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DEFENCE:
WEAPONS' PURCHASE
The
Big Buys
As India
and Russia ink the biggest defence agreement since Independence, the armed
forces hope to close the gaping holes in preparedness
By
Raj Chengappa
For
months the two sides had haggled over the details like vendors at a
mandi. Officials involved in the negotiations reveal that in June
the deal was actually on the verge of collapse. So it finally took an
official visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week to get the
two countries to ink what is arguably the biggest defence deal since Independence.
Even then till hours before Putin left Delhi for Agra, to begin the more
relaxed phase of his four day trip to India, it appeared as if no agreement
would be reached. As Defence Minister George Fernandes wryly observed:
"The Russians are tough bargainers. And so are we."
At a signal,
more from Putin anxious to make his first bilateral outing, that too with
an old ally, a substantial success, the Russians relented. Fernandes and
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov then exchanged red files containing
a clutch of MOUs that set the seal to a $3 billion (Rs 13,800 crore) bonanza
for India's armed forces. It included state-of-the-art fighters for the
air force, superior tanks for the army and even a giant aircraft carrier
for the navy.
After almost
a decade of drought in arms purchases, the announcement will start a process
that would in the next three years plug most of the gaping holes that
had developed in India's defence preparedness because of a cash crunch.
Soon after the signing, Fernandes said, "All three services are now
being equipped with platforms which give us the tremendous additional
strength. And the weakness that had developed as a result of inadequate
budgeting for six to seven years now has been finally got rid of. We now
have a formidable armed force." (see
interview)
For the
Indian army the purchase of the frontline T-90S main battle tanks (MBTs)
from Russia is overdue by almost three years. With India's indigenously
built MBT, the Arjun, still to be inducted in the Indian Army in large
enough numbers, its armoured corps was desperately short of superior fire
power to counter Pakistan's recent tank acquisitions. In 1997, Pakistan
picked up as many as 320 T-80UD tanks from Ukraine that gave India's hostile
neighbour an edge in the event of a war in the vast plains of the country's
western borders. The T-80s could not only outgun the Indian T-72s in terms
of reach and lethality but also had the added quality of thermal imaging
to do battle in the night. As a senior serving army officer observed:
"The T-80 was almost a generation ahead of what we had. It had opened
a window of vulnerability."
India looked
to Russia. With Russia's economy in a free fall, its defence industry
was in the doldrums and was looking for huge orders to bail it out. So
they offered the top-of-the-line T-90. In sheer manoeuvrability, the Indians
hadn't seen anything like it. The tank could cross streams up to 15 ft
deep without stopping, it could climb a 30-degree slope and clear a 3-ft
vertical obstacle. It packed firepower far superior to Pakistan's T-80s.
Apart from a 125-mm smoothbore gun with a high rate of fire of something
like eight rounds per minute, it could fire laser-guided missiles. And
its night vision capability gave it a range of a phenomenal 5 km. Though
the Germans and the French have comparable systems, the army homed in
on the Russian tank because the overall dimensions remain the same as
the T-72 and not much infrastructure was needed to be set up for its manufacture.
Also the Russians were willing to offer it much cheaper. As a senior Defence
Ministry official said, "We ground them close to mother earth on
the prices." Though the final negotiations are still on, under the
agreement India will purchase 310 T-90s with the option of transfer of
technology to set up a manufacturing unit in the country. In all, the
deal could tot up to close to $450 million (Rs 2,070 crore).
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