It's not just that the Indian defence sector can't build simple trainer airplanes or armoured vehicles. It even struggles to design usable rifles or make good boots. "Indian soldiers", says Commodore Uday Bhaskar of the National Maritime Foundation, "prefer to buy their uniforms from private tailors rather than wear free government issue".
TRAINER (Indian designed and developed and getting clearance next year)
FIGHTER (Indian designed and developed, already given IOC, to join within coming year)
BASIC TRAINER (in design phase, to fulfill remaining 100+ trainer needs apart from the imported Swiss PC-7)
Uday Bhaskar seems to be exaggerating a little too much here.
The ONLY problem is bureaucracy and corruption among politicians and nothing wrong with the talent behind these machines. If HAL, ADA and NAL are handed over unanimously to IAF, GRSL, CSL and MDL are handed over to Navy and HVA and DRDO are handed over to Army respectively, with
serving officers of each role heading them rather than corruptible generals/captains/commodores, these same government agencies would be topping the global charts with cutting edge and on time production of weapons.
In 2005, DRDO spoke of making 70% of Indian defence equipment at home.
It has been 7 years and more than 50 projects have come either in their final phases or have been inducted.
Antony and the ministry offer lip service to private sector involvement . But they have done little to make defence production attractive to such firms. Their vision is one of private firms serving as subcontractors to State-owned firms. The Indian private sector is almost seen as the Enemy. Defence officials admit Hindustan Aeronautics prefers India import rather than get the Indian private sector involved. Such is their fear that India Inc will marginalise them.
100% true. The government is against privatization in the country as big powerhouses will succeed in record time and nullify the incompetent bureaucrats that run state-owned labs. This is the ego and image issue that the government has and for its own selfish gains, is killing so much potential.
In effect, India spends to maintain the military-industrial capacity of others who are too decrepit, like Russia, or too small, like Israel and France, to stand on their own feet. India's government defence firms serve as their cutouts. At the Prime Minister's Office, it is fully understood that the lack of an indigenous defence sector with real innovative capacity makes a mockery of India's great power ambitions.
Bitter truth, but I wouldn't call the world's second, fourth and fifth largest exporters of weapons as "decrypt" or "too small".
Defence ministry mandarins are not wrong in claiming that in 90% of the contracts, Indian private firms don't have the capacity. What is needed is a long-term policy of developing exactly that. This would require the military to produce stable, long-term plans regarding arms procurements. The present system, especially prevalent in the army, of piecemeal and ever-changing weapons orders inflates prices and keeps Indian businesses away.
This is true as well. The IAF and IA are worst customers even government run laboratories could find. They act like two-year olds, changing their requirement ever 3-4 years and expecting an Enterprise to be the value of a cycle. This lack of maturity, understanding and planning is what makes both of them look like idiots when compared to their contemporary counterparts in other countries.
It would require the ministry to allow Indian private firms to be junior partners in ventures with overseas firms. "Foreign collaboration is needed for design knowhow," says Vice-Admiral Premvir Das of the Aspen Institute of India. Indian private defence companies are the first to say this is the best means to absorb military tech and grasp the crown jewels of defence knowhow - complex processes like systems integration.
Until it is an absolute majority government where the ruling party is both dedicated and has a perfect sway over the Parliament, nothing would be possible by these fragmented, weak and mob-rule based "coalition governments", other than further looting of our country.
There is no doubt that India's private manufacturers can produce the sort of engineering components even high-end fighters require. They have shown this in the automobile sector, notes Kak, where they produce components that match Japanese and German precision.
There's no shortage of potential or talent; it is only political ill-will towards the nation that is the source of all troubles. If the current political class is exterminated in a miraculous flash flood or tsunami to get replaced with new era of leaders, then this would drastically change.
