In a big push to defence manufacturing in India, the Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her budget speech on 01 February this year that 25 per cent of the research and development (R&D) budget of the defence ministry would be earmarked for private industry, start-ups and academia in the country. In addition, one of the most significant announcements was the setting up of an independent nodal umbrella body to meet the wide-ranging testing and certification requirements of defence equipment.
The specific allocation for research and development fund out of the budget allocation for the ministry of defence is aimed at opening Defence research and development for participation of Indian private industry, start-ups and academia in design and development of military platforms and equipment in collaboration with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and other organisations by strategic partnership through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) financing model.
History of Defence R&D in India
Research and Defence in the Indian context has been evolutionary in nature since independence. Its formal contours were drawn by the merger of the Technical Development Establishment and the Directorate of Technical Development and Production of the Indian Ordnance Factories with Defence Science Organisation in 1958. Subsequently, Defence Research & Development Service (DRDS) was constituted in 1979 as a service of Group ‘A’ Officers/ Scientists directly under the administrative control of Ministry of Defence. In 1980, a separate Department of Defence Research and Development was formed which later on administered DRDO and its almost 50 laboratories/establishments.
Over the years, indigenous defence research organisation was given a fillip and today DRDO is the R&D wing of Ministry of Defence, Govt of India, with a vision to empower India with cutting-edge defence technologies and a mission to achieve self-reliance in critical defence technologies and systems, while equipping our armed forces with state-of-the-art weapon systems and equipment.
DRDO has successfully pursued self-reliance and indigenous development and production of strategic systems and platforms such as Agni and Prithvi series of missiles; light combat aircraft, Tejas; multi-barrel rocket launcher, Pinaka; air defence system, Akash, and a wide range of radars and electronic warfare systems. All this has given a quantum jump to India’s military might, generating effective deterrence and providing crucial leverage at the global level.
Today, DRDO is a network of more than 50 laboratories which are intensely engaged in developing defence technologies covering various disciplines such as aeronautics, armaments, electronics, combat vehicles, engineering systems, instrumentation, missiles, advanced computing and simulation, special materials, naval systems, life sciences, training, information systems and agriculture. Several major projects for the development of missiles, armaments, light combat aircraft, radars, and electronic warfare systems are under progress and significant achievements have already been made in several such technologies.
In 2010, a major restructuring of the DRDO was undertaken to give a significant boost to defence research in the country and to ensure effective participation of the private sector in defence technology. The key measures to make DRDO effective in its functioning included the establishment of a Defence Technology Commission with the defence minister as its chairman.
R&D budgetary allocation for private industry, start-ups and academia
The integration of private industry with DRDO is already explicit in the charter of DRDO while reaching out to the industry for critical technology infusion required for development of military hardware. Therefore, specific budgetary provision for research and development for the industry, start up and academia in a standalone mode will require acceptance of the research necessity before formal allocation of funds. The edifice of the Indian defence industry is entirely based on manufacture, consequent to the acceptance of necessity. Hence there is very little scope for independent research.
Unlike global players namely the United States or China where defence research is driven by capability enhancement, Indian defence requirements are need based, to maintain strategic equilibrium in the subcontinent eschewing foreign dependence for military hardware. So, instead of a standalone allocation of monetary resource, it would auger well to set up an independent R&D institution exclusively for capability enhancement with a futuristic focus and steered by the private sector in concert with the academia to create a competitive edge globally and a collaborative R&D environment domestically. This could also cater to the setting up of an independent requirement of testing and certification requirements of defence equipment.
Defence Research in the United States
In the United States for sixty years, Defence Advance Research Project Agency (DARPA) has handled a singular and enduring mission to make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security.The genesis of DARPA itself lies on the premise that it would be the initiator and not the victim of strategic technological surprises.
DARPA has been relentlessly working with innovators inside and outside of government, transforming revolutionary concepts and even seeming impossibilities into practical capabilities. The ultimate results have included not only game-changing military capabilities such as precision weapons and stealth technology, but also such icons of modern civilian society as the Internet, automated voice recognition and language translation, and Global Positioning System receivers small enough to be embedded in myriad consumer devices. DARPA explicitly reaches for transformational change instead of incremental advances. But it does not perform its engineering alchemy in isolation. It works within an innovation ecosystem that includes academic, corporate and governmental partners, with a constant focus on the nation’s military services, which work with DARPA to create new strategic opportunities and novel tactical options. For decades, this vibrant, interlocking ecosystem of diverse collaborators has proven to be a nurturing environment for the intense creativity that DARPA is designed to cultivate.
As regards the intellectual pool and the organisational setup of DARPA, it goes to great lengths to identify, recruit and support cutting-edge programmes with extraordinary individuals who are at the top of their fields and are hungry for the opportunity to push the limits of their disciplines. These individuals, who are at the very heart of DARPA’s history of success, come from academia, industry and government agencies for limited stints, generally three to five years. That deadline fuels the signature DARPA urgency to achieve success in less time than might be considered reasonable in a conventional setting. Given this research ecosystem, DARPA addresses challenges broadly, spanning the entire scientific spectrum from deep science to systems to capabilities, constantly probing for the next big thing in their fields, to identify new challenges and their potential solutions.
Defence Research in China
In People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Academy of Military Science (AMS) is the highest-level research institute of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China, headquartered in Beijing. The AMS researches issues related to “national defence, armed forces development and military operations.” It works in consultation with the Central Military Commission and the Joint Staff Department. More broadly, it coordinates research conducted by various PLA institutions.
The PRC pursues its aggressive, top-level push to master advanced technologies and become a global innovation superpower. It seeks to dominate technologies associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution; this push directly supports the PLA’s ambitious modernisation efforts and its goal of becoming a “world-class” military, capable of “intelligentised” warfare. The PRC continues its pursuit of leadership in key technologies with significant military potential, such as AI, autonomous systems, advanced computing, quantum information sciences, biotechnology, and advanced materials and manufacturing. As evidenced by the country’s recent accomplishments in space exploration and other fields, China stands at, or near, the frontier of numerous advanced technologies.
In China, the commercial sector drives breakthroughs in advanced dual-use technologies. Thus, major PRC companies make significant research efforts aimed at generating breakthroughs in key fields. PRC state investment funds, established to support priority industries, have marshalled enormous capital. Under Beijing’s Military Civil Fusion (MCF) strategy, the PLA seeks to exploit China’s private sector achievements to further its force modernisation plans. For instance, the PRC has designated 15 companies as the country’s official “AI Champions,” which include Alibaba, Baidu, Huawei, SenseTime, and Tencent. This designation tasks these companies to facilitate industry-wide coordination with the PRC government. Each champion is responsible for a specific AI focus area, including autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and cybersecurity.
Tech giants Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent have been researching quantum computing since 2018, with Alibaba offering one of the world’s few quantum computing clouds services. The PRC has two leading quantum communications start-up companies, Quantum CTek and Anhui Qasky. Quantum CTek is becoming one of the largest manufacturers in the commercial quantum-communications technology sector. The Chinese model is reflective of state sponsored research in specific areas allocated to the private sector but on the areas a specified by the PRC.
Defence Research in Russia
Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects, set up in 2012, is an advanced military research agency tasked with informing the country’s leadership on projects that can ensure Russian superiority in defence technology. It also analyses the risks of any Russian technological backwardness and technological dependence on other powers. The sole purpose of this foundation is to close a gap in advanced research with their Western partners after 20 years of stagnation in the Russian military science and defence industry. This aggressive military technology innovation enables Russia’s way of war as well as develops new concepts of operation and military thought around future warfare, especially asymmetric advantages against more powerful competitors. The focus seems to be on new weapons systems, dubbed Putin’s superoruzhie (‘super weapons’) first unveiled in 2018, which signal Russia’s intent to innovate in the defence-industrial field to counter the perceived conventional military superiority of great power competitors such as the US and its NATO allies.
Defence R&D in the Indian context
In the Indian context, the Institute of Defence Studies and Research (IDSR) has been established jointly by the Gujarat University and Institute of Infrastructure Technology Research and Management (IITRAM), Ahmedabad, with the patronage and support of Government of Gujarat. IDSR is an autonomous institute dedicated to conduct academic and research activities with a mission to pave the way for quality human resources in the defence sector, while functioning as an organisation working towards augmenting the defence policy and research. The Institute promotes national and international security through the generation and dissemination of knowledge on defence and homeland security-related issues.The Institute is supported by the Gujarat government, DRDO, and the Institute of Defence Scientists and Technologists (IDST), Pune.
It may augur well to strengthen IDSR at the national level as an institute of national importance and have all the IITs, IISc co-panelled with a view to enhance the scope and research ambit of the institution for the greater goal of achieving national security concerns across the spectrum. Herein lies an opportunity to judiciously deploy the funds for the intended purpose.
–The writer is a former GOC-Indian Army and presently a Strategic Consultant & Principal Advisor. Views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
