Tanks empty? Indian Army faces grave shortage of ammunition

The world’s second-largest standing Army is fast running out of ammunition, according to a report in The Times of India. It appears that the Indian Army could soon be crippled by shortage of tanks and air defence units, artillery batteries and infantry soldiers. [caption id=“attachment_1679835” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Indian Army soldier. Reuters[/caption] In what is a grim reality check, the report says that the forces do not have enough ammunition to “undertake a full-blown war with intense fighting for even 20 days.” War wastage reserve or WWR should be adequate for 40 days of intense fighting out of which 21 days are earmarked for ammunition with shorter shelf life. However, Army chief General Bikram Singh recently in a statement said that the Army is at not even 50 percent WWR right now, which means in the face of a war Indian Army does not have adequate reserves to fight it for even 20 days. “It is expected to reach 100 percent WWR only by 2019,” the report said. As per the overall Army “ammunition roadmap”, the WWR will reach 100 percent only by 2019, and that too if there is budgetary support of around Rs 97,000 crore. Various reasons including a complicated arms procurement procedure and sluggish performance of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) are delaying building up the WWR. Meanwhile, the Indian Army is kick-starting raising of the new XVII Mountain Strike Corps, which will come into full force with over 90,000 soldiers over the next seven years, to add some much-needed teeth to its deterrence posture against China. This alone will see the raising of 32 new infantry battalions, apart from armoured, artillery and air defence units, the Times Of India said in a report dated March 24, 2014. In fact, during the Kargil war in 1999, India had to undertake “emergency purchases” from Israel at exorbitant prices during the 70-day war.