Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Buy arms from America – not Russia' that was published in Newsband

Buy arms from America – not Russia

The sinking of INS Sindhurakshak, a submarine of the Indian Navy, with enormous loss of life is an unprecedented setback to India. Our government needs to strengthen undersea defence capabilities. The wrecking of an important submarine is undoubtedly a matter of great concern, but it is the death of a large number of submariners that makes the incident extremely tragic.

Recently, Mr. Antony spoke of adequate funding having been included in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Plan periods for the “Project 75 – India” submarine programme. That’s good news.

The fact is there were fewer vessels which had sunk due to explosions in recent decades, than due to flooding and collisions. Clearly, the lessons from this disaster will be vitally important for the safety of the nine other diesel-electric submarines of the same class that the Navy lists as ‘active.’

Indians need to design a propulsion technology that is “air independent.” In other words, it could lower explosion risk from submarine power plant gas leaks, and help vessels stay underwater longer.

It is sad to see the wreckage of what was till yesterday a symbol of great pride. Why does the government insist on buying Russian arms? Russia herself has seen disasters - one submarine sunk with no survivors, Chernobyl and probably others that are not public. Historically the quality of Russia's T- series tanks and guns has also been very suspect. It's high time India switched arms suppliers - it would be pointless to wait for a few more disasters that would shatter the confidence of our armed forces before switching to a different supplier. Why not buy arms from the United States of America?

Isn’t it time to say goodbye to the Russian equipment? Another thing is it should not be difficult for India to do her own research and development. Our government should display strong political will in this matter. If the production and research is outsourced to Tata and Reliance like companies with major investment in R & D it will pay rich dividends in future.

It’s very sad to hear that we lost 18 naval persons, on the eve of Independence day. The submarine was designed to patrol and to protect naval communications, assault warships, enemy submarines, land targets and perform naval reconnaissance. The Sindhurakshak has had two minor mishaps in the past: in February 2010, a sailor was killed in Visakhapatnam when its batteries were being charged. In March this year, while sailing to India from Russia, the Sindhurakshak had hit rough weather in the Mediterranean and had to be towed to port by Egyptian tugboats before it resumed its voyage. All these incidents should have made our government very alert. Had they been alert this major mishap could have been avoided.

This is a big setback at a time when India is trying to make further advances in the deep sea field. What we need right now is a thorough and efficient inquiry as what caused the explosion inside the submarine and use that knowledge to prevent any further such accidents.

Another thing is those who cannot access and protect their equipment, what can they do in times of an emergency? This is a serious issue which casts doubt on the ability of people in charge.

Lastly, why do our politicians still insist on buying from Russia despite the low quality and high cost of their hardware? Why not turn to the US for these products?