War preparedness on board the Indian Navy’s frontline ships, including the aircraft carrier INS Viraat, has been affected because of the shortage of missiles.
Barak system on warships affected
NEW DELHI: War preparedness on board the Indian Navy’s frontline ships, including the aircraft carrier INS Viraat, has been affected because of the shortage of missiles for the Barak defence system. The reason of the short supply is the ministry of defence’s refusal to approve the Navy’s plea to buy missiles from Israel Aircraft Industries and RAFAEL Armament Development Authority because of the ongoing CBI investigation against the original deal. However, neither of the Israeli firms is as yet blacklisted officially.
Despite the Navy’s repeated demands, the MoD has not budged from its position of not placing a “repeat order” for Barak missiles, sources told DNA.
The Navy wants to buy 250 missiles at about $110 million, sources indicate.
According to sources, the Navy had projected a demand for new missiles sometime in early 2006, but by then the Barak was shrouded in controversy. The original deal for Barak was signed on October 23, 2000, to buy seven systems and 200 missiles for a total cost of around $270 million.
The order was because of the grave threat to Indian naval ships from incoming missiles that became obvious during the Kargil conflict. The Trishul, an indigenous system like Barak being developed by DRDO, never materialised and as the Navy deployed its ships deep at sea during Kargil the threat of a Pakistani missile attack was real.
Then the Navy and the MoD pushed through the single-vendor deal, which was signed in 2000 despite opposition from DRDO. Years later as the Navy was praising the Barak system, the Tehelka tapes emerged, in which Samata Party treasurer RK Jain boasts about how the Barak missile deal was fixed and commissions were paid. Barak was among a series of defence deals, done by the Vajpayee government, into which the UPA government ordered CBI investigations.
The CBI in October 2006 filed an FIR in the Barak purchase naming former defence minister George Fernandes, former navy chief Admiral Sushil Kumar, RK Jain, Samata Party leader Jaya Jaitley, and arms dealer Suresh Nanda, who is also the son of former Navy chief Admiral SM Nanda, among others.
Earlier this week, the CBI questioned Admiral Sushil Kumar at his Noida residence over the purchase. Now, sources here say that the entire Barak controversy is taking a toll on the Navy’s war preparedness, reminding them of the old scandals surrounding the Bofors artillery guns and HDW submarines. After those scandals broke the maintenance and upgrade of the two systems ran into huge troubles, forcing the military to resort to exorbitantly costly purchases from third parties and cannibalisation among others.
In the case of Barak too, there are hints of such big trouble. The government is not keen to deal with Barak at a time when the CBI is actively investigating the missile, at least one civilian source told DNA.
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