Indian Defence Production Policy: Got the policy, where’s the plan?

Submarine hull sections being readied at Mazagon Dock Ltd, Mumbai.

Comment by Deba R Mohanty, Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation

Sometime during the last DefExpo, held in New Delhi in February 2010, RK Singh, the Secretary of the Department of Defence Production, had announced that the Indian government would soon come out with a defence production policy, a commitment successively pronounced by the defence minister and defence ministry mandarins in various public forums. Most members of Indian defence and security affairs (including from industry chambers CII, Ficci, Assocham, etc.) have been suggesting that the government come out with a ‘roadmap for Indian defence industry’, and the defence minister’s unveiling of the first Defence Production Policy (DPrP) on 13 January 2011 – the first ever written policy document on critical national security issues – has come as a welcome development. 

Now that DPrP is in effect, it is time to make a preliminary assessment on its objectives and possible consequences. First, DPrP’s main objective is “to achieve substantive self-reliance in the design, development and production of systems required for defence forces”. Second, it “aims to create conditions conducive for the private industry to play an active role in defence production”. Third, it gives importance to “harnessing the untapped potential of the small and medium enterprises in the indigenisation process”. Fourth, the policy will actively encourage “involvement of academia, R&D institutions, technical and scientific organisations”. Fifth, the policy will encourage “formation of consortia, joint ventures and public-private partnerships to synergise and enhance national competence in defence production”. Last but not the least, the policy suggests the government “set up a separate fund to provide necessary resources to production stakeholders like the public and private industry, SMEs and academic/scientific institutions for research and development efforts”. In sum, DPrP strives to achieve a reasonable degree of self-reliance in defence by enlarging the scope of industrial and R&D institutional participation beyond DRDO and defence public sector units to include private industry, SMEs, scientific research institutions and relevant academia. 

Now that the DPrP is in place, let the objectives of this important policy be pitted against ground reality to find out whether the latter has influenced the formulation of the former, and if so, to what extent, and if not, how autistic is the problem in the current context. Such an exercise will hopefully enable the government to consider further revision, if any.

First, conceptually, self-reliance in defence, a contested term with different subjective meanings yet generally understood as ‘attainment of a certain degree of strategic autonomy by a country in design, development and production of military goods and services’, has moved from an autarkic model (state-controlled) to embrace openness through diversification and collaboration for the past few decades. DPrP has tried to follow the same pattern but fails to chart a definitive plan of action, which requires, ab initio, a technology roadmap and identification of products, services and R&D that can be pursued by the defence industry. Unfortunately, while such a roadmap was indeed prepared by the Integrated Defence Staff and put it in the official Website some time ago, the same has been withdrawn now! A carefully prepared holistic roadmap for the industry is a necessary pre-condition for a meaningful DPrP. 

Second, the DPrP, instead of charting out clear roles for categories of stakeholders, has actually concocted the structural aspects of defence production. For example, while the role of SMEs has been emphasised without explaining how, it has surprisingly left out Raksha Udyog Ratnas (RURs), considered to be the future locomotive of the Indian defence industrial base! The role of academia and R&D institutions have been mentioned but how will they be involved in the structure have not been spelled out. Similarly, neither the philosophy nor the methods of creating collaborative models like public-private partnerships, joint ventures or consortia have been explained. More deliberations are required to look into structural aspects of the policy. 

Third, DPrP rightly recognises that the development of complex systems is generally a stage process and thus allows some flexibility of ‘buy’ option. This is a delicate issue. Often times, as DRDO has demonstrated in many of its flagship programmes in the past, critical development projects are based on unrealistic time frames, frequent quality requirement (QR) changes, bureaucratic and political apathy, resource crunch and problems in technology acquisition. DPrP must spell out a practical strategy to ensure long-term complex projects reach their eventual conclusions. 

Fourth, DPrP envisages a separate fund for R&D efforts by industry and academic and scientific institutions. It actually means that DRDO will have its own fund while another fund will be created for the industry. Such funding efforts, unless carefully synchronised and synergised, are likely to lead to duplication of efforts rather than any healthy competition. DPrP should find a viable option on funding. Fifth, DPrP, like the Defence Procurement Procedure, has failed to give a workable solution to the problem of transfer of technology (ToT). Most ToT agreements in defence have thus far ended with licence production arrangements, thus giving little benefit to the production agencies. Last but not the least, the defence minister’s annual review of progress in self-reliance in defence efforts will end as a ritual unless a common minimum quantification of self-reliance efforts is arrived at. Else, we will be perpetually confused as to how self-reliant we are in defence production.

First Fleet Tanker for the Indian Navy Delivered In Mumbai

Today in Mumbay there was the commissioning ceremony for the “Deepak”, the first of two fleet tankers ordered from Fincantieri by the Indian Navy.

Present at the ceremony were A.K. Antony, the Indian Minister of the Defence, Admiral Nirmal Varma, Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, and Corrado Antonini, Chairman of Fincantieri. The order is the first surface vessel India has ordered from a European company, gained in competition against prominent international players, in particular from Russia and Korea.

With a displacement at full load of 27,500 tonnes, the 175 metre long fleet tanker, with a beam of 25 metres and a height of 19, has two 10,00 kW diesel engines for propulsion and can reach a maximum speed of 20 knots. Further features include a propulsion system with an adjustable propeller and a flight deck for medium-heavy helicopters (up to 10 tons).

The ship can accommodate 250 crew and personnel. Thanks to double hatches the vessel can supply four ships at the same time.

In accordance with the new Marpol regulations of the International Maritime Organization regarding safeguarding of the environment, the ship has been built with a double hull which will afford greater protection to the fuel tanks thereby avoiding the risk of pollution in case of collision or damage.

Cooperation with India commenced in 2004 when Fincantieri signed two contracts with Cochin shipyard for the design of the engine, technology transfer and provision of complementary services for the construction of Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC). In addition, in 2007, the company delivered the “Sagar Nidhi”, an oceanographic vessel for the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in Madras, which is already in service off the Indian coast to the full satisfaction of the customer.

Fincantieri considers the market in the East strategic and holds in high regard the development of cooperation with its prestigious Indian partner, proof of which is both the opening in recent years of a representative office in New Delhi and, now, of a Fincantieri technical support unit in India in order to guarantee to the Indian Navy maximum availability and efficiency of the new Fleet Tankers.

The Indian Navy is the fourth Navy in the world in terms of resources/staff (96.000 men and women) and vessels (125). In recent years, the Indian Navy has started complex modernization of its fleet renewing some units built locally, thanks to targeted industrial cooperation with Western countries.

The sister ship of the “Deepak”, the “Shakti”, which was launched last October at Sestri Ponente (Genoa) shipyard, is currently being fitted out at Sestri Ponente shipyard (Genova). Delivery is scheduled in autumn 2011.

Indian Navy's UAVs to keep an eye on intrusion

Porbander: Surveillance along the western coastline has been beefed up with the commissioning of a squadron of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) at the Naval base in Porbander.

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, called the Heron, will now keep an eye on intrusions along the western coast, which was used by the 26/11 attackers to enter Mumbai.

Its operations will entirely be controlled from a remote location and will send back pictures and videos of any suspicious movement in the sea. The Heron is equipped to locate even submarines, warships and aircraft, and can remain in the sky for up to 12 hours at a stretch.

"It doesn't have a pilot who can get tired. So it has a lot of endurance. It can fly far or survey from near. It has the potential to carry equipment such as a camera, a communication interceptor and video transmitter. These UAVs will prove to be a big boost for surveillance. They are equipped with most advanced systems and can fly for long hours," says Western Naval Command spokesperson Captain Manohar Nambiar.

Accompanying the Heron is the third generation Searcher MK2 which has also been commissioned.

Smaller in size than the Heron, the Searcher is also equipped with electro-optical camera and electronic support systems.

With two Heron's and two Searcher MK2 craft, the Navy will now be better equipped to handle intrusions from the sea. Navy officials say that very soon, a new version of UAVs armed with artillery will also be introduced along the western coastline.

"We will continue to upgrade these UAVs. A constant research programme is also on and definitely we will add more vehicles here," says Indian Navy's Vice Admiral Sanjiv Bhasin.

With the new UAV squadron in place, the western coastline can be secured much better.

India, Russia discuss Admiral Gorshkov, piracy threat

NEW DELHI (PTI): India and Russia on Monday discussed ways to increase cooperation in tackling the growing threat of piracy in the Indian Ocean region and the issue of training navy personnel for operating aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov.

The deliberations in this regard were held between Indian Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma and his Russian counterpart Admiral Vladimir Sergeevich Vysotskiy, who arrived here Monday on a three-day visit.

"Whilst discussing the maritime environment, specific emphasis was laid on the growing threat of piracy in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and various possibilities for the two navies to co-operate," Navy officials said here.

Discussions on ongoing projects included "detailed deliberations on the training of Indian Naval personnel for the operation of aircraft carrier rechristened as INS Vikramaditya, scheduled to commence later this year," they said.

India had placed orders for the 44,500 tonne Admiral Gosshkov aircraft carrier in 2004 but the delivery schedule of the warship was delayed due to frequent price revision by the Russian side.

After the issue related to the purchase was settled last year, the warship is now expected to join the Indian Navy by the end of 2012.

The two Admirals also held discussions on issues of common interest ranging from the maritime environment in the Indian Ocean Region and operational philosophies of the two navies.

They also discussed the ways of enhancing possibilities for regularising Navy-to-Navy interactions with 'staff talks' and the feasibility of enhancing the scope of the INDRA exercises between the Indian and the Russian navies.

During his visit, Vysotskiy will also visit the Mumbai-based Western Naval Command and go on-board INS Shivalik, the indigenously built stealth frigate.

The two countries share deep historical military relations which have transformed into a strategic partnership with joint developmental projects such as BRAHMOS supersonic cruise missile system and Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft being cases in point.

Bangladesh naval delegation visits Southern Naval Command

KOCHI (PTI): A high-level delegation of Bangladesh Navy arrived on a two-day visit to the Southern Naval Command here on Monday to strengthen mutual cooperation between the two navies in areas of professional training.

The visiting delegation, led by Commodore M Nizamuddin Ahmed, Commodore Commanding, Chittagong, called on Vice-Admiral K N Sushil, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief Southern Naval Command.

The programme of the delegation includes a briefing on Indian Naval training and visits to various training facilities at Southern Naval Command, a Defence release said.

Several Bangladesh Navy personnel were undergoing training in various institutions under Southern Naval Command, it said.

Similarly, India has also been sending its Navy personnel to Bangladesh for training.

Indian Navy Marine Commandos to be Equipped with Israeli Rifles

The Indian Navy marine commandos (MARCOS) will be armed with Israeli-made Tavor assault rifles and Galil sniper rifles to enhance their operational capability.

A defence ministry official said a consignment of over 500 TAR-21 Tavor assault rifles worth Rs150m ($3.3m) and another 30 Galil sniper rifles worth Rs20m ($437,847) was delivered to MARCOS.

"The Israeli team will be here to jointly inspect the delivered weapons and assemble them. MARCOS will begin using these rifles and start training on them from this month," the official said.

The Tavor is a 5.56mm-calibre weapon of Nato specifications while the Galil is a 7.62mm sniper weapon.

The two weapons will be a standard weapon for the force, and are already in use with the Indian Army's special forces and the Indian Air Force's Garud special forces units.

MARCOS, a force trained for special operations, is currently using the indigenous INSAS rifles and Russian Kalashnikov variants, according to IANS.

 Source: http://www.naval-technology.com/news/news107258.html

Britain wants to cooperate with India in Navy ship building

NEW DELHI (PTI): Britain Friday said it wanted to extend cooperation with India in the field of naval ship building.

"There is a considerable scope. There are common things like the way we build ships in the UK. The way we operate is common with the way India does. We do think that naval area is one where there are immense opportunities," British High Commissioner to India Richard Stagg told reporters here.

India and the UK have had a long Navy-to-Navy relationship as both the aircraft carriers which the Indian Navy has operated were earlier in service with the British Navy.

India, which has embarked on a major modernisation plan for its armed forces, has emerged as a favourite with various defence equipment-manufacturing countries with its plan of spending over USD 100 billion on defence in the next ten years.