Army invites proposals for building FRCV tanks, DRDO surprised

[Hindustani78]

Army invites proposals for building FRCV tanks, DRDO surprised - The Economic Times

By PTI | 26 Jun, 2015, 04.59PM IST

NEW DELHI: Intending to replace Soviet-origin Main Battle Tanks (MBTs), the Army has invited proposals from domestic and foreign firms for manufacturing 'Future Ready Combat Vehicle' (FRCV) tanks, significantly at a time when DRDO is already working on such a project.

The Army has issued a Request for Information (RFI) inviting responses from companies by July 31 to manufacture tanks which will replace the T-72 tanks, official sources said. The RFI is open to both domestic and foreign firms.

According to the Army, the best design will be chosen and given to nominated developing agency for production of the prototypes. The selected prototype will be given to production agency for bulk production.

The move is significant as the country's premier defence research agency DRDO is already working on a futuristic tank -- Future Main Battle Tank (FMBT).

The Army has earlier been at loggerheads with the DRDO over the Arjun tank that it had developed.

Defence experts hold the view that if the Army goes in for a foreign tank, it will spoil the indigenous effort of nearly 30 years of designing and building the Arjun tank that can be used for making the next-generation tank.

Asked about Army's RFI, Director of DRDO's Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment (CVRDE), which is working on the FMBT, told PTI, "We have a long-term perspective plan from the Army. We are working on the technolgy development and will continue with it".

DRDO officials are stunned by the Army's RFI and are wondering why it was issued when it is already working on it.

They are hoping that the Ministry of Defence, which has been pushing for 'Make in India', will look into the issue.

A senior official noted, "DRDO has been doing well with the Air Force and the Navy but always hits a roadblock when it comes to the Army".

Meanwhile, Army sources maintained that the RFI is open to all and even the DRDO can take part.

 

[Indian Patriot]

Army sources maintained that the RFI is open to all and even the DRDO can take part.

Excellent job by the army. It was time to show DRDO their place. This notorious white elephant is nothing but a burden on tax-payers. They will waste decades and countless amount of public money building up nothing. Lack of competition means they have a monopoly and it is a very dangerous thing for Indian security to rely only on one domestic producer which cannot even make a sewing needle.

Let DRDO compete against the best in the world and let them realise where they stand among the world's best. If army had sent an RFI for rifles then they would not have to tolerate a junk like INSAS.

National security is of more importance than the existence of DRDO.

 

[OrionHunter]

Asked about Army's RFI, Director of DRDO's Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment (CVRDE), which is working on the FMBT, told PTI, "We have a long-term perspective plan from the Army. We are working on the technolgy development and will continue with it".

Yeah! So long term that by the time it hits the ground, the technology would have become obsolete!!

 

[Echo_419]

Yeah! So long term that by the time it hits the ground, the technology would have become obsolete!!

Lol

 

[Indian Patriot]

We are working on the technolgy development and will continue with it".

They are more likely working on their plans to borrow technology or seek transfer of technology from foreign firms. Without foreign assistance these DRDO folks cannot even design a combat helmet.

 

[SRP]

Indian Army chasing pipe dreams forever

The Indian Army recently dispatched a global Request for Information (RfI) for a multi-purpose Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV), which has generated much mirth in military-industrial circles, for its sheer ridiculousness and operational folly.

The Army’s request is for an FRCV that will not only serve as a ‘medium’-sized main battle tank to replace the Army’s ageing fleet of licence-built Russian T-72s but also as a ‘light-tracked and wheeled tank’, built on the same platform. In layman terms, this is like asking for a Humvee and a Maruti 800 on the same platform. Hopefully, the document will be either withdrawn or amended before its July 31 deadline.

Surely, the Directorate General of Mechanised Forces at Army Headquarters, responsible for issuing the request, realises the irony and irrationality of drawing up such absurd general staff qualitative requirements (GSQRs), which are technologically impossible for any manufacturer to fulfil.

What is all the more surprising is that such QRs are formulated after extensive discussion, not only by the division concerned — in this case, the Mechanised Forces — but finally approved by the Army’s Deputy Chief (Planning & Systems), who is responsible for acquisitions. His office, as are those involved in formulating the requests and the subsequent proposals, or tenders, is purportedly staffed by competent scientific and technical advisers.

Senior Army officers concede that such over-ambitious and flawed requests for information, leading to equally over-stretched, faulty and diluted tenders, are largely responsible for the alarming equipment shortage that the forces face today. The shortfall includes small arms, howitzers, assorted helicopters, armour with night-fighting capacity, air defence capability and varied ordnance, among other things. Although Army Headquarters blames the hidebound and ill-informed Ministry of Defence (MoD) bureaucrats for this, it also has largely itself to blame for the glaring deficiencies.

‘Blinkered views’
“The whole process is carried out with limited knowledge and blinkered views,” said former Maj. Gen. Mrinal Suman, the Army’s leading authority on acquisitions and offsets. Poorly conceived, formulated and drafted QRs create confusion and delays, resulting in the entire process being aborted much later, he said. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence concurs.

In its report tabled in Parliament on April 30, 2012, the Committee declared that as many as 41 of the Army’s proposals for diverse equipment in recent years were withdrawn or terminated. The reasons included faulty or over-ambitious qualitative requirements. The Committee report unambiguously pinned responsibility on the Army. The MoD and attendant financial advisers had no role in framing weapon QRs. Service Headquarters consult with the largely uniformed Directorate General Quality Assurance (DGQA), sometimes with inputs from the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

The typical process is this: all available literature on the equipment is gathered and its multiple characteristics collated. The idea is to include as many features as possible to demonstrate how exhaustively the task has been performed. Thereafter, as the draft travels up the chain of command, it gathers additional parameters, as each officer feels compelled to suggest more improvements. “The final QR takes the shape of a well-compiled wish list of utopian dimensions, which simply do not exist,” stated Gen. Suman.

For instance, in 2004, the Army issued a tender for 168 light utility helicopters to replace the obsolete fleet of Cheetahs and Chetaks inducted into service in the mid-60s. The proposal required the chopper to hover uninterruptedly for 30 minutes, a capability no helicopter in the world possessed at the time. The maximum hover time then available, with a U.S. helicopter, was seven minutes. The Army was forced to withdraw the tender soon after.

Similarly, a tender to upgrade FH-77B 155mm/39 calibre howitzers, acquired in the 1980s, had to be scrapped twice, first in 2006 and again in 2009, as the QRs drawn up by the Artillery Directorate were unworkable. A BAE Systems official associated with the upgrade at the time said that the requirements were ‘unrealistic’ for these old guns, expecting more capability than even new howitzers.

In 2013, the request sent to at least five overseas vendors to replace the Army’s obsolete Bofors 40mm L-70 and Soviet ZU-23mm 2B air defence guns had to be scrapped. All five vendors declared the requirements to be unreasonable, as they demanded a firing rate of 500 rounds per minute, a capability no gun in the world possessed.

The same has applied to tenders for tank fire control systems, long range observation systems and for different ammunition types, all terminated over the years on grounds of overreach and unrealism. It would appear that the Indian Army’s search for matchless, and globally unavailable, equipment and capabilities triumphs over and over again.

(Rahul Bedi is a defence analyst.)

Indian Army chasing pipe dreams forever - The Hindu

I don't know if to laugh or cry about these army decisions.

 

[Indian Patriot]

which are technologically impossible for any manufacturer to fulfil.

It is impossible only for DRDO.

 

[Hindustani78]

I don't know if to laugh or cry about these army decisions.

You just need to trust Indian military planners ,they are aware what they are doing by keeping the International norms.

 

[Dash]

Army has a lot of grudge on DRDO since 1962..

 

[Pakistani E]

Army has a lot of grudge on DRDO since 1962..

Can you really blame them? I mean they are the ones who have to use it and all..

 

[Dash]

Can you really blame them? I mean they are the ones who have to use it and all..

Its a little complicated, but yes end users have always an upper hand. They were not like this but they have some genuine bad experience with DRDO. Now I am not saying DRDO product were bad but they just dont go hand in hand.

 

[Rain]

Its, after reading above posts by indians, that finally pakistanis and indians agree on one thing.. DRDO Inefficiency.

 

[masud]

army,s desition is correct. ............

 

[surya kiran]

Is this the same proposal where they asked for the features of Starship Enterprise but in a tank?

 

[Indian Patriot]

Is this the same proposal where they asked for the features of Starship Enterprise but in a tank?

No, this is a proposal where the army expects DRDO to build a modern, next-generation tank and not an armored bullock-cart that DRDO comes up with.

DRDO is a joke.