Is Modi government not worried about the border?

India's land border is over 15,000km-long. And the aviation assets assigned to the border forces total 28, or one aircraft per 500km. But that figure is misleading. Of the aircrafts, six fixed-wing ones are for communication, leaving 22 helicopters. A few more helicopters are on loan from the Air Force, which is stealing from Peter to pay Paul. Of the helicopters owned by the border forces, more than half are unavailable because of maintenance issues and other calls on their time such as communication. For example, of the six Mi-17v4s with the border forces, five are awaiting overhaul. So we're down to perhaps ten helicopters.

It gets worse. These aviation assets are part of the Border Security Force's (BSF) Air Wing, which must also provide services to other central paramilitary forces. So, several helicopters are on anti-Naxal operations, which have nothing to do with border security. It may be that about six operational helicopters are available for the entire land frontier. Take these figures as generalisations, because they keep changing.

But it gets still worse. The German Federal Border Police, for example, have about 85 helicopters for land border of about 3,600km. But not one kilometre is "hostile". Almost the entire Indian land border is actively hostile, thanks to Pakistan and China; or vulnerable to illegal immigration, terrorist infiltration, and smuggling, thanks to Bangladesh and Burma. So, as a goal, we would need more helicopters per 1,000km than the Germans. A back-of-the-envelope calculation by this analyst shows an immediate minimum requirement for 400 helicopters.

Any normal government would consider six operational helicopters for a 15,000km land border to be frighteningly careless, or totally negligent, or completely stupid. Not India. The government is actually pleased that it has procured "so many" aircrafts, and will point to its plan for more. So far, as is known, six Mi-17v5 gunships, plus two medium transport aircrafts, the latter to replace Avro-748s, are on order. The gunships will likely support anti-Naxal operations; there will be no net addition to the helicopters available for the border.

Another consideration is that while border operations are conducted on a 24/365 basis, a helicopter is likely to be available for a 600 hours/year flying time. True, in wartime, for short periods, helicopters can operate ten-hours/day. But this is an impossible peacetime operating tempo. Essentially, for one helicopter to be available 24/365, over 12 are needed. More unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which the border forces now have in tiny numbers, can take over some of the surveillance mission. Consider what else helicopters do besides surveillance: resupply, liaison, commando support, emergency reinforcement in border posts, medical evacuation, and emergency civilian support.

That's fine, readers will say. But won't 400 helicopters cost about $3-4 billion, excluding operating costs? We are a poor nation; where will the money come from? Agreed, that India is poor in per capita terms. Yet in GDP terms, it is hardly poor. With a GDP approaching $2.5-trillion and growing at seven per cent annually, the absolute sum of money available for any project is large. It is simply a matter of priorities. And the truth is, defence and internal security have never been an Indian priority. When our GDP was five times smaller in constant dollars, or about $500billion some 35 years ago, we spent over 3 per cent of our GDP on defence. Today, the finance ministry finds it impossible to allocate more than 1.75 per cent of the GDP for defence.

It is easier for us to waste money on inefficiency, corruption, subsidies, and policies based on factional politics than to protect our country. Do not blame a shortage of money for the lack of aviation for border security. Blame our stupidity.