Form of words:
IIn a silent but significant move, Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat is preparing a new Integrated Capability Development Plan or ICDP – this will form the foundation for the procurement plans of the Army, Navy and Air Force. This review of the ICDP will have an impact on the long-term procurement plans of the three forces.
Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh said Review should be done in three to five months last week. He acknowledged that this would change the Maritime Capability Perspective Plan.
He also said that the Department of Military Affairs, headed by the CDS, “is making a proper assessment of the security scenario where we want to move in the future and the capabilities required for the three services”.
The review done by CDS attempts to break down the silos that all three services operate in as far as procurement is concerned. The CDS expects a truly integrated procurement plan which is in sync with the modern combat requirements and also commensurate with the available funds.
in a former pillarIn this article, I mentioned how purchases made in silos are self-defeating and lead to unnecessary expenditure. The argument in the security establishment at the time was that a truly integrated procurement process was the need of the hour and the focus should be on capacity, not just numbers.
The new ICDP being worked on by CDS is even more significant in the backdrop of annual capital allocation, as previously pointed out by experts. Former Defense Secretary G. Mohan kumar wrote in this 2019 article The Economic Times: “The Armed Forces’ 15-year Long-Term Integrated Perspective Plans (LTIPPs) – the mainstay of their modernization program – remain an ambitious paper exercise without any realistic link to annual capital allocation.”
Therefore, it is important to realistically review the purchase plans of all three services. Instead of investing money in systems that are capital-intensive and not relevant to future warfare, India should invest in emerging technology.
Given that the Narendra Modi government capital budget allocation The amount for 2021-22 is less than what the armed forces asked for in 2014-15, it is important to spend right.
NS Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict of 2020 have shown how cost-effective technology can indeed win over capital-intensive warfare systems, which seem to be older than ever.
Read also: Army shifts focus to flying wing, raises 3rd Integrated Aviation Brigade amid tensions on LAC
Neutral look at purchase plans
According to defense acquisition process 2020In order to meet the present and future security requirements, the services need to engage in capacity development on priority basis based on long term perspective planning, thereby flowing the planned procurement for modernization of services based on capital acquisition plans. should be done.
Proposals for acquisition of capital assets will include long term, medium term and short term perspective:
(a) 10 Years Integrated Capacity Development Plan (ICDP).
(b) Five-year Defense Capital Acquisition Plan (DCAP).
(c) Two years Annual Acquisition Plan (AAP).
Till now, the Headquarters Integrated Defense Staff (Hq IDS) used to prepare an integrated acquisition plan. However, given that the IDS is headed by a three-star officer, personalized services will lead the way when it comes to procurement plans.
The government will be in a bind as procurement projects without any call whether or not a program is really needed and more programs are being added to the list. So far, the integrated purchase plan is like a laundry list of personalized services.
When it comes to integrated planning, the IDS did not have the weight that General Rawat is planning to bring.
India needs to ask some tough questions in the matter of defense procurement. General Rawat has already questioned the need for a third aircraft carrier And 114 foreign fighters,
The three services need to come together and decide which projects need to be pursued. It has to be decided whether the push should be for more submarines or aircraft carriers, whether the money should be spent on the number of fighters or the capacity of the fighters, whether one should invest in buying more tanks or drones and missiles.
It is expected that the CDS will consider the services procurement plans rationally keeping in view the budget and requirement.
one of the firsts He Then Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar After assuming office in 2014 To ask services priority to Procurement projects on need basis.
Only the Services can make an appropriate decision on their purchase requirements. And there is no one, other than the office of the CDS, who can make the final decision as to what the joint procurement focus should actually be.
Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Anurag Choubey)
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