India's Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh on Thursday criticised the delays plaguing major defence procurement projects, particularly those involving indigenous manufacturing.

Speaking at an official event, he expressed frustration over the persistent failure to meet delivery schedules.

“Many times, we know while signing contracts that those systems will never come. Timelines are a big issue. Not a single project I can think of is completed on time. Why should we promise something that cannot be achieved?” the Air Chief stated.

He highlighted the detrimental effects of delay on capacity-building and the broader strategic posture of the armed forces. "The process gets vitiated,” Singh noted, urging all stakeholders to reflect on the credibility of their commitments.

While addressing the Confederation of Indian Industries annual business summit where Union defence minister Rajnath Singh was also present, he said, “Deliveries of Tejas Mk1 are delayed. The prototype of Tejas Mk2 is yet to roll out. There is no prototype yet of the stealth AMCA fighter.”

He added, “We cannot just talk about producing in India, we need to talk about designing. We need to have trust between the forces and industry. We need to be very open. Once we have committed to something, we should deliver. The Air Force is trying to do its best to make it in India.”

He further said, “…What we need today, we need today. We need to quickly get our act together. Wars are won by empowering our forces.”

Singh said that delays impacted many critical projects, including the Tejas Mk1A fighter aircraft and the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme.

The deliveries of the Tejas Mk1A fighter jet, which is part of a Rs 48,000 crore contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), and was signed in February 2021, remain stalled.

Not a single aircraft of the 83 ordered have been delivered. The delivery was scheduled to start from March 2024.

But challenges within India's defence industrial base—particularly with state-owned entities like HAL, DRDO and Aeronautical Development Agency—are not new.

“Programmatic delays, such as those seen in the development and production timelines of the LCA Tejas and now the MK2 version, have had cascading effects on the airforces' readiness.

Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), Kaveri Jet Engine, LUH (Light Utility Helicopter). The last is so delayed that the Indian Army tried to acquire the KA226 from Russia unsuccessfully in recent years,” said a security export to The Telegraph Online on the condition of anonymity.

The inefficiencies of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)’s are known.

A Parliamentary Standing Committee report on Defence, presented in Parliament on December 22, 2014, had criticised DRDO for delays in executing numerous programs.

The committee said "projects are not executed according to their schedule, and inordinate delays in execution of almost all the projects [are] common phenomena".

About 10 projects, worth an average sanctioned cost of Rs 1,686 crore, have been delayed on an average of 5 years, the Hindustan Times reported in 2015.

And the problem is not restricted to the Indian Air Force.

In March 2012, Army Chief General V.K. Singh wrote a letter to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, warning that the country's security was at risk.

The letter stated that Indian army tanks have run out of ammunition, and emphasises on overcoming the shortcomings, and bringing the army to fighting level.

Singh also calls almost 97 per cent of the air defence as obsolete, and the elite special forces are short of weapons.

Singh joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in March, 2014. He became a Lok Sabha MP in 2014 and was made into a minister.

Singh, in his letter, had claimed that he was offered a bribe of Rs 14 crore for clearing a 'sub-standard' procurement order.

India’s defence contracts, with foreign companies, have often been mired in allegations of corruption that has resulted in reported financial losses to the government and hindered the modernisation of the armed forces.

Some of the major allegations of scam in defence procurement in India include the Bofors scandal, the HDW submarine scandal, and the AgustaWestland helicopter scandal.