Admirals Don't Fly

WHEN Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat takes over as the chief of naval staff at the end of the month, he will be presiding over a fleet which has been fast on the decline for well over a decade. True, all the three defence forces have been severely crippled by paucity of funds and a bureaucracy which has been very slow moving when it comes to giving the green signal for defence procurement. But the Navy, which senior officers describe as the 'Cinderella' among its counterparts—the Army and Air force—is in need of immediate financial infusion if it is to remain a 'credible force'.

Bhagwat's appointment has been somewhat controversial. The announcement on September 2 that he was to be the new chief sparked off a protest by Vice-Admiral Kailash Kohli, who proceeded on leave pending retirement on December 31, 1996. Kohli's grouse: in a writ petition filed by Bhagwat's wife in the Bombay High Court in 1991, Bhagwat had accused his peers and seniors of playing to the American lobby. A spate of resignations were therefore predicted.

However, Vice-Admiral Premvir Saran Das, flag officer commanding (Eastern Fleet), who was expected to quit, has done no such thing. On the other hand, according to reliable sources, he has sent a message to the new chief pledging the support of "all hands" in the Eastern Fleet. Bhagwat, in turn, responded with what is being described as a 'warm' communication. So, the flight of the admirals has not quite happened the way a section of the media feared it would. And rather than combating a depletion of personnel, the new chief's main task at the naval headquarters will be to convince the Government on the need to augment the ageing fleet at his command.

Defence experts are agreed that a navy which, at the present level of procurement and replacement, stands to lose one-third of its main combat ships in the next three years is in deep waters. The present fleet of 40 warships will dwindle to about 28 by 1999. Therefore, at the headquarters, no one doubts the recent observations made by the outgoing Chief of Naval Staff, Vijay Singh Shekhawat, that the operational preparedness of the Navy has hit an all-time low and that procurement of new vessels has come to a standstill in the last 10 years, thanks to successive governments showing a reluctance to allocate funds.

Though the outgoing chief's views may be seen as alarmist in certain quarters, he was only articulating what the Navy has been trying to impress on the Defence Ministry for years. Senior officers point outthat even the plans for the Navy formulated in 1948 and cleared in 1953 have not fructified. For instance, four heavy aircraft carriers and two light carriers were cleared and even some of the names of the carriers were decided—Vindhya, Vikrant, Satpura, Virat, Gauri Shankar. But so far only two carriers have been commissioned.

The Navy, however, for all practical purposes has only one aircraft carrier in INS Virat. The second carrier, Vikrant, commissioned in 1961, is to be sent to the scrapyard in February '97. Virat will be decommissioned by 2005. In 1948, the Navy's requirement was put at 16 destroyers. Today, the Navy has no more than five operational destroyers. By the year 2000, the present fleet of 18 submarines will be reduced to 12.

According to defence experts, to keep the fleet at even the strength of 120 vessels, a minimum of eight new vessels have to be added annually. Since this is not being done, the ratio of decommissioned vessels to new vessels is enough cause for alarm. It is estimated that the strength of the Indian fleet will be further reduced to two-thirds its present level by 2010.

But such alarming projections are based on the premise that budgetary allocations will continue at the present level. In '95-96 the Defence Ministry cleared Rs 4,464 crore as capital expenditure for the Navy but only 44 per cent of this was finally sanctioned. This year, an additional Rs 100 crore has been cleared, compared to last year, but naval experts say given inflation and the devaluation of the rupee this amount too falls far short of requirements.

The Defence Ministry is seriously considering buying second-hand vessels from Russia and other countries. This could bring some relief but, as Shekhawat pointed out, the building up of the Navy has to be a steady and continuous process. Naval officers are hopeful that the recent buying spree of submarines and frigates by Pakistan will force the Government to revise its procurement and development plans for the Navy.