Defence Production Potentials & Policy-My Views

1

One more major government policy- the defence production policy (DPP-2018) for making India manufacturing hub, one of the top five manufacturers of military equipment and platforms in next 10 years, is coming next month. PTI reports. It aims to invest adequate resources to develop critical technology for manufacturing state-of-the-art military platforms including fighter jets, attack helicopters and weaponry indigenously for achieving a turnover of Rs 1.7 trillion (Rs 1,70,000 crore) in military goods and services by 2025.It can’t happen till the R&D centres e.g. ADA, DRDO; Manufacturing DPSUs or dockyards, ordnance factories;the hierarchy of defence forces-IAF, Indian Army and Navy; and the bureaucracy at ministry, run the way they have been running for ages. For every platform, there must be a platform CEO and a team of best talents for simultaneous engineering and management of the platform from key departments. For example, India would have been manufacturing its fighters and helicopters in serial production by now but for differences for IOC and FOC between ADA, HAL with IAF.India would have been producing all its missiles, weapons,artillery guns, tanks and FICVs. The same would have been the fate of various navy ships, submarines, and aircraft carriers.There is so much of prevailing pull and push for importing the best from whatever sources in the world at the costliest prices that the local platforms will never get matured and used in the shortest possible time. At least here we must go the Chinese way. In last four years, nothing has changed in the mindset of defence ministry and in the hierarchy of defence forces that can bring hope for the success of this forthcoming defence production policy-2018.https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/govt-to-unveil-key-policy-next-month-to-make-india-hub-for-defence-manufacturing-118072900364_1.html

2

Have The Defence Forces Given Up The India’s Own Missile System Akash, Prithvi, Agni, Brahmos For Imported Ones From Russia(Qrsam), France(Scalp,Meteor), Israel And, May Be Us? As Reported, ‘Truck-Mounted Canister Makes The Missile System Increase The Mobility Of The Missile System Ten Fold Over Akash Air Defence System And There Are Also Many Other Factors Which Hint That Qr-Sam Missile Will Be Game Changer Missile System For Indian Armed Forces And Will Be Bigger Success Then Akash Air Defence System.’What Happens To Our Stockpile? Has It Proven Drdo As Laggard With Little Proactive Researches? I Wish The Defence Forces Chose Our Own Missiles And The Responsibility Of Keeping Them The Most Lethal Is That Of Drdo And , May Bharat Dynamics.What Are The Self-Life Of Such Missiles? If Any One Knows……Will Scalp,Meteor Remain The Best Till India Receives All Rafale Fighters With A Time Gap Of 4-5 Years From Decision To Delivery?

3

The offset cost built up of Rafale deal: While I wrote on the subject last week, I knowingly didn’t talk about the 50% offset amount -an amount of ₹45,000 crore according to Rahul Gandhi’s claim was going to Anil Ambani without any credentials of building aircrafts or fighters.Gandhi was seeing some scam in that.

As per one estimate, “In the case of the 36 Rafales, Dassault Aviation has to procure nearly Rs 30,000 crore worth of components and services from Indian industry.

1.Documents provided by Dassault Aviation indicate the Dassault-Reliance JV is just one of the 72 partnerships Dassault has forged with Indian industry.

2.Others who will contribute to offset include Snecma-HAL Aerospace for engine components, Samtel for multi-function cockpit displays, Godrej, Larsen & Toubro and Tata Advanced Systems.” The idea of the agreed offset is to get the wares or services from Indian sources that may not be related to the main deal order. The responsibility of getting the offset value from India sources is that of the OEM.As on today, there are considerable numbers of MSMEs that are manufacturing hardwares or provided services to aerospace sector such as Airbus and Boeing. TASL and Dynamatic Technologies are among the tier-I vendors

3.On October 27, 2017, Anil Ambani and Dassault CEO Eric Trappier laid the foundation stone for a new facility to produce parts of the Falcon business jets under Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL), a 51:49 joint venture between Dassault and Reliance Defence. The facility started commercial production of Dassault’s Falcon business jet cockpits in April this year.

4.The MoDs Defence Procurement Policy leaves the choice of offset partner to the OEM. No offset agreements in the Rafale deal have so far been communicated to the MoD. This is not unusual because under the offset policy, vendors or OEMs are permitted to provide details of their Indian Offset Partners (IOP) either at the time of seeking offset credits or one year prior to discharge of offset obligations .

Further, as reported in press, Anil Ambani group has setup The Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace Park, spread over 289 acres, will be the largest greenfield aerospace park in India with a capital investment of over `6,500 crore. It is being developed in two phases.Reliance Group will set up assembly lines and manufacturing facilities of fixed wing aircraft aerostructure for commercial transport aircraft and helicopters for both defence and commercial use. The park will also house ancillary and component manufacturing units to support after-sales requirements.)https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/the-big-story/story/20180806-the-rafale-dogfight-1296568-2018-07-27

4

Do you know what India can manufacture for defence forces? Perhaps, everything. For army, Gun Carriage Factory, Jabalpur manufactures Dhanush-155 artillery guns, additionally Tata Power and Bharat Forge can also manufacture the similar artillery guns replacing Bofors guns. Mahindra is going to manufacture M777 Ultra-Light Howitzer (ULH)- a 155 mm, 39-calibre towed artillery gun made of titanium and aluminium alloys and weigh just four tonnes, making it transportable under slung by helicopters, with tie up of BAE, USA.In April 2017, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Hanwa Techwin of South Korea signed a contract to manufacture the K9 Vajra-T guns. K9 Vajra-T is a 155-mm, 52-calibre self-propelled artillery gun with a maximum range of 40 km. Thus there will be five companies in India that can supply now artillery guns better than Bofors. Ordnance Factory, Avadi manufactures army tanks, Arjun as well as Vishma.India can also produce all different types of rockets and missiles including BhahMos in collaboration with Russian for use by all three wings of forces.For navy, India can build all types of ships and even submarines and aircraft carriers including the nuclear powered ones.Besides DPSU shipbuilding docks, L&T has capacity and all facilities for ships of Indian Navy.For Indian airforce HAL can build fighters such 4.5 generation Tejas MK-I. Tejas aircraft will soon be integrated with Meteor EL/M 2052 AESA radar and high band jammer. Over the years, HAL can produce upgraded MK-II and then finally fifth generation AMCA. HAL can also build Tejas naval versions.An echosystem for manufacturing of LCA Tejas MK-1 is in place with a number of reliable vendors.HAL is using two production lines to manufacture Tejas and third one may be added to expedite production. HAL are also manufacturing different types of helicopters for all applications in defence forces.A large number of big and medium private companies are part of a large number of vendors that can supply every ware to defence needs. HAL must focus on Kaveri upgragation on its own or through foreign consultants to meet its current as well as future requirements.There is no reasons to import helicopters in large number. Even some private sector companies with some policy encouragement can build helicopters. However, one wonders why the ministry and forces are reluctant to give clearance to manufacture and buy from the indeginous sources and keep on going for import, about 70% of its total requirements. Because of the lethargy of our defence administrative system, a huge potential for export of defence items to friendly remains untapped.Raising issues such as changing specifications and adding features along the development process of the product must stop as that decelerates the process of freezing the design as usual practice and causing delay in systematic planned productionisation. Both Tejas fighters and Arjuna tanks are sordid examples of the approach. Otherwise what can be the reason of Tejas, the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) missing yet another deadline of getting its final operational clearance (FOC) by June 2018? So was the case with hesitant acceptance of Arjuna Tank. Similarly, the six majo dockyards in DPSUs and private sectors can build all types of ships including submarines and aircraft carriers.The problems are with defence ministry and three forces that fail to provide leadership in the planning and execution of the projects.

http://www.indiandefencereview.com/news/tejas-delayed-is-it-by-design/ https://defenceupdate.in/how-tejas-aircraft-with-meteor-el-m-2052-and-high-band-jammer-will-be-a-game-changer-for-iaf/

5

Do you know what India can manufacture for defence forces? Perhaps, everything. For army, Gun Carriage Factory, Jabalpur manufactures Dhanush-155 artillery guns, additionally Tata Power and Bharat Forge can also manufacture the similar artillery guns replacing Bofors guns. Mahindra is going to manufacture M777 Ultra-Light Howitzer (ULH)- a 155 mm, 39-calibre towed artillery gun made of titanium and aluminium alloys and weigh just four tonnes, making it transportable under slung by helicopters, with tie up of BAE, USA.In April 2017, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Hanwa Techwin of South Korea signed a contract to manufacture the K9 Vajra-T guns. K9 Vajra-T is a 155-mm, 52-calibre self-propelled artillery gun with a maximum range of 40 km. Thus there will be five companies in India that can supply now artillery guns better than Bofors. Ordnance Factory, Avadi manufactures army tanks, Arjun as well as Vishma.India can also produce all different types of rockets and missiles including BhahMos in collaboration with Russian for use by all three wings of forces.For navy, India can build all types of ships and even submarines and aircraft carriers including the nuclear powered ones.Besides DPSU shipbuilding docks, L&T has capacity and all facilities for ships of Indian Navy.For Indian airforce HAL can build fighters such 4.5 generation Tejas MK-I. Tejas aircraft will soon be integrated with Meteor EL/M 2052 AESA radar and high band jammer. Over the years, HAL can produce upgraded MK-II and then finally fifth generation AMCA. HAL can also build Tejas naval versions.An echosystem for manufacturing of LCA Tejas MK-1 is in place with a number of reliable vendors.HAL is using two production lines to manufacture Tejas and third one may be added to expedite production. HAL are also manufacturing different types of helicopters for all applications in defence forces.A large number of big and medium private companies are part of a large number of vendors that can supply every ware to defence needs. HAL must focus on Kaveri upgragation on its own or through foreign consultants to meet its current as well as future requirements.There is no reasons to import helicopters in large number. Even some private sector companies with some policy encouragement can build helicopters. However, one wonders why the ministry and forces are reluctant to give clearance to manufacture and buy from the indeginous sources and keep on going for import, about 70% of its total requirements. Because of the lethargy of our defence administrative system, a huge potential for export of defence items to friendly remains untapped.Raising issues such as changing specifications and adding features along the development process of the product must stop as that decelerates the process of freezing the design as usual practice and causing delay in systematic planned productionisation. Both Tejas fighters and Arjuna tanks are sordid examples of the approach. Otherwise what can be the reason of Tejas, the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) missing yet another deadline of getting its final operational clearance (FOC) by June 2018? So was the case with hesitant acceptance of Arjuna Tank. Similarly, the six majo dockyards in DPSUs and private sectors can build all types of ships including submarines and aircraft carriers.The problems are with defence ministry and three forces that fail to provide leadership in the planning and execution of the projects.

http://www.indiandefencereview.com/news/tejas-delayed-is-it-by-design/ https://defenceupdate.in/how-tejas-aircraft-with-meteor-el-m-2052-and-high-band-jammer-will-be-a-game-changer-for-iaf/

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