Despite funds crunch, Defence Ministry on procurement spree

Notwithstanding the financial constraints, the Defence Ministry has been on a drive to procure and upgrade military assets over the last five years for which it spent a whopping amount of Rs 3.25 lakh crore.
The Ministry procured and upgraded a large number of military equipment for the armed forces including nuclear submarines, special operations transport aircraft and fighter planes, utilising its full allocation of funds and reversing the earlier trend of shortfall in utilisation, sources said.
This year too, the ministry has already spent 82 per cent of capital acquisition budget of around Rs 80,000 crore and is slated to fully utilise its allocation.

Altogether, the Ministry spent Rs 3.25 lakh crore (around USD 55 billion) over the last five years on procurement and upgradation of military assets.
The procurements included those of 10 C-17 heavylift and 12 C-130J transport aircraft, 12 P-8I anti-submarine warfare planes, Akula-II class nuclear submarine (on lease) and Su-30MKI aircraft.
Besides, the money was spent on developing the indigenous LCA Tejas for the IAF and upgradation of 51 Mirage-2000 combat planes.
In 2009-10, the ministry spent Rs 51,112 crore which was 106 per cent of the funds allotted to it whereas in the next fiscal, it spent Rs 62,056 crore, which was 102 per cent of the allocation, the sources said.

In 2011-12 and 2012-13 also, the Ministry contuinued this trend by spending over Rs 1.38 lakh crore, which was more than 102 per cent of the modernisation budget, they said.