This comes just a few days after Parrikar declared the impending move to slash by half the Rs 64,678 crore funding for the new Army mountain strike corps being raised against China, which will also cut the proposed manpower from 90,000 soldiers to just about 35,000.
The government has also restricted the acquisition of French Rafale fighters to just 36 as of now, announcing the scrapping of the deadlocked $20 billion MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project to acquire 126 such fighters. The armed forces have a long wish list, from fighters and submarines to howitzers and helicopters, to plug gaps in their operational capabilities.
Addressing the annual unified commanders' conference on Thursday, Parrikar said the armed forces needed to exercise financial prudence and optimize the utilization of available resources. The minister, however, added the government was "committed" to providing "all support" for modernization of the Army, Navy and IAF.
While technology is important for modern-day warfare, it's "ultimately the morale and motivation of our brave soldiers, sailors and air warriors which should be a major focus area for all the commanders", he added.
As earlier reported by TOI, Parrikar said downsizing of the mountain strike corps was necessary because the previous UPA regime had "arbitrarily" approved raising of the new formation in 2013 without proper planning about the cost implications.
The government believes raising of the 90,000-strong 17 Corps at a cost of Rs 64,678 crore spread over seven years, with two new infantry divisions as well as armoured, artillery, air defence, engineer brigades spread from Ladakh to Sikkim, is simply not financially sustainable.
As it is, the major chunk of the annual defence budget goes in revenue expenditure or the cost of running the armed forces on a day-to-day basis. Sustaining 90,000 additional soldiers would have added to it substantially.
The Army, however, is unhappy with the curtailment since raising the 17 Corps, which began in January 2014, is part of the overall military plan to belatedly counter China's build-up of trans-border military capabilities and infrastructure all along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control.
"The move will severely curtail our plan to acquire the capability to take the battle into Tibet if required. While the Army does have strategic reserves for Pakistan, it does not for China as of now. The 17 Corps, with its headquarters in Panagarh (West Bengal), is designed to upgrade the dissuasive posture against China to credible deterrence," said an officer.
The other steps being taken range from development of the over 5,000-km Agni-V intercontinental ballistic missile to the progressive deployment of Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, spy drones, helicopters and missile squadrons in the eastern theatre.
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