LONDON (Web Desk) – Despite being the biggest importer of weaponry, India still lacks the brain to fight a war, says British magazine The Economist.
According to The Economist, despite being the biggest arms importer and outnumbering its traditional archrival Pakistan by overwhelming proportions, Indian military is haunted by an array of problems, many of which are structural, and lacks the brains to fight a war.
According to an article titled “Guns and Ghee,”, India’s land, air and naval forces lack communication, while most of its firepower looks great only on paper. Citing a report released by IHS Jane in 2014, the Indian Air Force, the fourth largest in the world with around 2,000 aircraft, can rely on only 60 percent of its jets, as the remaining numbers are not fit to fly. A report earlier this year by a government accounting agency estimated that the “serviceability” of the 45 MiG 29K jets that are the pride of the Indian navy’s air arm ranged between 16% and 38%.
“They were intended to fly from the carrier currently under construction, which was ordered more than 15 years ago and was meant to have been launched in 2010. According to the government’s auditors the ship, after some 1,150 modifications, now looks unlikely to sail before 2023,” the report says.
“India’s military is also scandal-prone. Corruption has been a problem in the past, and observers rightly wonder how guerrillas manage to penetrate heavily guarded bases repeatedly. Lately, the Indian public has been treated to legal battles between generals over promotions, loud disputes over pay and orders for officers to lose weight,” the report says.
