ARTILLERY: Still waiting for F-INSAS

[kurup]

Indian Army’s ambitious Future-Infantry Soldier as a System (F-INSAS), stands interminably delayed and deferred by over six years if not longer.

The Indian’s army’s six-year old programme to upgrade its 359 infantry battalions and over 100 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) and Assam Rifles (AR) units deployed on counter-insurgency operations (COIN) under its ambitious Future-Infantry Soldier as a System (F-INSAS), stands interminably delayed.

Officials associated with the programmne said the F-INSAS aimed at harnessing technologies to enable the army to deploy a fully-networked, all-terrain and all-weather infantry with enhanced firepower and mobility for the future digitised battlefield, stands deferred by over six years if not longer beyond its 2013 deadline of fielding a prototype.

Conceived in August 2005 and announced by former army chief, General J J Singh two years later, the F-INSAS prototype focuses on the need to provide the infantry soldier with greater lethality, movement, survivability, sustainability, communications and situational awareness.

The programme is primarily an aggregate of ‘System of Sub-Systems’ to transform the Indian infantryman into a self-contained fighting machine enabling him to operate across the entire spectrum of future battles including nuclear war and low intensity conflict in a network-centric environment.

It seeks to equip him with an effective sensor-shooter interface in which each soldier is seamlessly integrated with his section, platoon and company. Conceptually, F-INSAS is envisioned as a ‘friendly enabler’ not only with regard to what it delivers individually, but also with respect to how each module is used in conjunction with other components which make up the whole.

‘Future Soldier’ programmes began emerging in armies around the world in the late 1990s with the broad aim of rendering each trooper capable of exchanging all information relevant to the battlefield with higher command echelons.

Thereafter, some 21 armies launched Soldier Modernization Programmes (SMPs) endeavouring to heighten the infantry soldiers situational-awareness capacity, fire power, protection and NATO-defined C4I (command and control, communications, computers and intelligence) potential.

Aping foreign SMPs, India aims to accomplish its F-INSAS through a mix of imported and locally developed equipment and systems for an estimated Rs 250 billion ($4.16 billion) in its first phase by 2025-27, a deadline it is almost certainly unlikely to meet. During its planning stage Infantry Directorate officers visited France, Israel, Italy and the US to assess their respective SMPs and incorporated many of their elaborate, albeit expensive and at times technologically overextended features into F-INSAS.

“The recurring postponements in the F-INSAS programme are primarily due to a lack of focus and clarity within the higher echelons of the army on system requirements” admitted a senior officer associated with the programme who declined to be named.

The army itself , he declared is primarily responsible for the delays, unable even to formulate qualitative requirements (QRs) for many of the planned inductions in addition to over reach on some to the

point of unreasonableness. The F-INSAS programme, he warned is long overdue and needs to be fast-forwarded as security threats posed by nuclear rivals Pakistan and China are steadily escalating.

Additionally and more alarmingly, Army Headquarters is yet to obtain the Ministry of Defence’s (MoDs) approval or Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for the hugely expensive F-INSAS programme at a time when the military budget is facing major cutbacks.

In November 2012 India’s federal finance ministry cut the MoDs Rs 795.97 billion capital acquisition outlay by Rs 100 billion or 12.5 per cent for Fiscal Year 2012-13 in what was a major blow to the army’s already sluggish modernisation efforts. The marginal hike in defence spending in FY 2013-14 abetted by the continuing devaluation of the Rupee against the US Dollar too has negatively impacted the military’s badly-needed upgrade, particularly the F-INSAS programme.

Senior army planners said the infantry makeover was further jeopardised by the MoDs preference for the inefficient and poorly-managed Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to design weapons and systems and the equally wasteful public sector defence units (DPSUs) and the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) to build them.

“Anxious to protect its turf, the MoD discourages the army from tapping into the relatively more efficient, responsive and cost effective private sector to design and manufacture major systems particularly in optics, electronics and information-technology (IT) related spheres” former Lieutenant General Vijay Kapoor said. This ongoing tussle in MoD corridors between the private and public sectors will doubtlessly impact the F-INSAS programme in which little or no progress is so far visible, he declared.

Fundamentally, the F-INSAS programme involves equipping over 305,000 infantry troops and around 90,000 RR and AR personnel employed on conventional, COIN operations or both with a modular, multi-caliber suite of weapons and body armour. Assorted individual equipment like target acquisition and hand-held surveillance devices, including 3d generation night vision devices (NVDs) and communication apparatus, too form part of its upgrade package.

A range of computers capable of transmitting and uploading voice, data and video clips on wrist displays for soldiers and ‘planning boards’ for commanders, ‘smart’ vests packed with sensors, integrated ballistic helmets with heads-up display (HuD), miniature radios, global positioning systems (GPS) and portable power packs complete the F-INSAS programme.

But after six years nothing tangible has been achieved. Even acquiring a multi-purpose tool of which some 300,000 are needed for each upgraded infantry soldiers’ survival kit has been delayed by the army despite trials in 2010-11, featuring vendors from Italy, Switzerland and the USA. Army officers said this was due primarily to the army’s rigid and at times questionable trial procedures alongside its inability to take timely decisions which, in turn, aggravated suppliers.

There has, however, been incremental progress in weapon acquisitions with the army beginning in August 2012 the process of procuring 44,618 5.56mm Close Quarter Battle (CQB) Carbines to replace the outdated, WW II 9mm version; it tested five models at the Infantry School in Mhow, Pokhran in Rajasthan and at high altitude locations.

Competing for the Rs 20 billion CQB carbine tender are Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) Galil Ace carbine, Italy’s Baretta ARX-160 and USAs Colt and Sig Sauer’s offering the M4 and 516 Patrol models.

The selected vendor will be mandated to transfer technology to the OFB to licence produce 380,000-400,000 CQB carbines and 5.56mm ammunition for use not only by the army but eventually by the paramilitaries and state police forces in a programme estimated to cost over Rs 50 billion.

However, despite trials for CQB carbines and 5.56mm ammunition-of which 233 million rounds are to be acquired-being concluded over a year ago the final Staff evaluation by army headquarters still under process. Senior infantry officers had expected price negotiations for the carbines to have begun by mid-2013 ahead of the contract being inked by 2014 followed by deliveries shortly thereafter.

Bureaucratic delays both by the army and MoD have expectedly deferred the CQB contract and in turn exacerbated the operationally dire situation prevailing for over two years under which infantry units are being forced to operate without even the obsolete 9mm carbines as the OFB has stopped producing rounds for them.

Alongside, technical or paper evaluation in support of the army’s initial requirement for 66,000 Multi Caliber Assault Rifles-5.56mm and 7.62mm-featuring five models is yet to be completed. Field trials remain in abeyance but could be held by end-2013 or early the following year followed by followed by summer evaluation in 2014.

The rival rifles weighing 3.6 kg fielded by the Czech Republic’s Czeca (CZ 805 BREN), IWI (ACE 1), Baretta (ARX 160) and Colt ( Colt Combat Rifle) and Sig Sauer (SG551) requires them to readily convert from 5.56x45mm to 7.62x39mm merely by switching the barrel and magazine for employment on COIN or conventional offensive operations. They also need to be fitted with detachable under barrel grenade launchers (UBGLs) and be capable of firing OFB-produced 5.56mmx45 (SS109) ammunition rounds.

The new assault rifle will replace the locally developed Indian Small Arms System (INSAS) 5.56mmx45mm rifle developed over 35 years and inducted into service in the early 1990s which has proven to be inefficient and operationally troublesome. Defence minister A K Antony informed parliament late last year that the DRDO-designed and OFB-built rifles were being replaced since “technological development had created more superior rifles over the years”, a euphemism for the indigenously designed product being inadequate.

The short-listed assault rifle vendor too will be required to transfer technology to the OFB to licence build the weapon system to meet the army’s immediate shortfall of around 218,320 pieces.

Armament industry officials estimate that India’s assault rifle requirement will, in due course be 2-3 million pieces to equip besides the army the large Central Paramilitary Forces and the provincial police. Together, the CQB carbine and assault rifle inductions will eventually be one of the world’s largest ever small arms contracts worth over $5 billion.

The other significant hurdle in finalising the carbine tender is the stalemate over Image Intensifier (II) and Thermal Imaging (TI) based surveillance and target acquisition devices, the lack of which has, till now rendered India’s infantry soldier ‘night blind’ in close quarter battle situations.

Despite the urgency to make good this operational void the army has, surprisingly yet to finalise its revised requirement for both hugely expensive systems II and TI systems the acquisition of which will have a massive financial impact on the F-INSAS project.

Presently, some 45,000 II based 3d generation Night Sights (Monocular) for fitment onto CQB carbines need to be acquired but their QRs need final confirmation.

The CQB carbines the army has evaluated have an effective range of 200mts but under pressure from unnamed ‘vested interests’ it mysteriously wants the specification of the II Tube-the core of the night sight-to be pitched at an inordinately extended Figure of Merit (FoM) rating of 1700.

This hugely expensive and heavily restricted FoM 1700 rating allows users to see clearly in pitch darkness including heavily clouded moonless nights and even in thick jungle at night. But the fundamental drawback is that this capacity is unavailable in India and needs to be imported at high cost.

In 2010 the MoD had, for Rs 1 billion facilitated the transfer of controlled ‘supergen’ technology from France’s Photonic to the public sector Bharat Electrical Limited (BEL) to manufacture II Tubes with a FoM 1400 rating.

Other than Photonis the only other provider of II-based technology is USAs ITT. And while former is not permitted by the French government to export technology beyond FoM 1400 outside the European Union, US legislation prohibits ITT from transferring know-how overseas beyond FoM 1200.

Meanwhile, the field evaluation of night sights conducted last year by the Infantry Directorate on the CQB carbines on dark nights proved that the sights equipped with FoM 1400 were more than adequate for its 200m effective range.

Besides, factoring in the cost differential of nearly 50 per cent between FoM 1400 and FoM 1700 versus the respective visual range enhancement of no more than 10 per cent renders the army’s QRs for night sights for the CQB carbines not only impractical but as some officers suggest somewhat subjective. They hinted that a handful of unproven European night vision manufacturers had entered into joint ventures with well connected local entrepreneurs who were reportedly influencing decisions on night sights.

Officials said BEL is capable of meeting the army’s requirement for 45,000 night sights based on II tubes with a FoM of 1400 but army headquarters remains insistent on FoM 1700 which would necessitate costly imports. Additionally, BEL can also provide the ‘Auto Gating’ or brightness control facility on the night sights at no additional cost. Army experts justify the high cost of fitting the proposed assault rifles with ranges of over 400 mts with night sights with FoM 1700 as an effective force multiplier rather than on the CQB carbines.

Under F-INSAS the army also plans on acquiring some 15,000 5.56mm light machine guns and around 1000 sniper rifles for select “Ghatak” infantry commando platoons but these too await final QR formulations.

Similarly QRs for critical battle field communication and navigation equipment- including Dead Reckoning Modules (a miniature self-contained electronic navigation unit that pinpoints the user’s position in case of non-availability or failure of navigational satellites), digital compasses, assorted computer, dual-band radio sets and soldier-individual power packs were far from completed.

But requests for proposal (RFPs) for some 170,000 modular bullet proof jackets (BPJs) weighing around 10.5kg and an equal number of Ballistic Helmets had been dispatched to domestic manufacturers in June and December 2012 respectively, some four years behind schedule. Contracts for neither had yet been signed. Conversely, tenders for basic knee and elbow protection pads too awaited finalisation in what is proving to be a ruinous infantry modernisation programme.

ARTILLERY: Still waiting for F-INSAS - Defence and Security of India

 

[confound thinker]

Six year delay is toooo much...