Open Forum
New
Delhi, 4 April 2012
General’s
Advice
AID
INHOUSE DEFENCE GEAR
By Dr P K
Vasudeva
The leak of Army Chief
General V K Singh top secret letter of 12th March to Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh regarding serious gaps in the delays of procurement of defence
equipment affecting the battle worthiness of the Army is more than welcome. It
has confirmed that political and bureaucratic leadership has failed to realise
defence planning which has been kept under wraps for years despite three
Service Chiefs’ regular presentations on defence and security preparedness
twice a year during the Commanders’ Conference.
Unfortunately, it is not possible
for any nation, which has ‘70 per cent dependency on imports of defence
equipment’, to improve its battle worthiness especially when the military
preparedness is a continuous process. India has an extremely poor track
record of Five Year Defence Planning and its implementation. This perpetual
problem has always been a cause of big worry for the Service chiefs who have
the ultimate responsibility of preserving the integrity and sovereignty of the
country.
Operational capabilities of the
Armed Forces in terms of weapons and equipment have always been affected due to
lack of self-reliance in the country and the long periods it takes to procure
these items. It is not just the allocation of capital outlay in the budget. It
is more due to cumbersome procurement procedures, lack of accountability and
transparency of bureaucracy, friction between service headquarters and the
defence ministry staff (civilian), and the fear of audit by the Comptroller and
Auditor General, monitoring by the Central Vigilance Commission and harassment
by the Central Bureau of Investigation after the fear of debacle like Bofors
scam which is haunting the nation even today.
According to a well-established
Swedish group, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) India has replaced China as the largest arms buyer of
the world, accounting for 10 per cent of all arms purchases during the past
five years. During 2007-2011, SIPRI noted that New Delhi
had purchased some $12.7 billion in arms, 80 per cent of which was from Russia.
In fact,
China, which used to be the largest importer of arms during the past decade,
has built admirable indigenous capability by heavily investing in Research and
Development (R&D) within the country and even poaching scientists from
Russia. In our case, the Services seem to have won the day instead of working
closely for instance to make a success of the indigenously developed Tejas –
Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and Arjun (Main Battle Tank) despite good showing
in trials they seem to have taken a greater slice of the pie for procurement
from abroad.
Some analysts in India attribute the failure to create a domestic
defence industry to government involvement as India’s public sector is very
inefficient and the private sector is by and large kept out of arms production
though it is highly capable.
More than 60 years after becoming a
Republic and 50 years after the debacle with China, the opaque Indian defence
production establishments do not produce high quality clothing and personal
inventory items such as boots, bullet proof jackets let alone a suitable rifle
for a one-million army, or tanks and aircraft.
Luckily Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during his Budget
presentation announced approval for setting up joint ventures by defence PSUs
in public-private partnership (PPP) mode to boost indigenous defence production
particularly the state-of-the-art equipment.
Extremely welcome, but how much will it be able to contribute is yet to
be seen.
Stressing on closer coordination
between industry and the Armed Forces at an ASSOCHAM meeting, Gen VK Singh
emphasised that the country’s dependence on foreign firms must be reduced. “We source 70 per cent of equipment
from outside and need to reduce this dependence. We need to be self-reliant and
maintain independent capability, so there needs to be more coordination,” he
stated.
The
private sector is pumping big money into the defence supply business as the
Government moves to increase domestic sourcing to rein in costs. Companies such
as Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra and Larsen & Toubro
have formed multiple joint ventures and entered into technical collaborations
to locally develop and supply the defence, paramilitary and police forces with
modern equipment.
“The
defence forces now want contemporary products, not outdated equipment. The
Government is also looking to reverse the 70 per cent dependence on imports for
defence equipment and so wants more private sector participation,” noted Dr V.
Sumantran, Chairman, Ashok Leyland Defence Systems and Executive Vice-Chairman
of Hinduja Automotive, at the recent DEFEXPO.
Tata
Motors is investing around Rs 600 crore on the Futuristic Infantry Combat
Vehicle (FICV), for which it is one of the four companies issued with an
Expression of Interest (EoI) by the Indian Army. Also in the fray for an
expected order of 2,000 units are Ashok Leyland, Mahindra and the Ordnance
Factory Board.
Among
the various private sector companies, Tata Motors has responded positively, it
will soon be supplying 8X8 logistics vehicles to agencies such as the Air
Force. With the defence business expected to generate Rs 1,000 crore of revenue
in 2011-12, Tata Motors is also developing left-hand drive models for exports
markets such as West Asia.
Meanwhile,
Larsen & Toubro also announced a joint venture with Samsung Techwin to make
howitzer guns at a plant in Talegaon, Maharashtra.
With plans to locally source half of the parts, a technical bid for supplying
up to 100 guns to the Indian Army has already been submitted.
Ashok
Leyland also showcased new set of products-in-development with partners such as
French firm Panhard and German KMW. A new plant is likely to come up for
vehicles such as armoured light tactical vehicles, called COLT, which will have
completely indigenised drive train systems.
Sadly, India lacks long-term vision and a
culture of R&D. The government keeps on forming one committee after another
for indigenisation but when it comes to implementation of the panels
recommendations’ it is not serious. The dependency of defence equipment on
foreign firms has to be curtailed and manufactured indigenously as Indian
industry is capable of producing results. The MoD should take a cue from China and Israel for manufacturing defence
equipment indigenously. It has got to be self-sufficient and self-contained in
its modernisation of defence equipment. How many more Generals are needed to
drive home this point for it to sink in? Time our political leadership started
thinking of the nation. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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