Faced with resource constraint due to economic slowdown, the Armed Forces will have to priortise their acquisitions and opt for only those weapons or systems which are a must for maintaining immediate operational preparedness.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed concern on Friday over the economic crisis terming it as a “looming and serious challenge,” and urged the Armed Forces to exercise prudence in acquisitions and stressed the need to “cut our coat according to our cloth.”
In fact, the Government took back more than Rs 14,000 crore from the last year’s Defence Budget due to cost-cutting measures and there is likelihood that the process may be repeated at the end of this fiscal in March next year. Rs 2.06 lakh crore were allocated for this year and the services will do their stock taking by the end of December to focus only on the must buy items.
Addressing the Combined Commanders’ Conference here, he said the last two years have seen slow growth and the Services, while taking into account the capabilities of adversaries, will have to “plan our long-term acquisition on the assumption of limited resource availability.”
“For most of the past decade, we have had the benefit of average annual growth rates of eight per cent. But the last two years have seen slow growth and we continue to face an uncertain international economic climate marked by volatile exchange rate fluctuations and the possibility of fragmenting trade regimes.
“I have no doubt that we will overcome our current economic slowdown, but we will have to exercise prudence in our Defence acquisition plans and cut our coat according to our cloth,” the Prime Minister said.
Stating that “we need to match our investment in military equipment and forces to our national resources,” Singh said the exercise will have to be done “with a high degree of priority and urgency.”
As regards emerging security challenges, the Prime Minister said with strategic and economic focus shifting from west to east and US “rebalancing” its forces in the Asia Pacific region, India will have to redefine its Defence priorities to meet any challenges and protect its crucial sea lanes used for trade.
Singh said the shifting of focus from west to east and US “rebalancing” its military power is “fraught with uncertainty as we do not know whether these economic and strategic transitions will be peaceful.”
Faced with this emerging security scenario in India’s neighbourhood and area of influence, the Prime Minister urged the Defence top brass to refashion its thinking and meet the challenge institutionally.
Referring to US National Security Agency mounting global surveillance operation to guard its economic and strategic interests, Singh said while globalisation has induced growing and complex inter-dependencies among States and multinationals on the economic and trade front, it has also nurtured intense competition and rivalries in the security domain.
Keeping this in view, “Our objective must be to acquire tangible national capacity, or what the lexicon now refers to as comprehensive national power. This is the amalgam of economic, technological and industrial prowess, buttressed by the appropriate military sinews,” he said.
He asked the country’s higher Defence organisation to pay close attention to these specific developments and said our strategic horizons should also include the need to protect global seaborne trade in goods, energy and minerals, the well-being of Indian expatriate communities worldwide and the growing global footprint of Indian capital.