DECISION ON ADVANCED JET TRAINER SOON
DEFENCE
MINISTRY CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE MEETS
The Price Negotiation
Committee set up to negotiate the purchase of Advanced Jet Trainer
for Indian Air Force has submitted its report and a decision in
this regard will soon be taken by the Union Cabinet. This was
announced by the Defence Minister, Shri George Fernandes while
addressing the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee
attached to his Ministry here today.
Referring to
the ongoing negotiations on the acquisition of Admiral Gorshkov,
Shri Fernandes informed the consultative committee members that
the same is in an advanced stage of finalisation. However the
Minister felt that the delivery of the ship will take three to
four years after the finalisation of the negotiations. According
to an estimate, the country may have to spend 450 to 500 million
US dollars on the modernization and overhauling of this ship,
he added.
The Defence Minister
said that the government attaches top priority to the country’s
security and shortage of funds will not be allowed to get in the
way. The Government is aware of the modernisation drive of the
Army and the Air Force he said. Some of the major acquisition
programmes of the Armed Forces are being delayed due to the interference
of certain vested interests who make wild charges against such
deals Shri Fernandes said. The Minister opined that such interferences
can be overcome only by total transparency in every deal of the
Ministry.
The Minister
informed the members that the country’s only aircraft carrier
INS Virat is still has a residual life of about ten to twelve
years. He said that the country may have to build or acquire two
more aircraft carriers during this period. He informed the members
that the Government would soon take a final decision on the indigenous
construction of Air Defence Ship.
The members participating
in the discussion were of the view that government should give
top priority to the modernization of the Navy and the Air Force.
They said that indigenous production and research should be encouraged
to meet the challenges arising out of technology denial. One of
the members expressed concern over the shortage of officers in
Indian Air Force and requested the government to take early appropriate
action. Another member called for according priority to the acquisition
of aircraft carrier by Indian Navy owing to the ageing INS Virat.
A member called for top priority to the acquisition of AWACS.
Another member expressed concern over the slow pace of modernization
of Navy and Air Force. While another expressed concern over the
growing number of crashes of MiG-21s. One member referred to the
threat from China and said that country’s security programme should
keep in view the military might of China.
The following
members attended the meeting - Smt. Jayshree Banerjee, Capt. Inder
Singh, Shri Kunwar Akhilesh Singh and Dr. C Krishnan from Lok
Sabha and Shri TN Chaturvedi, Shri Kripal Parmar, Shri Swaraj
Kaushal and Dr. Vijay Mallya all from Rajya Sabha.
The
Minister of State for Defence Shri Chaman Lal Gupta, Defence Secretary,
Shri Subir Dutta; Secretary, Defence Production and Supplies,
Shri Ajit M Nimbalkar and Secretary Defence Finance, Shri Biswajit
Banerjee were amongst those present at the meeting.
