New Delhi, Mar 14: The Indian Army has marked its dissent over the 'insufficient' allocation of funds for the defence sector in the Budget released for 2018-19. Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Sarath Chand was blunt in warning the government of "inefficient" weapons and ammunition at the disposal of the armed forces -- at a time when the nation is facing a two-front risk from Pakistan and China.

The Defence allocation this year, at Rs 2.79 lakh crore, amounts to 1.49 per cent of the GDP. The percentage of fiscal share for defence expenditure is the lowest since 1962.

The disappointing factor, the Army Vice chief said, is the amount allocated towards modernisation of the armed forces.

"Allocation of Rs 21,338 crore for modernisation is insufficient even to cater for committed payment of Rs 29,033 crore for 125 on-going schemes, emergency procurements," Lt Gen Chand said, while underlining that 68 per cent of the weapons in use are those of "vintage category", fit to be kept in museums.

While the Indian Army has red-flagged the looming threat due to insufficient defence budget, here's the list of countries which allocate the most in defence sector, as per the data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

- The United States of America spends the highest amount towards the defence, assigning USD 602.8 billion.

- With USD 175 billion allocated towards the defence sector, China is on the second spot on the list of countries spending the most on their military. In terms of fiscal share, Beijing earmarked 8.1 percent of the fiscal expenditure towards defence.

- Saudi Arabia remains at the third spot. In 2017 Budget, the Islamic kingdom has assigned USD 76.7 billion towards military expenditure.

- Russia, still considered to be the prime challenger to the US when it comes to military might, ranks fourth on the list with a total defence allocation of USD 61.2 billion.

- UK spent USD 50 billion towards defence in 2017, followed by France which spent USD 48.6 billion. Japan ranks 8th on the list with its budgetary allocation towards defence amounting to USD 46 billion.

- Germany and South Korea are ranked 9th and 10th respectively, with budgets of USD 41.7 and 35.7 billion respectively.

India, despite ranking 5th on the SIPRI list with defence expenditure of 52.5 billion, has faced flak from geo-strategic experts for failing to modernise its forces in accordance with the threat posed by neighbouring China and Pakistan.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 14, 2018 01:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).