Need of the hour is more numerous, heavily armed, and cheap and quick-to-build surface vessels, particularly given Indian Navy’s seemingly intractable submarine woes.
Very soon there will be far more vessels in the water than helicopters to embark them.
The Army, now committed on two mountain fronts, has made no headway in inducting new howitzers. The situation is not any better at sea either.
A week before the jets’ scheduled arrival came news that they will be equipped with Sagem ‘Hammer’ standoff strike weapons in view of the border crisis and the fact that the Rafales might have to prepare for operations sooner than normal.
India needs to overhaul how it deals with China, and India’s military apparatus itself needs its own strategic rethink if it is to play a meaningful part in this re-orientation.
