The recent Scorpene submarine leakage that has come is indeed a very
sad and bad news for the country’s defences by all angles. Fortunately the
defence ministry has a very competent, honest and workaholic minister in the
name of Sh. Manohar Parrikar. But despite the best efforts of the minister there
are problems and issues in the ministry that needs to be looked into and
deserves the full attention of the Prime Minister and his team over and above of all
merit and hardwork of Sh. Parrikar. With due credits to the def. minister, defence is a
critical sector that requires policy decisions after taking inputs from many other key officers
and stake holders. Thus if not dealt at war footing things get delayed and remain stagnant.
There are also indications that like the army Generals all is not well with the
administrative side and other organizations within defence ministry.
Here in part 1 we take some reasons we believe are
important and are damaging the defence sector in the short as well as for
long run.
1. The American connection: During the recent past lot of active
collaboration between India and America has been witnessed.
a. ( http://archive.defense.gov/pubs/US-IND-Fact-Sheet.pdf) ;
b. ( http://www.acq.osd.mil/ic/DTTI.html) .
After Obama, The US def. sec visited the country and many bottlenecks were removed .
c. ( http://thediplomat.com/2016/04/ash-carter-comes-calling-where-do-us-india-defense-ties-go-from-here/) .
A general article by a research scholar briefs some of the general issues
in defence procurement
d.(https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/indigenisation-indian-defence-industry-analysing-ipshita-bhattacharya).
Despite Modi governments best efforts, there are issues to be sorted out
e. ( http://thediplomat.com/2016/05/how-far-have-india-us-ties-come-after-two-years-of-modi/). .
and another area of concern is America still remains hesitant to fully transfer technology
to India
f. ( http://idrw.org/why-us-is-not-ideal-partner-for-make-in-india-in-defence-sector/)
The offer of Lockheed Martin all though first of its kind appears fabulous
g.(http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/why-lockheed-martins-bid-build-lethal-f-16-fighters-india-17329)
but F-16 is an older class of fighter plane and India should seek full technology transfer.
with state of the art avionics and gadgetry.
h. (http://www.defenceupdate.in/india-seeks-tech-transfer-guarantee-f-16-fa-18-make-india-bids/) .
Indeed America is India’s strategic partner, but every country has its own interests
and the US in particular has always been hawkish and fussy over certain issues.
All These requires a hard negotiator, someone who knows the in and
out like what Anil Kaodkar did for Manmohan Singh in drafting and signing of Nuclear deal
agreement with US..
Note: Rafale is best by far in all effectiveness characteristics except for outnumbering the
opponent, where it is bettered by Gripen. F-22 and F-35, the “most advanced”, and certainly
most expensive, fighters in the world, do not get above 3rd place in any of criteria, while
Typhoon – which is more expensive than Rafale but less so than F-22 and F-35 – achieves
no more than 2nd place in any of the criteria. Reason is difference in approach – Dassault
had experience and money, Saab had experience, and Eurofighter had the money.
Lockheed Martin had money but it was not interested in designing effective fighters; rather,
its interest was to suck money from the US Government, which means designing
outrageously expensive, and consequently ineffective, fighters; reason why F-22 turned
out (relatively) well is that Lockheed Martin was helped out by General Dynamics
i. (https://defenseissues.wordpress.com/2014/01/11/comparing-modern-western-fighters/)
2. Slow pace of AMCA and Tejas mark 2 production:This is another serious issue that
merits attention.
j. ( http://idrw.org/is-amca-turning-into-same-story-as-lca-tejas/).
and also
k.( http://www.defenceupdate.in/hal-amca-indias-fifth-generation-fighter-update/)
3. Problems in Make in India or Indigenization efforts in defence sector:
A recent article in India express quotes a CEO of a top manufacturer –
” We had raised this issue with the principal secretary to the Prime Minister last month
during our meeting. Virtually no orders have been given by the defence ministry to the
private sector so far. The ministry seems to be waiting for the strategic
partnership model to be finalized before giving orders,
l.(http://indianexpress.com/article/business/business-others/defence-manufacturing-another-panel-to-finalise-strategic-partner-model-2900370/) . and also
m.( http://ajaishukla.blogspot.in/2016/08/boosting-defence-manufacturing.html).
4. Top Generals of Army indulging in mud Slinging in open : Nothing can be worse
if two top officers of the Army have to come to this which demoralizes the man on the street
to the soldier in uniform on the borders.
n.(http://ajaishukla.blogspot.in/2016/08/vk-singh-dalbir-singh-slugfest-top.html).
5. Delay in the manufacturing of top missiles hampers defence readiness.: All though
Aakash and Brahmos are being manufactured in good numbers there is no such
record for other missiles, and weaponry systems . India has the potential to export
a good number of missiles provided it fulfills the domestic demand first .
o.( http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/india-looks-to-double-missile-production-to-100-per-month/).
A history of Indian missiles can be found here –
p.( http://www.nti.org/learn/countries/india/delivery-systems/).
Another article allthough written a year back advocates fast progress in next
version of Brahmos .
q. (http://www.firstpost.com/world/smaller-better-heres-pm-modi-fast-track-production-next-gen-brahmos-missiles-2200292.html).
