Army modernisation 15 yrs behind: Antony

8220;New procurements have commenced from five years ago, but we are still lagging by 15 years. We have to modernise fast. We have to modernise the army, navy, air force and the Coast Guard, which is the youngest and smallest of our services,8221; Antony said today.

Referring to China8217;s steeply hiked defence budget announced this week, Antony said, 8220;We don8217;t want to compete with any countries. We want to strike a balance between bread, butter and security.8221; He, however, admitted that the Defence Ministry needed more that what Finance Minister P Chidambaram8217;s made in allocations for defence this year. At the same time, he reiterated that Chidambaram8217;s assurance that all security needs would be taken care of had reassured South Block that it would have enough resources to take care of modernisation plans for the year.

Referring to the Rs 3,000 crore that the MoD had to park back to the Finance Ministry this year in unspent funds, Antony said, 8220;Next year, we will make sure that not a single Rupee is left unspent.8221;