Rs 11,600 cr spent on modernisation of Army in FY11'

(PTI): An expenditure of Rs 11,600 crore was incurred in the last fiscal as part of a structured plan for capacity building and modernisation of Indian Army, the government on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha.

"Army is implementing a focused plan to build up capability by force accretions and modernisation. The process is based on 15-year Long Term Perspective Plan (LTPP), five year Services Capital Acquisition Plan (SCAP) and Annual Acquisition Plan (AAP)," Defence Minister A K Antony said in a written reply.

He said the procurement of required equipment and ammunitions for the Army is carried out as per AAP in accordance with the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) and Defence Procurement Manual.

On allocation of funds to purchase these equipment, Antony said, "Adequate funds are made available by government to meet the requirements of Indian Army for procurement of defence equipment and ammunitions."

According to the report tabled in the Upper House, Rs 11,600 crore was spent on modernisation of the Army in 2010-11 as compared to Rs 7,774 crore in the previous fiscal.

Replying to a question on installing night-vision devices on tanks, he said, "A good number of tanks are equipped with night-vision devices. Presently, four proposals, for fitting night-vision devices on tanks are at various stages of implementation and procurement."

Two proposals are scheduled for completion by 2012-2013, Antony said.

Providing details of the fighter planes and ships purchased in last two years, he said, "During last two years, 50 Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft were procured and contracts for procurement of 40 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer, 20 Light Combat Aircraft, 29 MiG-29K aircraft and 11 helicopter carrying ships were signed."

Observing that 100 per cent of the outlay for modernisation of Army was spent in 2010-11, Antony said, arms and equipment are available in adequate quantity and shortage of certain types of ammunition is addressed through indigenous production and imports.

On development of indigenous aero-engine Kaveri, the Defence Minister said that so far nine prototypes of Kaveri engines and four prototypes of Kabini (Core) engines have been developed.

"Total 2,050 hours of testing have been conducted on various Kaveri and Kabini engines at ground and altitude conditions for various requirements including performance, operability, endurance and environment," he said.

Two major milestones such as the successful completion of Official Altitude Testing (OAT) and completion of first block of flights of Kaveri engine in Flying Test Bed (FTB) has demonstrated the technological capability of this indigenous effort, Antony said.

Recently, a Kaveri engine prototype was integrated with an IL-76 aircraft at Gromov Flight Research Institute (GFRI) in Russia and performed successfully up to 12 km altitude and with a maximum forward speed of 0.7 Mach.

- brahmand