India’s Military Is Unprepared for a Dangerous Future
Failures have left the air force short of hundreds of jets.
India’s air force has a daunting shortfall of fighter jets.
Photographer: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
India’s purchase of 26 Rafale jets from France’s Dassault Aviation SA cannot conceal the fact that its military is sleepwalking into a crisis. Strategic indecision and an addiction to short-termism have left its armed forces unprepared for the challenges ahead.
The new planes will certainly fill an obvious gap in the military’s needs — its two aircraft carriers are dependent on 40 elderly Russian-made MiG-29Ks, of which perhaps half are reportedly serviceable at any given time. But instead of solving India’s problems of preparedness, this decision actually reveals their daunting scale.