Ministry of Defence asks forces to be fully stocked up for 10-day intense conflict

Ajay Banerjee

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 28

In a move that will change the way India prepares for war, the Ministry of Defence has okayed a policy to maintain total military readiness for a minimum of 10 days, indicating the possibility that future conflicts could be short, swift and sudden.A month ago, on December 30, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, after consulting the armed forces, okayed a policy that says forces should be fully stocked up to last a minimum 10-day intense conflict.(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)The Vice-Chiefs of the three services have been given adequate fiscal powers to maintain this level of readiness, which has opened up the long held back slow-moving procurements. This includes weapons, ammunition, missiles (launched from land, air or sea) and ensuring all radars are functional. In military parlance, this is called the Minimum Accepted Risk Level (MARL).As per the operational doctrine, India is required to maintain a war wastage reserve (WWR) of 40 days of ‘intense war’ and is militarily called the ‘40-I’ level. The ‘40-I’ targets shall be on track as usual but within that, the 10-day intense war benchmarking will be the new normal.  It does not mean reducing higher stock levels of most of the other ammunition types, sources said.The reality is that a ‘40-I’ level is very expensive to maintain. Ammunition being an expendable commodity with a fixed shelf life, maintaining stocks at a full-fledged war requirement level at all times was not a wise move, a senior functionary explained. Wisdom, it was added, lies in maintaining ‘optimal’ stocks as per security contingencies and having the capacity to ramp up production.The Army Vice-Chief would have the authority to spend up to Rs 200 crore for ordnance stores (ammunition) in consultation with the internal financial auditor. The Navy Vice-Chief can authorise expenses up to Rs 80 crore to repair ships and submarines. The CAG had in 2015 pointed out the low levels of WWR.