Defence reboot policy: Revamp R&D, simplify weapons purchase

[Indian Jaat]

The defence ministry has been a source of worry as key decisions were put off under the risk-averse UPA minister A K Antony. As a result, procurement policies remain long-winded affecting acquisition of much-needed military hardware. Indigenous production has also limped along.

On top of this, the relationship between the civil and military leadership has at best been awkward, at worst, strained. The challenges facing the new minister are many.

The top priorities are:

* Boost indigenous defence R&D and production by revamping DRDO and its 50 labs, five defence PSUs, four shipyards and 39 ordnance factories as well as encourage the private sector to enter arms production. India still imports 65% of its military hardware and software.

* Streamline cumbersome arms procurement procedures to fasttrack acquisitions and reduce corruption. Also re-examine policies for offsets, transfer of technology and the ban on agents. Projects for new submarines, howitzers, fi ghters , helicopters, night-fi ghting capabilities, air-defence weapons and the like have been stuck for years due to politico-bureaucratic lethargy.

* Reform the country's higher defence management, with measures ranging from creating a post like the chief of defence staff to truly integrating Service HQs with the defence ministry. "Cross-staffing", or posting military officers to MoD at the director/joint secretary-levels, is an idea whose time has come.

* Ensure faster build-up of both the new mountain strike corps as well as military infrastructure like the longidentified 73 strategic roads and 14 railway lines, helipads and advance landing grounds, along the Line of Actual Control to counter China. Boost force-levels and infrastructure at Andaman & Nicobar Command, apart from creating three new tri-Service commands for space, cyber and special operations.

* Complete India's nuclear weapons triad by faster induction of nuclear submarine INS Arihant and its follow-on sister ships with longrange missiles. Land and air legs are already in place with Agni ballistic missiles and fi ghter-bombers .

* Hike budgeted defence expenditure to at least 2.5% of GDP, instead of letting it wallow around just 1.7 to 1.9%. Cut the flab in the armed forces, wimprove the teeth-to-tail ratio.

* Step up welfare of ex-servicemen. The UPA-II regime opportunistically announced the grant of the long-demanded "one rank, one pension" principle in the run-up to the elections, but it has not been implemented yet.

Your Opinion Please

@nForce @Sam Manekshaw @chak de INDIA @WAR-rior @SarthakGanguly @nair @DRAY @desert warrior @Reviewer21 @danish_vij @Roybot @ranjeet @Tshering22 @OrionHunter @skullMAN @Skull and Bones @Soumitra @thesolar65

 

[dray]

Completely agree with the article, our defence preparedness is not at the desired level and we need to focus on that urgently, besides, our own demand itself is good enough for supporting a big indigenous defence industry, we must focus more to develop our indigenous defence equipment capabilities, that will save our foreign currency reserves and add to our economic growth. Apart from that, we need to develop greater coordination between all branches of our military to increase efficiency and reducing duplication of infrastructure.

One more thing that I very strongly feel, we as a nation need to develop a culture of respecting our soldiers sacrificing their lives for the country, we are not good at that.

 

[Tshering22]

Usually there is a celebration on the work. But now one man has so much work to do thanks to the ignorant Indian voters who would vote for whiskey and chicken all these years.

 

[karan21]

This is what I would do if I was the PM of India:
1. Break 50 different laboratories of DRDO into 50 different design bureaus like the Soviet design bureaus. These bureaus should have total autonomy on testing, production and design. The government can still maintain control over. They should have the power to collaborate with the private sector as well as with other design bureaus.

2. Open every sector of Indian defence to the private players. DRDO must directly compete with the private and international players. No contract must be given without competing with the Indian industry.

3. Make buying India products priority #1.

4. Immediately Cancel MMRCA, fast track AMCA and Tejas and Tejas mk2.

 

[OrionHunter]

As per indications, Gen VK Singh is set to become MoS in the Ministry of Defence.

Hopefully he'll be able to turn things around starting with weeding out clueless babus most of whom have spent their lives poodle faking in ministries like HRD, agriculture, wildlife, health and family welfare, youth affairs and sport and so on.

These buggers haven't even held a pistol in their lives (except their own!) and they are entrusted with defence policy and acquisitions!! Jeeez!

 

[Screambowl]

to have a defence industry, we need to have first manufacturing hubs. And to have them we need tools and equipment. For that you need to have industry developing such tools and equipments. Buying from outside is the only way to start with swadeshi industry.

 

[axisofevil]

You guys keep blaming AK....the blame lies solely on SONIA AND RAHUL

 

[Killswitch]

You guys keep blaming AK....the blame lies solely on SONIA AND RAHUL

AK totally shut down procurement. Our troops are lacking basic equipment due to his incompetence.

 

[axisofevil]

AK totally shut down procurement. Our troops are lacking basic equipment due to his incompetence.

Not his fault. Our troops were lacking equipment long before he arrived. Your blame is misplaced. Shut down of procurement was due to corruption that was ingrained by decades od misgovernace.

 

[nForce]

@Indian Jaat

I agree with your point of view.

Defence is a key element for a nation and it is in the very interest of the nation to be fully capable of maintaining its sovereignty.

It is also very important to reduce the dependency on external sources for equipments, as much as possible.We have seen a lot of significant changes in the outlook of the government of India in the past two decade, so far as the economic policies are concerned. A lot of ailing, state-run institutions have been privatized.While that was frowned upon in the past, now we know that it has turned out well.
Now, the same thing cannot be said about the defence industry and procurements. The Indian army, navy and air force still heavily rely on Russian equipments.Well, nothing wrong with the equipments being Russian, its just that, if we have the capability to manufacture something by ourselves, then we should go ahead and do it, rather than being dependent on somebody else.That increases reduced external dependency, cost and thereby increased self-reliance.

A healthy competition is always necessary to bring out proper quality.At one point of time, well-to-do people used to ride ambassadors, the upper section of the society and high-ranking govt officials used to ride Contessa and those with truck loads of money used to ride imported cars.There was hardly in competition put up by any domestic manufacturer, and thereby, the quality was poor too.Maruti was selling the Maruti 800 back then, Mahindra was busy selling tractors and Tata was happy making trucks which were at least two decades old in terms of technology when compared to their European counterparts.
You open up the market, make these companies face tough competition, enable them with friendly policies and see the result..Maruti macufactuers great family cars today, Mahindra builds World-class SUVs, Tata does both and have done multiple acquisitions giving it a foot hold in the European market. It is absolotuely necessary, that the same formula should be applied to the defence industry. There should be partial privatization of some part of the state-run defence industry. Government should encourage more and more private players to bid for manufacturing defence equipments.Things will be less costly, more reliable, easy to procure and will create more job opportunities.

 

[thesolar65]

The defence ministry has been a source of worry as key decisions were put off under the risk-averse UPA minister A K Antony. As a result, procurement policies remain long-winded affecting acquisition of much-needed military hardware. Indigenous production has also limped along.

On top of this, the relationship between the civil and military leadership has at best been awkward, at worst, strained. The challenges facing the new minister are many.

The top priorities are:

* Boost indigenous defence R&D and production by revamping DRDO and its 50 labs, five defence PSUs, four shipyards and 39 ordnance factories as well as encourage the private sector to enter arms production. India still imports 65% of its military hardware and software.

* Streamline cumbersome arms procurement procedures to fasttrack acquisitions and reduce corruption. Also re-examine policies for offsets, transfer of technology and the ban on agents. Projects for new submarines, howitzers, fi ghters , helicopters, night-fi ghting capabilities, air-defence weapons and the like have been stuck for years due to politico-bureaucratic lethargy.

* Reform the country's higher defence management, with measures ranging from creating a post like the chief of defence staff to truly integrating Service HQs with the defence ministry. "Cross-staffing", or posting military officers to MoD at the director/joint secretary-levels, is an idea whose time has come.

* Ensure faster build-up of both the new mountain strike corps as well as military infrastructure like the longidentified 73 strategic roads and 14 railway lines, helipads and advance landing grounds, along the Line of Actual Control to counter China. Boost force-levels and infrastructure at Andaman & Nicobar Command, apart from creating three new tri-Service commands for space, cyber and special operations.

* Complete India's nuclear weapons triad by faster induction of nuclear submarine INS Arihant and its follow-on sister ships with longrange missiles. Land and air legs are already in place with Agni ballistic missiles and fi ghter-bombers .

* Hike budgeted defence expenditure to at least 2.5% of GDP, instead of letting it wallow around just 1.7 to 1.9%. Cut the flab in the armed forces, wimprove the teeth-to-tail ratio.

* Step up welfare of ex-servicemen. The UPA-II regime opportunistically announced the grant of the long-demanded "one rank, one pension" principle in the run-up to the elections, but it has not been implemented yet.

Your Opinion Please

I have always favoured Private Participation, but in the same breath I will also say that years of neglect has left the private players nil WRT R&D. So for the time being the DRDO should cooperate with Private Industry. The problem with our indigenous thing is that production. You see, DRDO may be developing different products or platforms, but when it comes to production, the PSUs like HAL, OFBs fail. So that where Private players should come.

Also Private Players can be encouraged to put money in their own R&D and give subsides to them who develops something. Show them the money and they will show you the magic. But at the same time do not write off the PSUs. Just give them a competition!! And as Karan21 said make the three services buy Indian products a compulsory even if the product comes second to foreign maal if not third!!

 

[Storm Force]

Its embaressing the GULF in indengious capability between china & india,

Even taking into account their near 4.5 times bigger GDP and 10-1 manufacteruring infrastucture.

REASON WHY its embarressing we indians have open easy access to western and global nations defence technology.

YET nobody had the foresight to use our advantage over CHINA to leap frog them buy getting into joint ventures ausing their manufacturing expertise.

China gones from buiolding copies of MIG21s (decades after russia stopped building them) to inducting nearly 2 fifth gen platforms.

We despite help from USA FRANCE & ISRAEL are pussy footing about with a lighteweight LCA tejas from the late 1990s era.

 

[sancho]

Typical TOI article, just a lot of BS!

Boost indigenous defence R&D and production by revamping DRDO and its 50 labs, five defence PSUs, four shipyards and 39 ordnance factories as well as encourage the private sector to enter arms production.India still imports 65% of its military hardware and software.

That's 100% what the UPA MoD already did in the last 10 years, but the problem is neither the GoI nor the lack of funding that is often used as an excuse, but the plain reality that our defence industry is A) not a reasonable level to provide more stuff for the forces and B) have a track reckord of aiming too high and then failing to supply core developments (LCA, Kaveri engine, fighter radar, Arjun MBT, howitzers...). What's even worse is, that the privat industry has just started to realise that India is the biggest defence market on earth, but put way too little effort to take over a credible share. They prefer to produce minor parts for foreign markets and vendors, instead of making bigger lincence productions for Indian forces. Sikorsky helicopters, F18 parts for western customers, over Avro replacement or Pilatus licence productions for Indian forces!

Projects for new submarines, howitzers, fi ghters , helicopters, night-fi ghting capabilities, air-defence weapons and the like have been stuck for years due to politico-bureaucratic lethargy.

Wrong, most of these procurements were stuck because of corruption cases in the forces (howitzers, VVIP helicopters) or industrial issues (air defence missiles and MMRCA), which obviously has nothing to do with politics at all.
If they want to change things, they have to get a way stronger stand on corruption, starting with the forces and accountability for delivering projects, starting with the indigenous industry! Then they can look to change laws and rules for external problems, like blacklisting of vendors or agents.

Complete India's nuclear weapons triad by faster induction of nuclear submarine INS Arihant and its follow-on sister ships with longrange missiles.

Nonsense, the induction of additional subs is dependent on a successful test result of the indigenous nuclear propulsion, especially wrt safety and reliability! It would be nuts to pop out more subs just to show off and not because they are capable, safe and reliable.
Moreover, it doesn't matter how many SSBNs we have, unless we also have useful missiles for them! All sub launched balistic missiles are not on the required level, Nirbhay and Brahmos M for basic cruise missile strikes are also under development only, so we first need to finish these projects with a credible performance, before we can deal with the numbers of SSBNs.