FAULTY SHIELDS

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We all remember images of ATS Chief Hemant Karkare donning a bullet-proof jacket (BPJ) and a helmet just before he went into the 26/11 operations. Hemant Karkare died of bullet injuries on his neck. Every single bullet fired from the AK-56 and the AK-47 weapons used by the Mumbai terrorists went through the bullet-proof jacket.

Sadly Karkare's counterparts who are engaged in counter-insurgency operations across the country and face similar bullets on a daily basis are in no better shape.

The soldiers have been saying the jackets are heavy, cumbersome and largely ineffective. CNN-IBN has copies of letters written by the Rashtriya Rifles and HQ 16 Corps dating as far back as 2004. Soldiers have been complaining that the jackets are worn out, bulky, clumsy and sag towards the front, thus leaving upper parts of the chest, shoulder and neck exposed to terrorist fire. The Army further adds that even with the protective gear on, it was losing men. Twenty-eight per cent men died taking shots in the chest region, 11 pc in the head and almost 14 pc died because their face and neck region was exposed.

The design of the old jackets is part of the problem. Add to it that most of the bullet-proof jackets are more than 15 years old. Former Army Chief Gen VP Malik confirms that one of the world's largest armies has not been able to give 50 pc of its infantry soldiers a bullet-proof jacket.

Barring a few emergency purchases, the Army has struggled to get new BPJs. Part to blame is the tangled procurement procedure, part some unrealistic parameters. It's no secret that even if the top brass of the Army decided on a bullet-proof jacket today and the entire bureaucracy got together to push it, it could easily be years before the soldier in Kashmir gets to wear it.

That of course is hardly the reality.

The procurement process to get a BPJ started almost a decade ago. In June of 1998, the Army first put out a requirement (what is called a General Staff Qualitative Requirement or a GSQR) GSQR No 759. According to this, the Army wanted protection from various weapons including a 7.62mm, a 5.56mm, a 9mm Carbine at 5 metres, a 9mm Pistol and a 12 Bore shot gun at 5 metres.

In September 2001, the old GSQR was scrapped and another, GSQR 878, was given.

In this new requirement, the Army dropped the 12 Bore shot, the 9 mm pistol and the 5,56 mm INSAS.

One can understand that GSQRs need to be reviewed periodically and should be changed if technology and operational requirements of the Army so merit but it was always no secret that the 9mm Carbine was always more lethal than a 9 mm Pistol and the 12 Bore shot gun. Their inclusion in the first GSQR should have surprised all.

Meanwhile, three years passed and all that the new GSQR did was drop some parameters of the old one and still maintained what many said was an unrealistic weight parameter, even as hundreds of our men were falling to enemy bullets.

And now nearly eight years later, the Army has changed its mind again. It realises the weight it has been demanding is unrealistic. And in view of the new level of threat perceptions post-26/11, it wants protection from more weapons. Remember as I said before, even if the Army made up its mind about what it wanted, it could manage to put the bullet-proof jacket on its men only years later.

One can understand the changing threat perception and thus changing protection levels which need to be taken into account, but proposals in the first place should be futuristic and look at threat levels five years from now, and not just the current situation.

BPJs have improved leaps and bounds across the world. While two major companies across the world hold a control over the raw material used, private industry we spoke during the course of this investigation said there is simply no shortage. Tata Advanced Materials, part of the Tata Group spoke to us on camera and said, they, along with many other private industries in this country, have agreements and understanding with companies abroad and all they needed their end users to do, was to simply decide on what they want and how much they are ready to pay for it.

Which brings me to a part of the letter from Rashtriya Rifles where the officer concerned was making a pitch for better bullet-proof jackets for his men. All he said let's get the best for our men, let's not look at the cheapest available, because if that's the case we could save more than a hundred crore by not procuring any protective equipment for our men altogether.

(This is a part of a CNN-IBN series Battle Ready which cuts through the war hysteria and looks at a basic sense of our preparedness)