| Summary/Abstract |
India faces a Two and a Half Front active and ever increasing threat viz. China, Pakistan and Internal Terrorism & Insurgency, which definitely places the nation in a high threat category and, therefore, the Indian Armed Forces ought to be structured, manned and equipped on threat basis and not on short term considerations of revenue availability (though this may be an important guiding factor). The Indian soldier has always fought the wars more with personal valour and spirit, as state of the art equipment was mostly not available, so like it was on the icy hills of 1962, or while assaulting on the suicidal cliffs of Kargil or while facing the terrorist bullets in J&K with large deficiency of bullet proof jackets for quite a period. The fighter pilots too have never wavered to fly the ageing jets, and nor have the helicopter pilots ever held back from flying their machines much beyond their endurance and ceilings to support their comrades, and similarly the navy also has been making do with retro-fitted and kitted vessels. Lately, swayed by budget considerations, an impression has been created that the Armed Forces can make do with weapons and equipment of lower specifications. While this too is a subject for debate, one thing is clear that if the soldiers get a feeling that they might be equipped with comparatively inferior weapon systems than their adversaries, it could severely impact the morale. This article outlines in brief the problems and the suggested solutions.
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