India Beefing up its Military

What`s behind the sudden surge in India`s defense spending

India`s been making headlines recently as it openly signed deals and contracts to procure significant military hardware, namely for its navy and airforce. The deals announced between, now the primary arms supplier Russia and India are staggering and the pacts have been valued at more than $10 billion which on top of previous deals still on the books. The high profile deals were officially signed during Prime Minister Vladmir Putin`s visit to India on March 12, 2010. Military hardware aside, the recent pacts additionally call for more increased cooperation and partnership in areas of developing nuclear reactors, equipment for GPS systems and airplane and truck assembly plants.

Russia additionally wants to increase annual trade with India from the current level of about $8 billion to $20 billion by 2015. Russia now currently supplies 60-70% of India`s defense equipment. On the nuclear side, Russian deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia will build up to 16 nuclear reactors for power stations in India. Russia nuclear reactors have been cited as one of the best and safest in the world.

Over the next 12 years, India is set to spend a whopping $200 billion on defence acquisitions to replace its outdated inventory. In this regard, on February 15, 2010, a report of the Indian strategic defense magazine (India Strategic’s DefExpo) revealed that 70% of the inventory of the Indian armed forces is 20-plus years old, and needs to be replaced with modern technology. It explained that nearly half of this funding ($100b) will go to the Indian Air Force (IAF), which would need to replace more than half of its combat jet fleet as well as the entire transport aircraft and helicopter fleet. The army needs new guns, tanks, rocket launchers, multi-terrain vehicles, while the navy needs ships, aircraft carriers and new range of nuclear submarines.

During a recent visit of the US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to New Delhi, American Defence officials, however, have said that US weapons sales to India would not be a focus of the trip. Regardless of such denials, the key reason for the Gates’ visit can be found in the fact that India is planning to raise its military budget by 50% to almost $40 billion, making military expenditure 3% of the annual GDP. In contrast to India’s planned defence expenditures, Pakistan’s entire 2009-10 budget amounts to little over $30 billion!

The fact of the matter is, India wants to become a mini-superpower of the region and hence it uses the pretext of deterrence against Pakistan and China. In this context, New Delhi with the dual support of the US and Israel has presumed peace-loving Pakistan and China as their arch enemies, but it does not admit it officially.

Recent major military acquisitions:

-Signed $1.5 bln contract on 29 additional MiG-29K Fulcrum carrier based fighter jets (this is in addition to a contract for 12 single-seat MiG-29k and 4 double-seat MiG-29KUB to India navy)

-Deal to upgrade the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier at a cost of $2.3 bln. (The Gorshkov is a Kiev-class carrier, displaces 45,000 tons, 32 knots and endurance of 13,500 nautical mi. The carrier will be rechristened the Vikramaditya)

- Deal to deliver 42 Su-30MKI jet fighters to Indian airforce, at a cost of $3 bln (This is in addition to 69 jets previously ordered by India and set to be delivered in 2011. The new air-superiority fighters will come on top of the 230 already contracted from Russia in three deals worth a total of $8.5 billion.)

-Joint venture to produce GPS equipment, the Glonass, for the use of defense needs (Glonass- the Global Navigation Satellite System is the Russian equivalent to the US Global Positioning System or GPS.