INDIA: Building a Modern Arsenal in India

[desiman]

Commerce ministry suggests 100% FDI in defence to address failure, MoD will resist

India has failed miserably in attracting FDI investment in defence, a key to attaining self sufficiency in defence equipment. 8ak sources and a Pragmatic report confirm that India managed to attract a meagre Rs 70 lakh in defence FDI since 2001.

Now another key ministry has tried to come to the rescue - The Hindu reports that the Commerce Ministry has sent a note to the cabinet secretariat suggesting that global defence companies be allowed to set-up manufacturing units with 100% FDI under the FIPB/CCEA approval route. The commerce ministry feels that such a move would also cut down the role of touts and middle men. The note says that the possibility of the company passing critical equipment key to enemy countries persists, however, if the production is taking place in India, it would be easier to control production and monitor these companies.

However, according to DNA, the MoD has termed the move bizarre and a private sector player has said that without the backing of MoD, such a proposal will have no validity.

All industry associations like CII, FICCI and Assocham, the CEOs of top Indian and Foreign private sector players and foreign governments have repeatedly asked the Ministry of Defence to increase the cap but the MoD refuses. The bizzare explanation for this refusal was revealed when 8ak interviewed Bharat Verma, Editor of Indian Defence Review. Verma said that the MoD explanation of the issue is that "We allowed 26% FDI and nobody came, so why should we increase it to 49%?".

Unfortunately for India and unlike China, the MoD officials on their two year terms have no procedures in place to measure performance, have never been held accountable for their actions that result in national failure and can hide their inefficiencies/failures behind the Official Secrects Act. Business Standard did a great report on how the MoD dodges accountability even from audits from the Comptroller and Auditor General and even questions from parliamentary committees.

Bharat Verma has said that foreign companies are eager to invest in Indian defence (see 8ak's reporty "Eurojet ready to transfer crystal blade technology") and are willing to share key technology with India, but a 26% ownership cap was a big barrier for them to transfer technology that they have spent billions developing.

As earlier reported that a high powered defence committee had proposed to allow 49% FDI in defence and also enhance the limit to 74% and 100% on case-by-case basis. Full recommendation. But this has never been implemented even for leading global companies like BAE Systems and EADS so smaller companies have little or no hope.

 

[desiman]

Arjun wins against the Russian T-90, but may only be deployed in Rajasthan

Another brilliant report from Ajai Shukla on the comparative trials between India's home-made Arjun tanks and the Russian T-90s. Week-long field trials were conducted by the army at the Mahajan Ranges near Bikaner in Rajasthan. Although the report is secret and will not even be completed for another week, Shukla's sources say that the Arjun may have trounced the T-90 in most parameters. He further seems to suggest that a strike role for the T-90 should be considered and the DG Mechanised Forces seems to be resisting the Arjun.

On reading the article, the first thing that comes to mind is that corruption is at play in the army's continuing choice of the Russian platform vs the indigenous one. However, on further investigation, it may not be as simple. 8ak sources said that there are problems with the CVRDE chart Shukla refers to. In comparing the Arjun to other tanks the chart leaves out 2 vital parameters that are the basis for the army's reluctance to order more Arjuns - its width and its weight.

Arjun's width of 3.86m is the widest of all tanks. 8ak sources argue that the extra width makes the Arjun the easiest to target by Pakistan's F-16s. Secondly it makes the transportation of the tanks using the Indian rail network very difficult if not completely impractical. For example, the Arjun cannot be transported on a rail track that is adjacent to a platform. Only where there are 3 tracks next to each other, can the train/bogey carrying Arjun use the centre track.

The other problem is the Arjun's extra weight. The CVRDE chart claims that Arjun weighs 58.5 tonnes but it is widely believed to be 60 tonnes. Also, the chart, while comparing the Arjun to 5 tanks cunningly leaves out a comparison to the Russian tanks, we suspect because the T-72 which only weighs 41 tonnes and the T-90 weighs 46.5 tonnes.

The extra weight and larger width means that the Arjun may not be able to use the army's mobile assault bridges - Sarvatra. The Southern J&K and Punjab area are strewn with ditch-cum-bunds and learning from the 1971 war with Pakistan, the Sarvatra bridges were designed to help tanks cross these. If the Arjun cannot cross these then it means that it must be relegated to the deserts of Rajasthan where it will play a defensive role rather than be incorporated in to the strike corps. The strike corps will have to continue to use the Russian tanks.

Many news reports seemed to indicate that the Army had been corrupted by the Russians in continuing to choose the Russian platforms over the indigenous one. One 8ak source said that the army was not against the indigenous platform, rather it's stand is that given the problems in inducting in to the current infrastructure of the armed forces, they would rather wait for Arjun Mark II.

A simple solution to a key problem seems to be a re-design of the assault bridges to carry heavier tanks. Unfortunately, as Indian Defence points out, courtesy defence minister A.K. Antony the assault bridge acquisition is under huge controversy. The Sarvatra was designed by L&T+DRDO but now the defence minister, against the wishes of even the DRDO and the Army has ordered that public sector BEML will build the bridges. BEML shamelessly claims the right to do so since it builds the TATRA trucks which form the base of the assault bridge even though it had nothing to do with designing or building the bridge.

Why does Antony support the public sector? Possibly because he got elected in Kerala, a state whose politicians depends on votes of militant unions who are so opposed to the private sector that they would rather send their own people to be slaves in the middle east (covered very well by the Independent UK "The Dark Side of Dubai") than allow job creation in their own state. Hence, as the BBC reported in the "Kerala Conundrum" the state registers 3 times the national average for unemployment and Rediff reported (2004) that Kerala also has 3 times the national average suicide rate in the country. 32 people killed themselves every day in Kerala. While this article was meant to be about the Arjun, we thought it was important to point out how thanks to one person, we are making a 'Kerala out of India's defence production'. Thanks to his department's warped policies India continues to order drones from Israel (IAI gets orders for more) even though India private sector has the engineering, design, software skills and the funds to both finance and purchase these systems indigenously.

 

[1nd1a]

India's Light Combat Helicopter Takes Off!

Just heard that HAL's Light Combat Helicopter flew today. No details, no photos just yet. All I've been told is that she flew today -- no official confirmation yet either. Let's hope some information flows out from HAL. If it really has flown, they're keeping it darn quiet. My source says he knows nothing except that TD-1 flew today in Bangalore.

LiveFist - The Best of Indian Defence: India's Light Combat Helicopter Takes Off!

 

[1nd1a]

LCH's Hover-Cyclic Flight At 20-metres Successful

The first Technology Demonstrator (TD-1) of India's Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) conducted an extended hover and slow-speed cyclic manoeuver routine yesterday at a height of a little over 20 metres. Everything went beautifully. TD-1 is not weaponised, and will be put through its full flight routines without a single weapon on board. Yesterday's flight was a confidence-building one in the run up to a formal first flight. Sources say there will be several such "confidence building" flights in the run up to the inaugural first flight in April. Wing Commander Unni Pillai piloted the LCH flight yesterday.

Sources confirmed to LiveFist, "Everything went beautifully. It was not a rigorous test, just to get the platform airborne and see how she held up in the air. Everything went fine. A degree of weight issues have been sorted out, but there is still some work to be done. That will be sorted out with TD-2 and TD-3. Now the focus is to validate the design and ensure it is a perfectly capable flying machine, which we of course know it is."

HAL has decided not to put out photos of videos of the flight, though it was , of course, photographed and videographed. Let's see what can be done!

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2010/03/lchs-hover-cyclic-flight-at-20-metres.html

 

[desiman]

sorry guys no pics yet from the MOD, will post them when i get hold of them. Posting pics from livefist right now, enjoy

 

[Prometheus]

sorry guys no pics yet from the MOD, will post them when i get hold of them. Posting pics from livefist right now, enjoy

who let the beast out

 

[desiman]

India has signed a deal to buy 15 fast-interception boats (FIBs) from the French shipyard Chantier Naval Couach.

The boats are meant for use by the new Sagar Prahari Bal (Sea Patrol Force in Hindi) being raised by Navy.

Indian media quoting defence ministry sources said the deal could be worth an estimated $500 million and was concluded on March 27. However, there was no official word on this from the Indian MoD.

India is seeking upto 80 FIBs for the Sea Patrol Force which was raised after the attack on Mumbai by sea-borne terrorists in 2008 which cost 200 lives. The Sea patrol Force will be a 1000 man force specially trained to function as a monitoring and interceptor force.

It will supplement the Navy and Coast guard.

http://www.defenseworld.net/go/defensenews.jsp?n=India%20signs%20deal%20to%20buy%2015%20fast-interception%20boats%20from%20France&id=4314

 

[desiman]

US offers latest airborne radar to India

In yet another move to enhance defence cooperation with India, the United States has offered the latest to sell the latest Airborne Stand-off Radar (ASTOR) system. The sophisticated system is being operated by British forces in Afghanistan with five ASTOR aircraft and eight ground stations.

ASTOR uses the Bombardier Global Express business jet, known in service as the Sentinel R Mk 1, and an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. The system provides a highly effective 24-hour surveillance and target acquisition capability. It delivers wide area, all weather surveillance and reconnaissance imagery in near real time for peacekeeping, warfighting and homeland security needs.

The system has a dual mode Synthetic Aperture Radar/Moving Target Indicator (SAR/MTI) sensor. The SAR provides high-resolution images for decision makers and the MTI monitors the quantity, direction and speed of moving targets for unparalleled situational awareness. The company has also built an AESA radar for F 16s, should a country buying it make the choice in its favour.

Speaking to India Strategic magazine, Admiral Walter F Doran, president Asia for Raytheon said that ASTOR flies high enough - 40,000 to 45,000 feet - to cover a large ground area, and to be beyond the range of most surface-to-air missiles (SAMs). It is also equipped with a self protection suite to put out flares and chaff to confuse and deflect any threatening missiles.

Apart from ASTOR, Raytheon’s David Hartman revealed to 8ak in an exclusive interview, that they had also offered India the Hawk-2 missile systems to India in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) around 19 months ago.

In another important development pertaining to missile systems, English People’s daily quotes DRDO Director General V.K. Saraswat saying that India will start to deploy its anti-missile interception system in 2012 to neutralise incoming ballistic missiles.

 

[Pralay_Nath_ForYou]

India is doing what it is supposed to do, and in my humble opinion India instead of Purchases of finished goods from USA should emphasize on complete TOT, so that its reliance on USA for after sale services is reduced/minimized or zeroed.

India should try to digest sophisticated western defence technologies and incorporate these with the russian and indigenous R&D and come out with more effective and attractive Technologies which are customized for both local demand as well as export.

Indians are very well trenched in europe and specially USA, they are and they must exploit this advantage more extensively.

WoW hard to find Pakistanis with objectivity! Hope you Don't mind Sir, If ask you about your profession?

 

[desiman]

Sorry guys no pics yet from my contact at the MOD, seems like he was not invited lol Here are some more pics from the internet, enjoy -

Photos Courtesy Anantha Krishnan M

 

[1nd1a]

L&T Wins $212.4M Indian Coastal Boat Order

NEW DELHI - A $212.4 million contract to design and build 36 high-speed coastal security boats has gone to Larsen & Toubro (L&T), marking one of the biggest Indian defense contracts to a private domestic company.

The contract is part of the fast-track procurement process put in motion after the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai.

The boats are to operate in shallow water and have aluminum-alloy hulls and water-jet propulsion.

L&T is also helping to build the hull for India's nuclear submarine and is expanding shipbuilding facilities to build warships and submarines. The firm also is eyeing the Army's 155mm gun upgrade project.

L&T's defense engineering division also makes Pinaka multirocket launchers for the Army.

Last year, L&T's sales were about $8.5 billion.

--Good to hear that Indian companies at taking pace

 

[1nd1a]

Indian Army Scouts For New 120mm Mortar System

The Indian Army has called for information from prospective bidders for a contract for an unspecified number of new 120-mm long-range mortar systems. The Army has called for information from companies in Israel, Finland, Russia and the US.

LiveFist - The Best of Indian Defence: Indian Army Scouts For New 120mm Mortar System

-- I am not sure why they didn't call for domestic companies to build relatively easy system....I have no idea about the complexities in building mortar...Any info any gurus?

Thanks

 

[gogbot]

-- I am not sure why they didn't call for domestic companies to build relatively easy system....I have no idea about the complexities in building mortar...Any info any gurus?

Thanks

Its because they are such small systems.

There is no Indian made state of the art system available as of now, if we set out to make one, it would take time and testing.

Its perfectly normal for army's to buy such small systems from foreign suppliers.

 

[1nd1a]

Its because they are such small systems.

There is no Indian made state of the art system available as of now, if we set out to make one, it would take time and testing.

Its perfectly normal for army's to buy such small systems from foreign suppliers.

Understood Sir...

However if it is such a small system to make then why not we started making it. We can also start exporting these stuff. My point on this was why can't we encourage our own defense companies for such small system giving them some knowhow and some financial benefit.

Is it that we don't want to take any step towards becoming self dependent. Point well taken we have to setup one such plant. Once its there we can even develop some new hardware as well....

 

[1nd1a]

Indian Coastguard For Major Firepower Purchases

The Indian Coastguard is in the market for a large number of marine guns, and has invited information from global vendors. Its shopping list includes 100 12.7-mm marine guns, 70 20-mm marine guns, 36 30-mm marine guns and 36 40-mm marine guns, all for integration on existing and future vessels. The ICG has also floated tenders for six new 2,000-ton offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), 14 fast patrol vessels and 20 new interceptor boats.

LiveFist - The Best of Indian Defence: Indian Coastguard For Major Firepower Purchases