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SESSION 2: HIFAZAT


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New Delhi : PCRI celebrates the 73rd Republic Day by organising a series of events

under the title “ Hifazat: Upgrading India’s Arsenal- Scope,

Challenges and the Outcomes.


The theme of session 2 was Modernization and Indianisation of

Indian Air Force


The session was graced by the presence of AVM Pranay Sinha, VSM

and AVM Sudhanshu Saxena, VSM as the speakers. We were also

joined by Dr Bharat, Maj. Gen. Rajan Kochhar, VSM and Shri Harjit

Sandhu, IPS(Retd.) as our special invitees.


AVM Pranay Sinha started the proceedings by thanking XI Jing ping

and his PLA for jolting us from our deep slumber. He said that Galwan

happened we all know, and that galvanised the armed forces and there

after we felt the need to go for the cutting edge technology advanced

weapon system for all the forces and thereafter we realised that

capability build up is very much required. He emphasised that defence

acquisition is a very big problem. He said that before becoming

atmarnirbhar Bharat we need to have a defence industrial based

ecosystem. Then he questioned that why is it not happening?

He enlisted the problems thereafter.The first problem according to him

is of funds. Defence expenditure is at 2 percent of the GDP and this all

goes in the pay pension and the maintenance. He emphasised on

increase in the defence budget and talked about firm commitment from

the finance ministry, there should be planning and for planning there

should be a defence strategy doctrine. He opined that the defence

budget should be non- lapse-able capital budget. He talked about

some innovative ways of creating funds such as India defence bond.

The main problem he stated was of delays from all stakeholders at

various levels. According to him, at the user level unrealistic SQR, inter

service rivalry and all pulls and pushes from headquarters are some

problems. At the acquisition level, Red tapism in MoD is the problem,

the bureaucrats wants to be a judge. He said that a lot of refinement

has taken place in the defence procurement procedure but a lot needs

to be done.


The main thing according to him that is required is the commitment in

the acquisition process and let the professionals decide.

He said that at the design and development level the R&D is very

uninspiring. He described it as a complex problem and suggested to

downsize, restructure and reform and bring the premier institutes like

IIt’s, etc to this game. He emphasised that production agency have the

problems of slow rate of production, quality is not as desired and very

high cost. He suggested to cut the flap and penalise them. He also

suggested to bring in the private companies and open the exports. He

emphasised to work on the PPP and joint-venture models.


Another problem highlighted by him was the delays of regulatory body

as they have no guidelines, no accountability and no timeline.

He suggested there is a need to restructure, resize all regulators under

one umbrella.


AVM Sudhansu Saxena started by saying that Indianisation is a very

hard pressing requirement. He defined it as delayed opening of doors to

industry. He said that what we are seeing today(Mk2 and Mk3) should

have been done 25 years before. He said that some opening has been

given to production but it requires a lot of capital. He emphasised that

the defence industry in India is very good but the only thing is that we

delayed the opening of doors, he gave the example of USA where most

of the defence equipment is made by private sector. He said that

defence is a dynamic field and by the time the equipment comes into

trial stage it is delayed by 15 years and by then due to the dynamic

nature the headquarter’s need changes. He shared that once he heard

scientific advisor to Raksha mantra that research can not be done in a

giffy, it takes time and there are only a few countries who have build

their whom aircrafts so LCA Tejas it is matter of pride for us but still the

engine is not Indian.


He said that in case of Indianisation of air borne

equipment the people do not want to touch it because of the

certification requirements. They have to follow very high standards.

Sir said that DRDO is making a lot of efforts but the amount of

handholdings which should be done with them is lacking. We need to

have a dynamic relationship with DRDO and industries. He told that IAF

has described the detailed procedure of Indianisation very well on their

website. He shared that the IDDM clause in the DAP has made it more

difficult. He said that the procedures that now say 60 percent of

Indigenous content should be there is a welcome step.

AVM Pranay Sinha suggested the solutions and mantras to reboot and

reform. He gave Four M’s as the mantras. The first is to remove

mistrust between the stakeholders(bureaucrats, pilots, designers). The

second is to remove mismanagement across all stakeholders. He

emphasised at the root to all problems like the quality problem, HR

policy problem, etc is mismanagement. The third mantra he gave is

motivation. The leadership according to him should motivate and the

last M stands for mission mode with passion. He thanked China for the

inclusion of the last M and emphasised that the chalta hai attitude

should abolish.


Dr Bharat suggested that in the case of red tapism and time taking we

should create a very fast corridor for the temporary basis. He said that

for that he has developed HDEP which stands for Hybrid Defence

Expenditure Program. He said that hybrid is because of shortage of

time to counter china and the mother unit that will do a lot of research

will continue to do so and along with it we have to create RREP which

stands for Research Reinvent Expenditure Program and it will be given

to researched oriented institutes like iit’s, etc. He emphasised that let

the youth reinvent. He said that we will have to create FREWP which

stands for Future Research Experiment Weaponised Program and it can

be given to the private sector and after they submit the papers to MoD

then the army can brainstorm whatever they want and what they don’t

want.


Then he talked about his 3rd plan which he calls FREIND which stands

for Fast, Research, Experiment,Indigenous, National, Development.

The fourth point he gave was FINGER which stands for Fast Indigenous

National Growth Experiment Research. He stressed on this for quality

assurance. He gave two more points which are DREAD which stands

for Defence Research Experiment Acquisition Development for

acquisition part and TEAM which according to him is the most

important stands for Test Experiment Analysis and Management.

Maj. Gen. Kochhar said that most of what Dr Bharat said is already

there in the system, the research is there and the analysis is there but

the problem is that whatever you want to develop you must give the

money for it. Without the required budget how can we modernise, he

asks. He shared that it was taking 5 to 7 years to induct a new

equipment but believes that situation will be better now after Defence

Acquisition Procedure 2020. He said that the problem is we go on the

internet see something new and change our GSQR. He emphasised

that we should see our own requirement and not copy others. He also

said that we should not blame the bureaucracy and look at the three

services and asks that do we have the jointness? Do we think alike? Are

we able to accept each other’s position? Is our operational planning

done jointly? Has the CDS made the difference? He left the answers to

these questions to the experts.


AVM Pranay Sinha says that simple laws should be made for

acquisition and this has been said by Dhirender Singh committee of the

ex defence secretary 2016. He again emphasised on the issue of

mistrust between stakeholders and says that in the process of

acquisition should involve a logistician with professional approach. He

said that the Indianisation process of the Navy is the best. He

emphasized that we can achieve by collaborations and there is no need

to start from scratch. Atmarnirbharta he said is self sufficiency and self

reliance and that should not stop us from collaborations. He said that

armed forces should become a force and police force should become a

service.


Questions from the audience:


Q. Should the military sector become part of private industry and if

does can we avoid same pitfalls that the US did in the Iraq war vis-à-vie

over charging the government or creating private military cooperations?

AVM Pranay Sinha answers that this is what the DAP says that a

strategic partnership model is there, this is the collaborative model, the

PPP model. The models are there but we have to bring them. He

questions that we have finished the research of Dhanush but why we

are not manufacturing it? He said that HAL is producing 4 Tejas against

the value of 16 needed annually. He emphasized on creation of funds.


Q. What is the Indian government’s position and capacity in the field of

UAVs being deployed in high risk areas like Kashmir and NE region?

AVM Sudhanshu Saxena answers that already the government has

come out with a policy on drones that in which areas and in what

capacity and in which number they should be deployed. The thing is

that when we come to UAV that initially whoever is making it first they

have to be regularised through a regulating body, what are there

capabilities and what all sensors it is going to use, so the policy is there

available.

AVM Pranay Sinha adds that the answer to drones is with the private

industry. He emphasises on investments and funds and points out that

the engine of drones is made in coimbatore but for outside companies.

He says that the DRDO should become a facilitator and not a

researcher. He says that the most appropriate model for this is PPP

model.

Maj. Gen. Kochhar answers that Idea forge is manufacturing in India.

They have supplied a sizeable number to the Indian Army which have

been deployed at the LAC. More than 10 startups has also been

identified for drones, the work is in progress. The government has

allotted 200 crores for startups. Indian Army has tested swarm drone

technology.

Shri Harjit Sandhu says that PPP is a very appropriate model. The

basics of PPP model needs to be understood by all: 1. Goal

commonality 2. Strength complementarity 3. Credit, risk and

responsibility sharing 4. Costs and funding 5. Conflict resolution.


Q. What is your opinion on the deployment of space force? Is it

necessary considering the amount of investment and training required

for such endeavour ?

AVM Pranay Sinha answers that we have created space agency called

defence space agency. We have created at a mediocre level. The

command has not been established yet. It has been created at the

Major General level. It is at an initial stage. He says that he will not

comment on the weaponisation of space.

AVM Sudhansu Saxena answers that space force is very much required

and that is the future and if we don’t start now then we will land up in

the similar situation that we are now in related to indianisation. He says

that so much is controlled from space, we have our navIC and therefore

we must defend space no matter what the cost is.

The session was ended with a vote of thanks by Mr Vasu Gupta

President, PCRI

 
 
 

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