India to buy $ 100 billion weapons, defence equipment

Sunday, September 27, 2009 NEW DELHI: India plans to spend an estimated $100 billion on defence over the next decade to modernize its Soviet-era arsenal and is pushing the Obama administration to ease the acquisition of US weapons and technology, according to a US Newspaper. “With its growing military footprint, India is steering away from traditional ally Russia, its main weapons supplier, and looking toward the United States to help upgrade its weapons systems and troop gear,” the newspaper reported. India’s expanding military ambitions, and the US role in selling this nuclear-armed nation more firepower, is starting to worry Pakistan, the report said. India also has ongoing border disputes with another Asian giant, China, which defeated it in a short 1962 war. “This increase in India’s military spending is seen with rising anxiety here in Pakistan,” said Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a leading defence analyst in Pakistan. “As long as India builds pressure on Pakistan militarily, Pakistan won’t move troops to fight the Taliban, period. In the future, there could potentially be a situation like the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, where both used American weapons against each other.” “India is pushing the Obama administration to ease the acquisition of US weapons and technology. Already this year, a high-level US government group cleared the way for Lockheed and Boeing to offer India cutting-edge radar technology for fighter jets. At the US Embassy in New Delhi, defence contractors such as Northrop Grumman are sponsoring little league baseball teams, the companies’ names stitched onto the uniforms.” About 70 percent of India’s military equipment comes from Russia, said Sitanshu Kar, a spokesman for the Indian Defense Ministry. But some Indian military officials have complained about the quality and cost of Russian equipment and have advocated a shift to US suppliers. “We’ve had a long-standing relationship with Russia. But that’s changing now,” Kar said. The country that spawned the Gandhian principles of non-violence now has a shopping list that includes 126 fighter jets, 155mm howitzers, long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, vast cargo planes used in long-distance conflicts, high-tech helicopters and deep-water submarines. Boeing is vying with Lockheed—along with French, Russian and Swedish companies and a European consortium—for a fighter jet deal worth about $10 billion. India is holding flight tests for the fighter jets. Lockheed and Boeing have conducted demonstration flights for Indian celebrities and defense experts. Irrespective of who wins the deal, New Delhi is requiring that at least 50 percent of the contract value be farmed out to Indian companies for goods, labour and material. After terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India’s financial capital, in November, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh vowed to overhaul the country’s intelligence service and weaponry. And he has since reiterated the pledge. “We will do all that is necessary to modernize the security and intelligence services, and that’s a commitment which is essential,” Singh said after a budget announcement this summer. Almost every weekend, there are cocktails and closed-door presentations in the suites of New Delhi’s five-star hotels, hosted by retired admirals and generals from the US armed forces who now work for defense firms, such as Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.