[siklop]

The inventory of tanks in the army, reportedly, consists of 4,117 vehicles. Out of these only 839 (20.3 per cent) are ‘indigenously’ produced. Seventy seven per cent of the main battle tanks (MBTs) are of Russian origin. Of the 110 reconnaissance BRDM vehicles, virtually every one has been imported. Each of the 1,455 armoured infantry fighting vehicles is foreign made. Hardly any of the 10,758 artillery guns has been manufactured at home. The same holds true for the 410 pieces of Swedish-origin 155 mm Bofors guns. The anti-tank missiles and recoilless guns, too, have been imported. The entire inventory of 3,500 air-defence surface-to-air missiles is of Russian vintage. Moreover, there are 2,395 self-propelled and truck-mounted guns of Moscow make with the Indian army.

The stark reality emerges from the following facts. Not a single fighter air craft — MiG-21/23/25/27/29, Jaguar, Mirage-2000, Sukhoi-30 — is of Indian origin. The same is the case with such military transport aircraft as An-32, Ilyushin II-76, Embraer-135BJ and Boeing C-17. Tankers (Ilyushin-78), advanced jet trainers (Hawk Mark-132) and helicopters like Mi-8, Mi-17 and Mi-25 are foreign made, the promises of technology transfer of some notwithstanding. The long list of chronic corruption and the entrenched babu-neta-merchant nexus have made matters far worse.