Imminent War?

Both Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan have been signalling that India may face war in the near future, but without elaborating whether it would be one front, two-front or multi-front.

India’s neighbourhood is certainly getting murkier with US President Donald Trump hugging Pakistani army chief Asim Munir and Saudi Arabia awarding him the highest civilian award (same as given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi) after Munir declared that Pakistan will attack India from the East.

At the 2025 Chanakya Defence Dialogue the CDS urged the Indian defence industry to do more - show patriotism, be truthful about capabilities and deliver on time. He asserted that delays and inflated claims undermine national security and operational readiness. He warned against exaggerated claims of indigenous content in products and emphasized that products must be cost-competitive for domestic procurement and export. He also called for a focus on R&D, innovation, and reliability, saying you can't win today's wars with yesterday's weapons.

Notably, Chauhan said, “We have problems like our procurement procedures are so slow, that it is difficult to imbibe technology at the rate the Armed Forces would want to.”

He pointed out Operation ‘Sindoor’ had demonstrated critical needs for indigenous systems like counter-drone technologies. “Procuring military hardware can take years under India’s weapon-buying rules”, he said, adding that India needed to induct more technologies at a faster rate in order to narrow the technological gap with its adversaries.

2025 was designated as the “Year of Reforms’ on January 1 for transforming the Armed Forces into a technologically advanced combat-ready force capable of multi-domain integrated operations.

Was Chauhan sermonizing as an outsider when he was part of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) as Secretary, Department of Military Affairs (DMA) and member of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC)?

Every time the MoD announces a new Defence Procurement/Acquisition Procedure, it is deemed the best ever. What did Chauhan do to reform these procedures knowing the flaws?

It is no secret that the Defence Secretary, charged with the defence policy in both war and peace and responsible for capital acquisitions subordinates the CDS; with the latter’s recommendations going up to the Defence Secretary. This was a bureaucratic victory, also making the CDS advisor to the defence minister, not the prime minister, which should have been the case.

The CDS is Permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC). Besides being Secretary DMA and adviser to the tri-service Nuclear Command Authority, the CDS serves on multiple advisory MoD-associated committees/councils, and is responsible for prioritising and affecting material procurements and defining military and security policies.

So why has Gen Chauhan spoken up now? Is it because his extension coincides with the retirement date of the current army chief? Why didn’t he raise voices against the slow defence procurement process earlier as Secretary DMA?

Interestingly, 24 hours after General Chauhan raised the above issues, MoD announced that the DAC (headed by the defence minister) has approved “guidelines for reducing the timelines at various stages of the capital acquisition process, to make it faster, more effective and efficient – what was Rajnath doing since June 1, 2019 when he took charge as defence minister? Lack of elaboration in the MoD announcement has raised questions if this mere cover up.

There are periodic noises about the DAC according to its Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for defence procurements/ defence-related projects; which means ‘in principle’ approval, nothing more. Beyond this are complex stages, each of which can delay or derail the entire project - often taking twice or thrice the laid down period. There is intractable corruption at every step. What has Gen Chauhan and his predecessors done to cleanse the system?

Speaking at the 40th Air Chief Marshal PC Lal (Retd) Memorial Lecture on December 15, 2025, DRDO Chairman, Samir V Kamat called for enhanced investment in defence R&D to prepare for future warfare amid rapid technological transformations across land, air, sea, space, cyber and information domains; highlighting disparity in R&D spending - India allocates 0.65% of its overall R&D budget compared to over 2% committed by competitors.

He said this shortfall hinders India's ambitions to emerge as a technology leader. He advocated greater industry participation in design and development, alongside contributions from start-ups and MSMEs, stressing the vital role of academia in basic and applied research on emerging technologies, coupled with the establishment of advanced test facilities and infrastructure, and that capacity building remains a critical priority.

What has India done to address these anomalies?

Over the last decade plus, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has many times pointed out excessive time delays by the DRDO, sub-standard products, many priced more than products in the same category available off-the-shelf, and lack of accountability.

In a report filed in Parliament on December 16, 2025, the CAG has pointed out that 72% Army contracts under emergency procurement (EP) have not been delivered within the stipulated timelines and objected to these deviations regularised beyond the waivers granted from prescribed procurement processes and rules to meet operational requirements.

The CAG has suggested these deviations should be regularised ONLY by the Army Headquarters. So, who is regularizing these deviations, why and what is the role of CDS and MoD in this?

Veteran Maj Gen BC Khanduri (former Union Minister in the Vajpayee Government 2000-2003), Chairman of the Standing Committee of Defence from 2014 to September 2018 was eased out because he pointed out the ad hoc approach and ill-equipping of Armed Forces. Nirmala Sitharaman, the then defence minister, even launched a diatribe against Gen Khanduri although Sitharaman was probably in school when Gen Khanduri joined BJP.

The concept of self-certification introduced by MoD in recent years, and extending it to some defence industries is nothing more than brushing corruption under the carpet. Not only is the indigenous content in ‘Make in India’ dubious, as also pointed out by General Chauhan, but in many cases is nothing more than “assembling" the product.

Many analysts have pointed out that the governmental defence-industrial ecosystem needs to seriously weed out the deadwood but there is no effort being made towards this because of vested interests. The reorganization of DRDO is dragging its feet for well-known reasons, and will probably be an eyewash as and when it would eventually take place.

The government can’t stop talking about India’s economic growth and that the country will soon become the third largest economy in the world, which was reiterated by PM Modi on December 16, 2025, while addressing the India-Jordan Business meet.

But why then can’t India invest in Defence Research and Development like the US and China, when crores and crores are being spent on elections, advertisements and self-aggrandizement?

Finally, whether there is any scope of improvement or the current lackadaisical approach towards defence and defence R&D will continue remains to be seen.

Lt. General Prakash Katoch is an Indian Army veteran. Views expressed here are the writer’s own.