India’s military preparedness faces significant challenges as the country grapples with multi-front security threats and critical equipment shortfalls, according to defence veterans speaking after this week’s Combined Commanders’ Conference in Calcutta.
India confronts an increasingly complex security environment on multiple fronts. Pakistan continues its proxy warfare and cross-border terrorism operations, while tensions with China persist along disputed borders. The recent regime change in Bangladesh has added another dimension, with growing anti-India sentiment and closer ties between Dhaka and Islamabad.
“Multi-front threats are now a reality for India,” warned a former lieutenant general. This convergence of challenges comes at a time when the country’s defence capabilities show concerning gaps. The military veterans have stressed that India needs to effectively address these pressing issues to prime itself for modern warfare and tackle emerging threats in the neighbourhood.
That the government may be thinking on similar lines is apparent in the flurry to bolster India’s defence preparedness, with the defence minister and many other senior government and military functionaries asserting that the country is ready for any emerging situation, like a war, while not straying from its belief in peace.
At the three-day Combined Commanders’ Conference that ended on Wednesday, defence minister Rajnath Singh called for optimal defence preparedness to safeguard
the country from the turbulent global order, regional instability and the emerging security landscape.
Last month, Rajnath had said the armed forces must be prepared for all kinds of security challenges, including short-duration conflicts to even a five-year war, in view of an unpredictable geopolitical environment.
Veterans said multi-front threats seemed to be a reality for India.
“Pakistan remains a permanent adversary through proxy wars and cross-border terror operations. The ongoing border tensions with China and the growing anti-India rhetoric in Bangladesh, which has moved closer to Pakistan after the regime change — all of these have compounded India’s security challenges in the region,” a former lieutenant general told The Telegraph.
The three armed forces, he said, were in dire need ofmodernisation and acquisition to make up for large gaps in inventory.
“Long delays in procurement, overdependence on imports for critical defence technology, manpower shortage, inadequate air-defence systems and drone warfare preparedness have come in the way of India’s preparedness,” the veteran said.
Despite the Narendra Modi government’s ambitious project of self-reliance in the defence sector, India is still dependent on imported military inventory, he said.
“India has to streamline its procurement process and increase domestic production of defence resources in order to be self-sufficient and well-equipped,” the lieutenant general said.
In July while shedding light on the lessons learnt from Operation Sindoor, the Deputy Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Rahul R. Singh, had sounded a wake-up call, saying the military conflict had emphasised the need for indigenisation of defence technology and robust defence systems.
“Air defence and how it panned out during the entire operation was important... some of our indigenous systems performed well and some did not perform very well too. This time thankfully our population centres were not quite addressed (were not at risk), but next time, we need to be prepared for that and for that more and more air defence, counter rocket artillery and drone systems have to be prepared for which we have to move very fast,” he had said.
A retired brigadier pointed out that the last comprehensive review of the armed forces was conducted in 2018 when the standing committee on defence castigated the government for the limited budgetary allocations made by the defence ministry for the armed forces, which did not even meet the requirements. The panel found that adequate attention had been lacking with respect to both policy and budget for modernising the ageing arsenal.
“There is a high dependence on imports for essential hardware as domestic production levels do not meet requirements,” he said.
The navy and the air force are already facing shortfalls in major platforms.
The IAF is facing a severe shortage of fighter jets. Against an authorised strength of 42 fighter squadrons, the IAF currently has 31. A fighter squadron consists of 18 aircraft.
Around 65 to 70 per cent of the IAF’s fighter aircraft are Russian, and most of them either need urgent upgrades or are on the verge of retirement. Having foreign aircraft also means staying dependent on other countries for parts and components.
Early this year, the IAF had flagged delays in the delivery of the first batch of Tejas fighter jets by the government-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited amid increased militarisation by China and Pakistan on the borders, which is seen as a major security worry for India.
The IAF’s concerns over the delay in Tejas procurement came amid China’s recent display of its sixth-generation stealth fighter jet combat aircraft, which took the world and defence experts by surprise. In contrast, India’s fifth-generation fighter jets are still in the design-and-development stage.
The navy is also operating its aircraft carriers with below-optimum fighter jets and grappling with other platform deficiencies.
Manpower crunch continues to persist. Earlier this year, the government said the army had a shortage of over one lakh soldiers. Sources said there was an overall deficiency of around 1.40 lakh personnel within the three armed forces.
“We hope the pressing issues plaguing the armed forces were addressed during the three-day Combined Commanders’ Conference which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said a defence ministry official.
India is the world’s second-largest arms importer and Russia has traditionally been its top supplier. India has in recent years, however, shifted to importing from France, Israel and the US, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
According to the think tank, between 2020 and 2024, India ranked as the world’s second-largest arms importer after Ukraine, accounting for 8.3 per cent of global imports.
India had in the past inked contracts for some major military platforms from France, including 36 Rafale fighter jets and six Scorpene-class conventional submarines. Deals for 26 Rafale-M jets for the Indian Navy were signed in April this year.
China is the largest arms supplier to Pakistan with 61 per cent of its exports going to Islamabad.