Crossfire War - Special Report Reveals India's Air Defense Weaknesses

By Willard Payne

Crossfire War - TEHRAN WATCH - South Asia Theatre: Tehran - Kabul - Islamabad/Delhi; Indian Defense Documents Reveal India Air Defense Missiles Aging and Unable to Defend Important Installations and Government Buildings

Night Watch: DELHI - India's Defence Documents reveal that due to the aging of India's surface-to-air missiles there are a lot of vulnerable areas (VA's) and vulnerable points (VP's). The documents revolve around a letter written by India's former Air Chief Marshall Krishnaswamy. In a letter written to the Defence Secretary in 2004 the then retired Air Chief expressed his personal alarm when India began Operation Perakram 2002 after its Parliament was attacked by Islamic militants. India was then on the brink of war with Pakistan. [IRNA]

"By 2004 defence of VAs and VPs will be only notional (in name only). We need to import a minimal number of systems to meet our national defence needs. It was a warlike situation we went through for one year. And I have gone through that experience. It was not fiction, and we were at a moments notice. And how were we going to defend in 2002 had India gone into war." Of course Pakistan is aware of the situation, not to mention Tehran.

Delhi is still depending on its aging Russian made Pechora missile. It has been mentioned on crossfirewar.com before that India manufactures no major weapons system of its own, they all have to be imported, largely from Russia, and then modified. India's defense industry has been planning a replacement air defence missile, the Akash, since 1994 but the delivery date has been delayed six times and Indian scientists keep blocking the importing of newer missiles as if that were a threat to their position. The Akash has not done well in testing and has only been deployed in Republic Day parades. This is why I have often stated corruption is Iran's greatest weapon. India won the three previous wars easily. Everyone knew India had a decided advantage over Pakistan after independence in 1947, but that has obviously ended, even without Iran's planned entry.

Chief of Air Staff S. P. Tyagi states, "We were expecting Akash at a certain time. It hasn't come. Now the whole plan has to be recast. Now we can go looking for a substitute missile all over the world but that takes time. So you know there are difficulties in trying to run this organization."

It is not only strategic installations that are vulnerable but also some of India's more important army units like the elite 21st Corps, which is designed to strike deep into Pakistan. They will have to do so with no defense against enemy air attacks. Delhi will make a stand somewhere and may even have to relocate India's capital further south.

The documents were made public over India's private news channel NDTV - Special Report. It is significant the article linked to this is from IRNA the official news agency of Tehran's government. They have a security agreement with Islamabad and will join the next war against an increasingly defenseless India. Both capitals know, as well as Kabul-Dhaka, that other attacks like the one on India's Parliament building are coming, possibly in tomorrow's future, setting off the fourth war on the subcontinent since 1947.

Night Watch Information Service
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