needs virtually at cost price but now with its break up and the emergence of new Russia, things have changed. India too needs to change and take effective steps to involve the private industry in catering to the needs of the country’s defence.

by BRIJ BHARDWAJ

There is a growing sense of uneasiness in Indian defence forces over the problems they are facing with Russia in respect of supply of

armaments from that country which has been its mainstay in the past. Even today close to eighty per cent equipment is sourced from that country. Problems do not relate to any single arm but cover all three including Army, Navy and Air force.

The snags relating to delays in supply of equipment to Navy are well known. The controversy relating to supply of aircraft carrier at present being retrofitted in Russian shipyard has become a scandal which provoked Naval Chief Sureesh Mehta to go public and virtually went to the extent of reading the riot act to Russians and saying that they have to fulfill their obligations in terms of contract and their demand for one billion additional U.S dollars will mean virtually doubling the price, which was not acceptable.

The fact the carrier Gorshkov will come to us after a crucial delay of many years is bad enough, but the price hike makes it a bad bargain. It seems that Russians have forgotten that their shipyard had no work and it was Indian money which made it possible to reequip their shipyard and get fresh orders which has changed the economy of that area. It is no secret that Russians are no longer dependent on defence contracts to keep their defence industries running as they are flushed with the income from sale of petroleum products.

Indian problems are not limited to single aircraft carrier. According to other reports confirmed by naval staff, the missiles supplied by them to Navy are proving to be duds as they do not hit the targets being short in range as well in accuracy. According to a defence expert we are luckey that no war is on because some of the missiles supplied to Army and Air Force also are suffering from flaws making their deployment difficult.

The idea is not to run down Russian cooperation and help in the past which was crucial at that time because no other country was willing to give us hardware for our defence forces. Countries like Britain and France did supply some planes and other crucial weapons but they were only a trickle as major stores came from Soviet Union. Some of them were given to us almost at cost price and with long term credits.

The scenario has virtually changed after Soviet Union disintegrated and new Russia was born. No one expected that the special relationship will continue. Payments for Russian equipment continued to rise and had to be made in Dollars or now in Euros as green bucks have been on decline. But big question facing us is how far we can depend on equipment from Russia. We are tied with Russia to join hands to produce new transport aircraft, fifth generation fighter plane and supply of nuclear submarines.

Agreed that the Government of India is not prepared to just withdraw from major engagement with Russia, but it can not be denied that we are facing problems. Not only cost of all projects are being hiked, but we also have major problems with respect of spares which in many cases force us to order some extra pieces, so that same can be cannibalized in case we run short of spares. The deal under a cloud relates to fighter Sukhoi for which a contract was signed long time ago as well as new generation of battle tanks. How many deals will survive is difficult to predict as two countries have very deep bonds in the field of defense, trade and in international affairs.

Any new course of action will not be easy. True that India is in position to buy arms from different sources to which two important countries have been added they are Israel and USA. But a change will not be easy and will take years before a full changeover is made. One also feels that present problems notwithstanding Russia will not like to lose its second most important market for arms in the world after China.

There are obvious lessons to be learnt. India has been trying to become self-sufficient in the field of arms for a long time, but the progress so far is not much. Our public sector undertakings have worked on foreign designs and parts to assemble them, but our ability to produce same in India has been rather dismal with key projects suffering from delays ranging in decades.

There is time to take a new look. Our decision to call for 50 percent offset in defense deals and to involve private sector are steps in right direction. The pace of absorbing new technologies will have to be enlarged and investment in research and development hiked. The present disappointments offer us opportunities which may help us in future. In new thinking we need not reinvent the wheel. For instance time has come to think of missiles and unmanned aircraft instead of fifth generation fighter planes.