Companies to compete, US-style, to develop armoured carriers for army

[jha]

The contract has gone to Private industries...

here is the article by AJAI SHUKLA...

DRDO to develop army's next-generation tank ​

A line of completed Arjun tanks at the Heavy Vehicle Factor, built for the Indian Army's 75 Armoured Regiment.


In March 2010, during trials in the Rajasthan desert, the Defence R&D Organisation’s Arjun tank conclusively outperformed the Russian T-90, the army’s showpiece tank. Buoyed by that success and by the army’s consequent order for 124 additional Arjuns, the DRDO is now readying to develop India’s next-generation tank, currently termed the Future Main Battle Tank (FMBT).

While costs are still being evaluated, the projections are mind-boggling. The development cost alone of the FMBT could be Rs 5000 crores. Then, the replacement cost of the Indian Army’s 4000 tanks --- at a conservative Rs 25 crores per FMBT --- adds up to Rs 100,000 crores. The bulk of this would flow, over years of production, to Tier-1 and Tier-2 suppliers from small and medium industries.

For the first time the DRDO has outlined the contours of the FMBT project. Talking exclusively to Business Standard, DRDO chief and Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, Dr VK Saraswat, revealed, “While the Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) has been handed over to the private industry, the DRDO will develop the FMBT. We need about 7-8 years from the time the project is formally sanctioned. The army and the DRDO have already identified the major features of the FMBT, which are quite different from the Arjun. While the Arjun is a 60-tonne tank, the FMBT will be lighter… about 50 tonnes. It will be a highly mobile tank.”

The FMBT project, admits the military, is crucial for India’s future battle readiness. As army chief, General Deepak Kapoor pronounced 80% of India’s tank fleet unfit to fight at night, which is when most tank battles take place. The bulk of India’s tank fleet, some 2400 obsolescent Russian T-72s, are being shoddily patched up (Business Standard, 3rd Feb 10, “Army to spend billions on outdated T-72 tanks”). More modern T-90 tanks were procured from Russia in 2001, shorn of crucial systems to reduce prices after parliamentary dissent threatened to derail the contract (Business Standard, 4th Feb 10, “Piercing the army’s armour of deception”). Only now, after nine years of stonewalling, has Russia transferred the technology needed to build the T-90 in India.

Urgently in need of capable tanks, the army has worked with the DRDO to finalise a broad range of capabilities for the FMBT. These have been formalised in a document called the Preliminary Specifications Qualitative Requirement (PSQR). The detailed specifications of the FMBT, once finalised, will be listed out in the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR).

Amongst the capabilities being finalised for the GSQR are: active armour, which will shoot down enemy anti-tank projectiles before they strike the FMBT; extreme mobility, which makes the FMBT much harder to hit; the capability to operate in a nuclear-contaminated battlefield without exposing the crew to radiation; and the networked flow of information to the FMBT, providing full situational awareness to the crew, even when “buttoned down” inside the tank.

Also being finalised is the FMBT’s armament, a key attribute that determines a tank’s battlefield influence. The Arjun already has a heavy 120 millimetre “main gun”, and two small-calibre machine guns; and the recently ordered batch of 124 Arjuns will also fire anti-tank missiles through their main gun. The army wants all of those for the FMBT, with ranges enhanced through technological improvements.

However, the DRDO chief ruled out an electromagnetic gun, the next generation in high-velocity guns towards which armament technology aspires. “The Future MBT is not so far in the future”, Dr Saraswat quipped.

With the FMBT project squarely on its agenda, the DRDO also envisages a major role in developing the FICV. Says the DRDO chief, “The FICV is not just a conventional armoured vehicle for transporting soldiers. It involves advanced technologies and multidisciplinary integration, which private industry has never done. Only the DRDO and the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) have that experience. DRDO teams are already thinking about the technologies that should go into the FICV. But this is only to support private industry in making the FICV project a success.”

While private industry weighs its options about where to manufacture the FICV, the DRDO has already chosen the Heavy Vehicle Factory (HVF) in Avadi --- the OFB facility that builds the Arjun --- as the FMBT production line.

“It will definitely be produced in HVF. I see no way that we can go away from HVF”, says Dr Saraswat. “The HVF will work with us from the preliminary design of the FMBT so that we can go from prototype to mass production without any hiccups.”

Broadsword: DRDO to develop army's next-generation tank

 

[shrivatsa]

abhay?

 

[Super Falcon]

well hope these companies will come up something like US made i doubt they will they are good at cars not armoured vehicles

 

[Trisonics]

well hope these companies will come up something like US made i doubt they will they are good at cars not armoured vehicles

The advantage by going to private companies are many, first, and most important for India is QC..the private companies have strict polices in that effect. So quality will definitely be better.

Secondly, they have vast infrastructure already in place. Hence cost comes down and time lines will be shorter.

Thirdly, If you see the automobile scene in India, there are new cars designed and made in house with very good quality. Also, the older cars get upgraded frequently..this tell me any change in design or further improvements will not be a worry.

 

[flanker143]

We need about 7-8 years from the time the project is formally sanctioned.

when r they going to sanction it ????????????????

let hope that drdo doesn't get itself entangled in the series of delays again and they have learned sumthing from their past experiences......

 

[ganimi kawa]

costs are still being evaluated

Urgently in need of capable tanks, the army has worked with the DRDO to finalise a broad range of capabilities for the FMBT. These have been formalised in a document called the Preliminary Specifications Qualitative Requirement (PSQR). The detailed specifications of the FMBT, once finalised, will be listed out in the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR).

^^^It will take at least a year or so to formalize a project proposal from this stage and another year for getting it sanctioned. To this add another 8 years for development and its 2020. This is of course the best case scenario.
This coincides with the retirement of the oldest T 72 units . For a change army seems to be acting in tandem with DRDO and it augurs well for the timeline of this project.

 

[sudhir007]

Ajai Shukla: You got it! Now deserve it

Three Indian private companies with ambitions in the defence sector won a major battle when they were invited to compete, on level terms with the public sector, in developing a Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) for the Indian Army. In the FICV project, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has conceded almost everything that the private sector has demanded since it was allowed into defence production in 2001. The MoD will fund 80 per cent of the development cost of the FICV. And, with the army looking to buy in quantity, economies of scale are guaranteed during production.
For those who did not read yesterday’s Business Standard, four Indian companies — Tata Motors, the Mahindra Group, L&T and the MoD-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) — will submit proposals on August 25 for designing and building 2,600 new-generation FICVs. Two vendors with the best proposals will be invited to develop a prototype each, contributing just 20 per cent of the expense. Then, after the army chooses the better design, the winner will build 65-70 per cent of the army’s requirement of FICVs; the runner-up will build the rest.

In this welcome decision, the MoD has followed the American defence procurement model, in which the Pentagon funds a development competition between two or more private companies for each new weapons system. So far New Delhi has usually nominated the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to develop such systems and the OFB to manufacture them.

But with big changes come high expectations. Having granted the private sector its wish list, the MoD and the Indian Army will carefully observe how the private vendors handle their first-ever development contract. Any shortfalls will reinforce long-held MoD prejudices. “We told you so!” will go the chorus in South Block, “Only the public sector has the skills and the commitment needed for defence production.”

The comparison may even be directly tested, since the OFB — potentially in partnership with the DRDO — is in contention to develop the FICV.

There are three pitfalls that the private sector must avoid. First, the selected vendor(s) must not fall short of the army’s expectations, or in providing users with a development experience that contrasts tellingly with past experience with the DRDO and OFB. In this, a draw would be a loss; only an innings victory would suffice.

Secondly, the private sector must not front for foreign partners, who seek to bring in existing products through the back door. As the debutante private vendors step into the FICV arena, the spotlight will play unkindly on those clutching the arm of a muscular foreign partner.

Global arms majors have figured that a risk-free way of cracking India’s difficult procurement procedures is to partner an Indian company in a “Make” contract, and pass off existing products under the rubric of “joint development”. A top manager in one of the private companies vying for the FICV contract recounts, “I have received more partnership proposals for the FICV than I ever received for any other weapons platform.”

Reflecting this trend, private companies worry that the OFB is about to join hands with Russian export controller, Rosonboronexport, to “jointly develop” a variant of the tested BMP-3 ICV. To circumvent such a possibility, the private vendors must accept the developmental risk of proposing an FICV that is technologically beyond anything on the market today. They have been asked to develop a Futuristic ICV. The specifications they submit on the 25th must go well beyond avant-garde.

Thirdly, when history is written, the FICV will be less about who built it or how much profit was made. This chapter will be more about whether India’s private sector used this heaven-sent, MoD-funded opportunity to build its technological capability. Private sector managers argue that each technology decision — whether to develop or buy — should be treated as a business case. But this irreproachable commercial logic misses the significance of this turning point. The private sector’s success in grabbing the moment will be measured in the currency of technologies that were developed along with the FICV.

Certain technologies that will go into the FICV are presently beyond the vendors, e.g., an indigenous engine, or a transmission system. If a technological breakthrough seems impossible during the FICV’s development, a foreign partnership is a better option than holding the project hostage. But there are many achievable technologies and sub-systems — e.g., in electronics, ballistic computation, night-vision devices, fire control systems, and gun control systems — that can realistically be achieved by putting more money into R&D. If the MoD is unwilling to go beyond what was tendered, private vendors need to loosen their purse strings. At the end of the FICV project, the private vendors must be able to point out key technologies that they developed in-country.

The MoD’s “Make” procedure mandates that 50 per cent of the FICV must be indigenously produced. This is easily achieved by producing low-and-mid-end systems and components like the armoured hull and turret, the suspension system, the electricals and the basic electronics. A more convincing measure of success for the private sector would be an ability to claim that it met that 50 per cent requirement in components that were developed and refined during the course of the FICV project.

 

[jha]

Regarding the ICV competition there is one adanga...Companies are not allowed to work with foreign companies...I think our own private companies will face a lot of difficulties going alone....

Comments awaited..

 

[ganimi kawa]

Regarding the ICV competition there is one adanga...Companies are not allowed to work with foreign companies...I think our own private companies will face a lot of difficulties going alone....

Comments awaited..

I don't think so.

The MoD’s “Make” procedure mandates that 50 per cent of the FICV must be indigenously produced.

Rest 50% can be sourced from foreign companies.

 

[jha]

^^^ sorry..must have overlooked 50% part...in any case this has to look much advanced than any one available in the market...A positive thing is that they can avail the already setup infra by DRDO..

 

[Dash]

Mahindra group with BAE systems are already working on a JV for ICV I guess. They must have an advantage on this...

and TATA is also tied up with some one. Any one knows which is it?

 

[Tshering22]

Regarding the ICV competition there is one adanga...Companies are not allowed to work with foreign companies...I think our own private companies will face a lot of difficulties going alone....

Comments awaited..

I agree that they might get stuck for sometime but anyways they'd be dang faster than any government babudom agency has done so far in the last 50 years. . With privates, we can expect a max id 5-10 years time in developing high-level technologies rather than the record 36 years that government slowpokes took for an MBT.

 

[IndianRobo]

Well I would Place my Cash On Mahindra Group as , I personally have Witnessed Mahindra Marksman, Believe Me, What an Awsome Stuff that is, Its Absolutely the Best ever troop Carrier built in India...

Well However Our Pvt comapanies can Make it with 70% Indigenous Stuffs, But its Not Advisable or Economical to make everything Here, No Company Does it...

 

[IndianRobo]

I seriously Wonder why Shri Lakshmi Defence Solutions are not competing in this... They got pretty good Vehicles Like Viper,Drona and Dhruv

 

[ganimi kawa]

in any case this has to look much advanced than any one available in the market.

I would not worry too much about that. With TATA in the race at least the " looks " would be world class. Here is a company which owns daewoo (truck business),jaguar and land rover.

On technology aspect , we will have to wait and watch.

IMHO if this contract results in development of an indian engine ( two stroke diesel) ; that would be the biggest success .