Thanks to the country's first Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal Nehru and his fixation with the idea of 'Non Alignment', India's military diplomacy and defence cooperation too largely remained isolationist.
The Nehruvian idea of governance essentially was also 'distrustful' of armed forces and thus they were kept out of policy making strategies and the job was essentially left with bureaucracy.
## Combat-ready missiles will help Indian Rafale to shoot down an enemy aircraft without crossing
Indian air space
We need not thank Corona and the belligerent Chinese policies at the LAC, but it is a truism
that India in 2020 stands at a defining moment in its evolution as an ascertainable global power.
In today's world, along with military preparedness in terms of weaponry, it is vital that enough importance is given to military diplomacy and cooperation with major key powers to ensure the nation's ascent. The procurement of Rafale fighter jets ought to be seen and understood with this deeper perspective.
In 2001-2002 when the NDA-I with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Prime Minister and Goerge Fernandes as the Defence Minister kick-started the process of acquiring Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), it was believed with conviction that creating a strong aerospace capability was as "inescapable necessity".
In fact, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major had spoken on these lines himself.
The decision to shortlist Dassault Rafale and the Euro fighter Typhoon was taken up in June 2011. Controversies started immediately even at international level as well. Neither F-16 nor F-18 of the US figured in the short list and this development could be seen as a coincidence that the very next day the then US ambassador to India, Timothy Roemer had 'resigned'.
An appointee of Barack Obama, Roemer, however, had said that the US-India relationship was and would be on a "positive historic trajectory" towards a global partnership.
On Jan 31, 2012, the UPA regime announced that the Dassault Rafale was shortlisted for exclusive negotiations.
The contenders for the mega deal besides French Dassault Aviation's Rafale - were Lockheed Martin's F-16s, Eurofighter Typhoon, Russia's MiG-35, Sweden's Gripen and Boeing's F/A-18s.
Notably, Germany and the United Kingdom invested a lot of time in pushing the Typhoon and thus
they were upset.
The Typhoon is built by the German and Spanish branches of European aerospace giant EADS, Britain's BAE Systems and Italy's Finmeccanica.
Finally in April 2015, the Modi government took the final decision and Rafale was 'rescued' from all kinds of neta-babu nexus and the bureaucratic quagmire.
It is worth mentioning that in February 2014, Defence minister A K Antony (under Congress) had said that the procedure of calculation of life-cycle cost was being re-examined and the Rafale contract could not be signed in the fiscal year 2013-14 due to budgetary constraints.
Correcting past errors:
Thanks to the country's first Prime Minister Pt Jawaharlal Nehru and his fixation with the idea of 'Non Alignment', India's military diplomacy and defence cooperation too largely remained isolationist.
The Nehruvian idea of governance essentially was also 'distrustful' of armed forces and thus they were kept out of policy making strategies and the job was essentially left with bureaucracy.
This not only encouraged red-tapism, it also brought in corruption elements and 'commission games'
as the Neta-Babu combine lacked military perspective and on field experience and could hardly appreciate the military needs.
The Chinese and Pakistani aerial capabilities definitely posed threats and challenges to India's offensive
power-projection capabilities.
Now that the Rafale is a reality for India Air Force personnel, it can be safely stated that the arrival of the fighter planes will boost the morale of the air force, which has been facing a shortage of fighter aircraft.
In terms of jets, Indian Air Force has been flying the Mig-21, Mig-27, Mig-29, Hawk, Jaguar, Mirage 2000, Tejas and Su-30MKI.
The Rafale is now a multi-role aircraft, capable of carrying out long-range missions, including highly accurate sea and ground attacks.
The Indian Air Force pilots can significantly benefit from the helmet mounted sights and targeting systems and can shoot off the weapons. It is also said that the towed decoy system can thwart even the incoming missile attack.
Experts say Rafale can easily take off from high altitude bases such as Leh and brave inclement cold season in order to carry out quick deployment.
It has been stated by informed sources that as a special case, France has diverted the missiles made for its own air force to India and such a move will give Rafale additional arsenal power.
The 'Indian Rafale' or Golden Arrows thus would be combat-ready much earlier than expected and will be able to shoot down an enemy aircraft without even crossing the Indian air space.
But certain issues vis-a-vis India's preparedness as against China and Pakistan still remain.
The 36 numbers - of Rafale aircraft India will be procuring by 2022 - is still being seen as a small fleet.
Indian security strategists understand that two dedicated strike and interdiction fast jets, the Mig-27 and Jaguar, are both long past their prime against peer competitors.
Here comes the relevance of the fact that the Rafale is likely to bring an impressive SPECTRA electronic warfare suite and SCALP EG cruise missiles.
These perhaps also underline the importance of Su-30MKI fleet and the significance of integrating the capable Israeli Elta EL/M-8222 jamming pod.
In the ultimate analysis, it would be relevant to talk about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
repeated laying of emphasis to reduce 'dependency on foreign weapons' and making of indigenous
weapons.
In a boost to the armed forces, the Ministry of Defence on July 2 cleared the purchase of 21 MiG-29 and 12 Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft, besides 248 indigenous long-range air to air missiles, Astra.
A budget to the tune of Rs 38,900 crore has been ear-marked as well.
India is also seeking to deepen maritime ties with key regional players like Indonesia, and rightly so.
The possibility of export of BrahMos cruise missile to Indonesia figured lately at the parleys between
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Indonesian counterpart General Prabowo Subianto.
ends
No comments:
Post a Comment