The last year has truly been remarkable in terms of the Indian defence industry. An impetus was given to the establishment of defence corridors and encouragement to startups through IDEX and technology funds to make a difference. The corporatisation of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) was a huge step as it was not easy to shake up a white elephant from slumber. It has been now one year since all these processes were kick-started. Let us carry out a review to analyse the ground situation and flag the grey areas, which would need the attention of the government as well as all major players involved in the entire business of defence procurement and modernisation.

Efforts for Defence Indigenisation

A number of important initiatives have been launched by the government in the past year to enhance our defence manufacturing capability as well as improve the targets for defence exports. The government had set an ambitious target to reach ₹35,000 crore in defence exports, especially in the aviation and missiles sectors, by 2025. India has exported defence equipment worth ₹8,434.84 crore in 2020-21 compared to ₹1,940.64 crore in 2014-15, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in reply to a question in Parliament. Towards this end, important deals were struck to export the Brahmos missile to the Philippines as well as firm up markets in the UAE, Africa, Singapore and Vietnam, to name a few.

In September 2021, the Ministry of Defence announced a deal worth Rs 22,000 crore (US$ 3.0 billion) with Tata-Airbus to procure 56 C-295 transport aircraft for the Indian Air Force (IAF). This deal is part of a series of initiatives to advertise the non-public sector in defence manufacturing. In November 2021, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the first private operationalised defence manufacturing facility in the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor (UPDIC) in Lucknow. The facility operated by Aerolloy Technologies — a wholly-owned subsidiary of PTC industries — will manufacture parts for aircraft and helicopter engines, structural parts for aircraft, drones and UAVs, submarines, ultra-light artillery guns, space launch vehicles and strategy systems.

The Indian government is focussing on innovative solutions to empower the country’s defence and security via ‘Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX)’, which has provided a platform for startups to connect to the defence establishments and develop new technologies/products in the next five years (2021-2026). Working through partner incubators, iDEX has been able to attract the startup community to participate in the Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC) programme.

The Defence Ministry has set a target of 70 per cent self-reliance in weaponry by 2027, creating huge prospects for industry players. It introduced Green Channel Status Policy (GCS) to promote and encourage private sector investments in defence production to promote the role of the private sector in defence production.

Strides Towards Force Modernisation

In the past year, a concerted effort has been made by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as well as PSUs to expedite production and complete the pending projects and make up the existing voids in three armed services. Induction of LCA (Tejas), Arudhra and Aslesha Radars, Astra Air to Air missile, Akash Surface to Air missile system, Advance Light Helicopter and Light Combat Helicopter systems were added to IAF’s inventory proving IAF’s commitment to the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’. The MBT Arjun Mk-1A was handed over to the Indian Army by the prime minister on February 14 last year and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) placed an order with Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF), Avadi, Chennai for the supply of 118 Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) Arjun Mk-1A for the Indian Army on September 23, 2021. Advanced Electronic Warfare System ‘Shakti’, designed and developed by Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL) Hyderabad a laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was handed over to the Indian Navy on November 19, 2021, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. INS Visakhapatnam, the first ship of Project 15B, was delivered by Mazagon Dock Limited to the Indian Navy on October 28, 2021, at Mumbai and commissioned into IN on November 21, 2021, by the defence minister.

Focus Areas

We need to appreciate that today the nation has a great number of security concerns, which extend beyond the conventional battlefield frontiers. To that extent, new threats that have emerged relate more to the cyber domain, space, surveillance and internal security. To meet the challenges a ‘whole of nation’ approach is required. We may be required to study, how countries such as Israel, Great Britain and the United States have used the technical intelligence parameters to generate a comprehensive cross-domain understanding and have employed suitable smart weapons to counter these.

To this extent, securing our borders assumes great emphasis. Therefore, what the recent budget has proposed in creating ‘vibrant villages’ along the Northern borders is a step in the right direction. The budget also alludes to formulating supportive policies and regulations for ‘sunrise sectors’ of Artificial Intelligence (AI), geospatial systems, space, genomics, and clean-mobility systems. These dual-use technologies can be developed concurrently for civil and military use, and for the creation of capabilities in asymmetric domains, in collaboration with the armed forces. The development of the IT sector, in particular rolling out of 5G and initiatives for the development of North East, also need to be oriented to serve the needs of defence and security.

In the field of cyber warfare also much needs to be done. The Indian Army is slowly getting in synchronisation with its thinking between the relationship of cyber and electronic warfare. A lot more would be required to be done in this direction.

As far as new weapon acquisitions are concerned, a great deal of focus now has to be on joint ventures and strategic partnerships. Getting low-end technology may be all right in the short term but we need to think about how high-end technologies can be acquired in the long term. Towards the end, the three countries which are important to us would be the United States, Russia and Israel. A continued focus would be required by our defence; commerce and external affairs ministry to established and strengthen existing treaties, agreements and partnerships.

We need to focus on emerging weapon systems such as drones and base our war strategies on their employment. The conventional mindset has to be set aside. There has been much talk about acquiring light tanks for the Northern Front. Instead, can we fill this void through drones and the employment of our Vajra-9 self-propelled howitzer which weighs 50 tonnes and it can strike enemy targets as far as 50 kilometres? These howitzers can also turn around at zero radius, basically at the same place where they are standing. Their recent induction has given a huge fillip to the firepower capability of the Indian Army.

The area of focus has to relate to our reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities. The operational environment calls for preparing to fight through the entire spectrum of warfare, from contact to high technology, overland, sea, air, space and cyber domains, through what could be termed as ‘Fighting informationist (high technology)’. It calls for costs in inducting high technology as well as retaining substantial manpower to deploy adequate boots on the ground in a terrain that can challenge any technology available globally. This is an extraordinary challenge imposed on India by a troubled neighbourhood and exacerbated by unresolved boundary disputes. India has no option but to meet the challenge. The recent statement of General Naravane, COAS, also emphasised this aspect.

To achieve the up-gradation of technology-based systems, we may task the startups on our specific requirements. Although we have 250 startups that have been registered under the IDEX scheme, the emphasis has to be on quality rather than quantity. It would be prudent to assume that when the tech prowess of several startups adds to India’s military might, it will be a win-win for all.

Conclusion

To be fair to the government, an earnest effort has indeed been made to address issues related to defence procurement. The need of the hour is to bring in greater transparency, accountability and a real synergy between the private and public defence enterprises and make the ‘ease of doing defence business’ simpler. We need to reduce the monopoly of defence PSUs, bring in greater competition, and ensure the deadlines of projects are met. It cannot happen the way we have gone about with our LCA Tejas and Dhanush medium gun projects. The destination is far ahead and the journey is extremely difficult. The government report card today stands at 7 out of 10.

-The writer is a former MGAOC Central Command. He has served in various important assignments in the Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East. He covers defence issues on various national TV channels. His recent book, “Breaking the Chinese Myth”, has been a best-seller on Amazon. Views expressed are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda