Kids Corner

Current Events

Why are India's Air Force Planes Falling Out of The Sky?

ANDREW NORTH, BBC

 

 

 

Are India's ageing air force planes falling out of the sky?

All air forces have accidents, but accounts of Indian warplanes crashing on training flights have become almost routine news.

The latest incident came earlier this week, when a Russian-made Sukhoi-30 crashed in eastern India - both pilots surviving after ejecting for unspecified reasons.

All five crew died in March this year on a training flight in their US-made Hercules transport aircraft.

'FLYING COFFIN'

But it is the Russian-made aircraft that form the backbone of the Indian fleet which have been the most accident-prone. The MiG jet in particular has become known as the "flying coffin" or the "widow maker".

Two years ago, India's then Defence Minister told an astonished parliament that more than half the 872 MiGs it had purchased from Russia had been lost in accidents, at a cost of over 200 lives.

Apparently, pilots regularly complain that some MiG models land too fast and that the design of the window canopy means they can't see the runway properly.

The Indian air force has gradually been retiring the older planes - some dating back to the 1960s.

Yet only this month the air force chief warned the delay in introducing replacements was putting India's security at risk as parts of the fleet were on "their last legs".

Meanwhile, India's regional rival China continues to leap ahead in both spending and firepower.

Indian-designed warplanes have so far not been up to the job.

But more than two years since a deal was signed to buy 126 Rafale fighters from France, the bargaining goes on.

Some say it's not what India needs though.

If it does eventually buy French, that will only worsen matters, warns Delhi-based defence analyst Bharat Karnad.

"We have a diversity problem," he says, referring to the wide variety of planes the air force already uses, "making it much harder to keep training and maintenance up to standard".

The Russians have also been accused of being tardy with supplies of spare parts. India - now the world's largest arms importer - is increasingly turning to the West for its weapons. The US is now its number one supplier.

Yet Mr Karnad fears Western nations will hold up critical spare parts and support "as a means of political leverage on India", something he believes the Russians are less prone to do.

But it's not just the air force that has a problem with its gear.

As recently as Tuesday, October 14, 2014, a former Indian navy chief lashed out at defence ministry as "so dysfunctional" he couldn't even order "a set of batteries" for his submarines.

Admiral DK Joshi made headlines last year after resigning following a series of submarine accidents that left 18 sailors dead. As it happens, the vessels involved were also Russian-made.

The new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, partly won office on the back of hopes he will put India on course to becoming a superpower and has promised to modernise the military.

But it's an old challenge, says retired navy officer Uday Bhaskar. "Finding the solution is something that's eluded every Indian leader until now."

 

The author is BBC Correspondent for South Asia.

[Courtesy: BBC News]

October 17, 2014

 

Conversation about this article

1: Bikramjit Shah (Mumbai, India), October 17, 2014, 11:11 AM.

Any armed force to be viable has to have -- no ifs and buts -- two important components: a) a finely honed and disciplined military force, and b) armed with top-notch military equipment which is ship-shape at all times. We have neither. I should know: I served in our armed forces for 18 years and then finally, in utter frustration, fled for saner things to do. Our force personnel are no longer sharp and ready. Our equipment, though extensive and expensive, was acquired by politicians and their hacks through bribes and hera-pheri. We might be able to cause some mischief on Pakistan, if we needed to, but can never win a conventional war even against them any more. And China? Not a chance. We've been sold down the road by corruption, greed and jingoism.

2: Himmat Singh (Indore, India), October 17, 2014, 11:18 AM.

The British, for all their faults and their selfish agenda, knew how to run a military force. They had made discipline the central core of their fighting forces, which in turn made them the best in the world for centuries. It wasn't a coincidence that they found affinity with the Sikhs, for whom too discipline is central to their well-being. The desis have squandered it all in the last few years, and the process has been accelerated under our new government. The prime fighting force in India, the Sikhs, has been actively encouraged to abandon its discipline, and at the same time, the Forces are now manned completely -- from the leadership all the way down to the ranks -- by soldiers who lack discipline, commitment and patriotism. To sum it up, this country's armed forces have gone to the dogs! What this article reveals is but the tip of the iceberg.

3: Kaala Singh (Punjab), October 17, 2014, 1:43 PM.

India is corrupt, inefficient and incompetent to the core. This massive corruption is due to the fact that it is not a nation in the real sense, there is no feeling of commonness and nationhood, everyone is just busy filling his own pockets from top to bottom. Despite being the largest importer of arms and one of the biggest defence spenders, their military is in such a sorry state. It would be no exaggeration to say that until now, these guys have been saved by the Sikhs in every conflict they fought after independence. Wait until the next conflict, these guys will know the real cost of 1984, when there won't be any real Sikhs saving them from certain defeats.

4: Kaala Singh (Punjab), October 18, 2014, 4:23 AM.

@ 1: It is a myth that India has ever won a war with Pakistan on its own strength. In 1947, Pakistan took almost the whole of Kashmir, whatever India has today is due to what was saved by the soldiers of the Sikh Kingdom of Patiala. In 1965, India was about to suffer a crushing defeat, it became a face-saving draw only due to the bravery of the Sikhs. In 1971, the war was fought and won by Sikh troops. Some independent and unbiased historians even refer to these wars as Sikh-Pak wars and not as Indo-Pak wars due to the central role played by Sikh soldiers. In the words of Pakistani generals themselves who have openly said that had it not been Sikhs fighting on India's side, Pakistan would have won all these wars. Last but not the least, vis-a-vis the Kargil War, it was Israel that came to India's aid. Israel was the only country at that time which had UAVs which could fly at those heights. They not only provided these UAVs to gather intelligence and the locations of Pakistani positions but also precision munitions for the Indian Air Force to bomb. Some reports even suggest that the Israeli UAVs carried out most of the bombing missions. Had it not been for Israel, the results of the Kargil War would have been very different. The present bonhomie between India and Israel started right after Kargil with an arms trade worth $6 billion a year.

5: Kaala Singh (Punjab), October 23, 2014, 7:50 AM.

Breaking News, Thursday, 23 October, 2014: Indian Union Home Minister is visiting Israel next month, and we know why. Tensions with Pakistan are running high and there are fierce clashes everyday along the Jammu & Kashmir border after the Indian Defence Minister declared that they are making Pakistan pay an "unaffordable price". The Pakistanis just wouldn't stop. Indians know very well they can't handle Pakistan on their own, leave alone China and even Pakistanis realize this. But guys, beware what Israel sells you, it sells that and much more to China and what goes to China finds its way to Pakistan sooner or later. But don't worry, let the Israelis enjoy your dollars while 80% of your population excretes in the open, spreading disease all over the country, if that gives you illusions of military superiority! But do remember, these are not a bunch of vulnerable, unarmed and defenceless Sikhs sitting like ducks in some remote corner of Delhi to be wiped out by your lynch-mobs, these Pakistanis are well armed and are real tough fighters, taking on them will be a totally different ballgame. Try sending your Sajjan Kumars and your Tytlers along with their "brave" mobs that made you "proud" in 1984 and you bet the Pakistanis will blow the hell out of them!

Comment on "Why are India's Air Force Planes Falling Out of The Sky? "









To help us distinguish between comments submitted by individuals and those automatically entered by software robots, please complete the following.

Please note: your email address will not be shown on the site, this is for contact and follow-up purposes only. All information will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Sikhchic reserves the right to edit or remove content at any time.