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NEW DELHI: With active help from China and North Korea, Pakistan has surged well ahead of India in the missile arena. The only nuclear-capable ballistic missile in India's arsenal which can be said to be 100% operational as of now is the short-range Prithvi missile. Though the 700-km Agni-I and 2,000-km-plus Agni-II ballistic missiles are being "inducted" into the armed forces, it will take "some time" for them to become "fully-operational in the numbers required". Defence sources said the armed forces were still in the process of undertaking the "training trials" of Agni-I and Agni-II to give them the requisite capabilities to fire them on their own. Of the two, the progress report of Agni-I, tested for the first time in January 2002 to plug the operational gap between Prithvi (150-350 km) and Agni-II missiles, is much better. The Army has already conducted two "user training trials", one in October 2007 and other in March 2008,...

When an Indian Air Force MiG-23 trainer went down this week, it was the second crash in the past few days and the seventh this year. It highlights the growing problem of maintaining technological and operational standards that are concomitant with India's role as a regional power. Two of the crashes involved planes that are of 1960s vintage. The MiG-21, which forms the backbone of the Indian Air Force, was first deployed in the 1970s. The T-72 tanks comprising the bulk of the army's armoured corps are at least a generation behind current standards . The situation calls for a well thought out government response. But that is unlikely to happen while the defence purchase system remains as it is, opaque and plagued with problems. Obtuse thinking on the part of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and bureaucrats is one of them. Deals to procure new combat aircraft to replace the outdated MiG-21s as well as attack helicopters and light utility helicopters...