Sorting out DRDO - Armed Forces mutual distrust should be a national priority

28 May 2010 8ak: The simmering differences between the Indian Armed Forces and India’s premiere Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have come out in open, with the chief of DRDO, Saraswat, accusing its main customer for opting for foreign equipment over homemade systems. 

Domain-B reports V K Saraswat, speaking at the National Technology Day awards function, took on the armed forces for relying on imported weapons and advised them to try and curb their "temptation" to continually import latest weapon systems from abroad.

The statement has not gone down well with the military top brass which was represented by the three service chiefs during the awards function. A serving Lt Gen told 8ak, “There may be merit in what the DRDO chief is saying in terms of dependence on weapons imports, but then it is because of the incompetence of Indian Defence PSUs like DRDO, HAL etc that the armed forces are forced to import military hardware to keep its inventory in shape.” Substantiating his statement further, the officer said, “Had we not taken three decades to develop the Arjuns (Main Battle Tank), there would have been no place for the Russian T-90s in the Army, as by now even the improved Mark-II version would have been developed. But for the DRDO to say that we should not import and wait for them to deliver is ridiculous because if the security of the nation is threatened, it’s the security forces who will be answerable to the people.”

Another senior IAF officer tore into the DRDO chief’s statement. “The belief that armed forces import because of the kickbacks involved has tarnished the forces reputation among the public. As a matter of fact, we import only because DRDO takes unacceptable time to develop military hardware. Therefore, by the time equipment is inducted into the forces, the GSQRs on which the product is developed become irrelevant and the product obsolete as other nations develop more advanced technology. Adding further, the officer said, that the role of military in deciding the vendor to buy from is limited, hence, the services have no personal gains to make. 

124 more Arjuns, but indigenous tank has 58% foreign content

20 May 2010 8ak: In March, Livefist had reported that "Army will not order more Arjuns" giving a MoD source and some reasons. So the latest order for another 124 Arjuns would have been a painful process for the Army, made possible due to the recent success of the Arjun vs the T-90 in field trials and the success of DRDO's pressurising tactics. 

A sign that more Arjuns were about to be ordered were given when the Defence Minister Antony spoke about Arjun Mark II in last week's press releases about DRDO's re-structure. The latest order of 124 Arjun Main Battle Tanks (MBTs) over and above the existing order of 124 Arjun tanks, which the army had committed to Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) earlier. The development follows the success of the indigenous MBT Arjun in the recent gruelling desert trials.

Financial Express reports that during the trials Arjun MBT was 30% more efficient than the Russian T-90s. In fact, DRDO had put down more than 100 parameters ahead of the trials in which the MBT performed well. Hindustan Times reports Defence Ministry spokesperson saying, “After many years of trials, it has now proved its worth by its superb performance under various circumstances such as driving cross-country over rugged sand dunes, detecting, observing and quickly engaging targets and accurately hitting stationary and moving targets.”

The Times of India reports that in spite of additional orders and a stellar performance by the Arjuns during the comparative trials with the Russian T- 90s, the army maintains that T-90s will continue to be its front line tanks. Besides the logistics, the main issue is that the heavier Arjun would require some of the bridges to be re-inforced before they can take the extra weight. Hence, the force's requirement for 1,781 MBTs to replace the older T-55 and T-72 tanks will primarily be met through the progressive induction of 1,657 T-90S tanks. 

Even though Arjun is said to be indigenous, nearly 58% (by cost) is foreign equipment. As per the 2009 amendments to DPP 2008, the MoD introduced a "Buy and Make (Indian)". According to this, the equipment would only be considered Indian if it had more than 50% indigenous content by cost. In this case, the Arjun would not qualify as Indian by the MoD's own rules!

With India's push for integration in to the global defence-manufacturing value chain, today, it is not viable/cost-effective and therefore not desirable for India to aim for 100% indigenisation (like the Saras civilian plane). But after 3 decades of development if you only have 42% indigenous content then it is misleading to call it an indigenous platform. Understandably, unless you have large orders, foreign vendors will not be interested in transfer of technology and will sell systems at higher prices. While reverse engineering is difficult, the percentage of indigenous content will go up over time and hopefully the public and private sector companies will have a larger participation in the program. 

As per the Indian army’s plan, 657 T-90s would be imported from Russia at a cost of Rs 8,525 crores and another 1,000 T-90s would be manufactured under license by Avadi Heavy Vehicles Factory. With the twin order, the total Arjuns to be inducted in the army would be 248, which is still half the 500 tanks that DRDO insists the Army should buy to bring cost rationalisation. 

The project for the design and development of the MBT Arjun was approved by the Government in 1974 with an aim to give the required indigenous cutting edge to our Mechanised Forces. However, due to a series of problems the development of tank could not be completed on time, thereby delaying armoured modernization and forcing India to look for options abroad. 

India plans another civil trek to Siachen glacier

16 May 2010 8ak: Despite Pakistan’s strong disapproval and diplomatic protests, the Indian army is planning to organise its fourth civil trekking expedition to the geographically strategic Siachen glacier in the month of October-November this year. Times of India reports that the fourth edition of the trek will feature 35-40 civilians coming from various backgrounds like journalists, DRDO scientists, volunteers and cadets from military schools. 

An army officer told 8ak, “The trek is important as it sends a strong signal to Pakistan that the Indian army is in firm control of the Siachen glacier – ‘the highest battle field in the world.’ Hence it is for this reason that we have made the trek an annual affair with government support.”

As part of acclimatisation the participants would be trained in mountaineering, skating and other such skills required to go through the arduous month—long trek to the Glacier. They would also be visiting some of the Indian Army positions on their way up the glacier and back.  

The civilian Siachen expedition had run into a controversy when it began in 2007 after Pakistan lodged a strong protest, calling it “incongruous” to the ongoing peace efforts between the two countries. However, after the UPA governments backing, the army resumed the trip. 

South Asian Media reports that guns had boomed in the 78-km-long Glacier at an altitude of 18,875 feet till November 25, 2003, when a formal ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan came into effect along the 740-km Line of Control (LOC) and 110-km Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL).

The glacier is a controversial territory as Pakistan claims it. However, India insists formal recognition of Line of Actual control before any talks on Siachen can progress. Under "Operation Meghdoot'' in April 1984, Indian troops had swiftly occupied the Saltoro Ridge heights, ranging from 16,000 feet to 22,000 feet, just ahead of Pakistani troops trying to do the same. 

CII Artillery Seminar- "Less than 1% of Indian ammunition is precision guided"

11 May 2010 8ak: During the Vietnam war (1955-1975), Americans flew over 800 sorties and lost 10 aircraft in trying to destory the Thanh Hoa bridge but could do only peripheral damage which was quickly repaired. This changed when in 1972, the Americans came back with 12 Phantoms of which 8 were carrying laser guided bombs and successfully destroyed the bridge. (See Eglin and Wikipedia). According to P.G. Gillespie, in America's Rolling Thunder campaign (Vietnam 1965-68), F-105s with conventional munitions achieved an average accuracy of about 450 feet with only 6% direct hits.

Pointing to this background on May 10 at CII's 3rd International Seminar on Artillery Technology, Brig (Retd) Gurmeet Kanwal, Director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies pointed out that the U.S. has since invested in precision guided munitions (PGMs) and so they today represent 80% of munitions used in war. Defense update states that in Operation Iraqi Freedom which started in 2003 "Around 66% of US munitions and up to 85% of RAF munitions used during OIF were precision guided, either by Global Positioning Systems (GPS) or by laser or both. This demonstrates a huge leap forward in capability since the 1991 conflict, when the proportion of precision guided munitions was around 30% of US and 18% of RAF weapons were guided." In an earlier presentation, General V.K. Singh, Chief of the Army Staff, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, ADC said that "Gone are the days when during an artillery attack, the safest place to be was at the target." 

Given the increasing importance of artillery Brig. Kanwal said that it is shocking to note that less than 1% of India's munition stockpile is precision guided. He said that despite India's decisive victory in Kargil 1999 being attributed, in part, to Indian artillery superiority with the Bofors guns, the Indian Army has failed to modernise its artillery regiments. While hinting at the DPP 2008 as being part of the blame, people 8ak spoke to said that it is also the fault of the Indian army. If it was purely a Ministry of Defence (MoD) and procurement process issue, why is it that the Navy is constantly rolling out new ships with the latest technologies when it has to operate under the same conditions? 

Brig. Kanwal stated that picking up the slack in artillery modernisation is urgent because according to him there is an 80-90% probability that India's next war will be in the mountains and a 60-70% probability that it will remain restricted to the mountains. Explaining this he said that deep strikes in to India's neighbouring territories would risk flying over (secret) nuclear installations which would initiate a retaliation that would escalate the war to a level undesirable to either country.

Totalling US$8 billion, India has possibly the largest military modernisation program in the world. On Monday, 24 May 2010, 8ak will release a report on "Challenges in India's Artillery Modernisation Program" that will follow on from the conference and a report from Religare Advisory Services. For more information and to order a copy of the report, please click here.

2 presenters at the conference quoted Napoleon, "God fights on the side with the best artillery"

Indian Army issues RFI for new SR-SAM system

04 Apr 2010 8ak: The Indian Army has issued a Request for Inquiry (RFI) for procurement of new short range, surface-to-air-missile system (SR-SAM) to replace the Soviet-era OSA-AK (SA-8) and SA-6 units, which are nothing but obsolete now. 

A senior army official told 8ak, “The procurement of new SR-SAM was on the cards for a long time, but could not materialise due to certain formalities which should be completed by early 2011. The new SR-SAM will go a long way in securing the nation from aerial threats and enhance the defence capabilities of our armed forces,” he added. 

As per the RFI, the Indian Army is looking for a 20-km range missile system with active and passive guidance, with the capacity to engage targets moving up to 500 metres/second, and including hovering targets, such as UAVs, aircrafts, choppers etc. It also wants to know, if the proposed a missile system by the bidder can be transported on both rail and road mobile launchers to all parts of the country.

The RFI also clarifies that the radar of the SRSAM system should be capable of tracking a number of targets simultaneously and should have Electronic Counter Counter-Measures (ECCM) to be able to support the electronic warfare environment. Taking a note on changing dimensions of war, the RFI states that the proposed system should be capable of operating in Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) warfare environment.

Indian Army looking to procure Diver Propulsion Vehicles

04 May 2010 8ak: As part of an attempt to modernise its soldiers by providing them the best possible equipment available, the Indian Army has issued a Request for Inquiry (RFI) to buy diver propulsion vehicles (DPVs) for its commando divers. 

As per the RFI, the DPV should be capable of carrying two fully equipped combat divers along with additional 60 to 80-kg of cargo over a distance of not less than 5 nautical miles and have a cruising speed of not less than 2-knots and be capable of operating up to a depth of 30m. 

The Indian Army requirement states that the DPV should have an advanced and reliable navigation system preferably with depth gauging facility. It should be light weight, made of marine grade materials and be able to be easily carried over land by two personnel over short distance and in a vehicle over longer distances and also be capable of being para-dropped with suitable preparations.