Following India’s announcement of defense budget for FY22;

Abhijit Apsingikar, Aerospace & Defense Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“India has just announced its post-COVID-19 budget for FY22, which prioritizes healthcare, infrastructure and agricultural credit over defense.  The key emphasis of the budget seems to be on driving the economic recovery and creating employment generation opportunities. While the budget is a major improvement over the FY21 budget, it falls well short of the funding requirements needed to effectively modernize India’s military capabilities.

“Although, India’s defense budget is set to cumulatively value over US$65.6bn, only US$18.5bn is slated to be spent on defense services platform acquisitions whereas an estimated US$709.2m has been earmarked solely for Ministry of Defence acquisitions.

“The Indian Navy is seeking to augment its surface platforms such as Destroyers, Frigates, Corvettes, Aircraft Carriers, Light Combat Vessels and Auxiliary Vessels that are expected to grow by more than 50% at the end of this decade as compared to 2020. On the other hand, the Indian Air Force is likely to focus on the induction of Tejas MK-1A multirole fighter aircraft and is focusing on pursuing acquisition programs for a 114 new multirole combat aircraft, AEWC aircraft and new refueling tankers.

“The Indian Army, which has traditionally secured the lion’s share of defense budgetary allocations, is likely to focus on the Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV), Tactical Communication System and Battlefield Management System (BMS). These are likely to be pursued via the ‘Make-In-India’ route. However, with below par defense budget, the Indian armed forces will likely be compelled to lease some critical high value acquisitions to ameliorate funding problems and spread procurement programs over a greater period of time.”