Auditors Say Govt Messed Up MiG-29K Buy

India’s national auditor, the Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) released a report on the navy yesterday flagging the acquisition of MiG-29K fighters as flawed. According to the report, “Flawed approach in acquiring 16 MiG-29K aircraft, at a cost of Rs 3,405.61 crore ($736-million at today’s exchange rates) without finalizing the associated package with the procurement of the aircraft, in January 2004, led to delivery of six aircraft in December 2009 without weapons. Subsequently, five more aircraft were delivered in May 2011. The armament for the aircraft were contracted for only in March 2006 which led to non delivery of weapons till October 2010, adversely affecting the operational capabilities of the aircraft. Besides, the Beyond Visual Range missiles (Vympel R-77/RVV-AE) contracted for the aircraft, at a cost of Rs 93.68 crore ($20.2-million at today’s exchange rates), has had an unsatisfactory track record with Indian Air Force.” Read the full report linked above.

The Navy has had audit trouble with BVR weapon contracting before as well.

Photo by Shiv Aroor

11 thoughts on “Auditors Say Govt Messed Up MiG-29K Buy”

  1. can a soldier be blamed for this. is he as part of his profession required to know the nitty gritty of an international contract ?

    There are times when the armed forces ask for a weopon system and the same is not given or delayed as the soldier is not the final authority to decide its procurement.

    The entire delay / loss is because of the civil servants and the politicians not doing their jobs properly. and the blame comes to the soldier.

    the blame lies with the civil government, because for reasons best known to it, it did not provide the soldier with the best legal assistance in such highly complex deals.

  2. can a soldier be blamed for this. is he as part of his profession required to know the nitty gritty of an international contract ?

    There are times when the armed forces ask for a weopon system and the same is not given or delayed as the soldier is not the final authority to decide its procurement.

    The entire delay / loss is because of the civil servants and the politicians not doing their jobs properly. and the blame comes to the soldier.

    the blame lies with the civil government, because for reasons best known to it, it did not provide the soldier with the best legal assistance in such highly complex deals.

  3. There is off-course a need to professionalize defence acquisitions by the Govt.Many a time non-expert,non-specialist officers are looking after such matters while International arms acquisition today is complex commercial exercise.These are not the good old days of the USSR when arms were mostly Govt to Govt deals. Today the major suppliers are mostly private commercial bodies operating on commercial terms. As for the R-77 record with the IAF,the CAG may have inside info.But,on the face of it,arms are redesigned,upgraded and newer versions introduced all the time.Just because a block of R-77s initially had a poor service record,it may not necessarily be the case with the Blocks the IN is acquiring.Also weapons integration of MIG-29 with Non-Russian missile will require additional costs and time,Since it is a familiar missile,the IN will have a lead from IAF to operate it.So it may not be a bad deal.

  4. And this is why MMRCA has a very deep scrutiny of all documents and estimation of all related costs for decades to come. Some people cry over how long these assessments are taking but lets say that better safe than sorry. We are talking about 126-200 modern jets here. Every thing shall be scrutinized to the minute details. Buyer Beware.

  5. As a part of real solutions, such reports should also provide the technical and financial alternatives, so that the faults can be understood in practical perspective.

  6. This is a financial auditor talking, and it is nonsense as usual. The Navy does not finalize the terms of the contract, it is the MoD that does. It is v.stupid to imagine that the R-77 have remained the same for the 10 years since they were first ordered. Where d we get maroons like this in the CAG?

  7. Typical Indian bureaucratic SNAFU. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing and vice versa.

    The Indian navy doesn't know about the Air Force's findings and therefore a poor country like India has wasted $20.2 million dollars on Russian AAMs that probably will never be used.

    While the CAG report is a very good post-mortem of the SNAFU that permeates all levels of the Indian Military, there also needs to be some accountability and some heads to roll. It's not enough identifying how badly we screwed up, somebody needs to be held accountable for the screw ups and be fired – be they bureaucrat or Staff officer.

    Without anybody taking the fall, the CAGs reports will soon fall on deaf ears and will have little significance or relevance.

  8. The need of the hour is a professional defense acquisitions department that has real world experience with the weapons and first hand knowledge of the international arms market and the various legal hurdles involved.

    If the MOD doesn't have the required expertise, private sector help should be contracted out so that we get the best equipment for the least amount of resources we spend. Currently, the MoD doesn't have any professional logistics and acquisition department that is a basic part of any military power in the world.

  9. Can CAG please chceck some accountability of its own wing wherein they have wasted crores of rupees without any use. Not even a single effort has been taken into accounting the wealth of polticians stashed in siwiss bank which is actually money of masses. it can only needle defence forces becuase they are professional and take note of their report to clean up mess made by government babu. all are hand in glovess

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