Budget 2018 impact: Navy, Air Force also feel pinch of personnel costs

Given the importance of equipment modernisation, the overall defence budget should rise at least at the same pace as salaries and pensions, so that equipment modernisation is not hit

The defence budget, which the Union government presented on Thursday, underlines serious issues around the structure of the Army, Navy and Air Force and the growing imbalance between equipment and manpower costs. 

Overall, the Army emerges as a manpower intensive force, with a burgeoning salary and pension Bill that account for three-quarters of its allocation, leaving only scraps for modernising a vast inventory of equipment that is racing towards obsolescence.

But the Navy and Air Force, albeit to a lesser extent, have also begun feeling the pinch of increased personnel costs, which is constraining their ability to resource new weaponry.