India has glaring gaps in its air surveillance coverage due to a shortage of radars and its submarine fleet is obsolete and facing a serious dip in force levels, the latest CAG report on the defence services says.

Coming down heavily against the Government for not clearing acquisition plans of radars by the IAF, the CAG report says that India’s air defence system is based on a model formulated in 1976 that is in urgent need of a relook.

Revealing that India is facing a 47 per cent shortage of radars needed to detect inkling aircraft, the report says that the Government has not yet cleared any of the revised air defence plans of the IAF that were submitted since 1976 despite “significant changes in security scenario”.

On the naval front, the report says that India holds just 67 per cent of the force level envisaged in the 1985 plan and the availability of submarines is as low as 48 per cent as the fleet is old and reaching the end of service life. Even the missile firing capabilities are not up to the mark, the report says.

Blasting the Government for not clearing IAF’s radar acquisition plans, the report says that repeated delays in the tendering process and objections by the CVC on the purchase of Israeli radars has led to a lowering of air defence capabilities.

On top of that, the report says that IAF is not utilising the existing radar systems adequately. It says that the ‘watch hours’ prescribed by the Government to keep external surveillance are not being met by the IAF and surveillance levels are as low as 4 per cent of the approved norms.