TheIndianEXPRESS

AUGUST 22 I 2013

(DELHI)

(ALL EDITIONS)

ADVERTORIAL

An initiative by

MAKING INDIAN MILITARY MODERN

DEFICITS & DISCONNECTS

I N S I D E
Indo-Russian cooperation
has huge potential
P2
ANS: Controlling the skies
P4

Vertically rigid security institutions do more harm than good to the idea of military transformation
DEBA R MOHANTY

HE Indian defence sector is witnessing an era

of transition in current
times. It would not be
wrong to assume that
this transition commenced in
2002, soon after the government
decided to implement major recommendations made by the Group
of Ministers (GoM) on national security management.
Practically, most of the elements of national defence sector
existinginstitutionalmechanisms,
armed forces, equipment and defence science, technology and industrial (DSTI) base have
experienced varying degrees of
changes in the last decade. New institutions have emerged within
both military and civilian domains
like tri-service and strategic forces
commands, integrated defence
staff, integrated headquarters, defence acquisition council, defence

Indigenisation to
make India self-reliant
A need to foster ecosystem for innovation, R&D and manufacturing

HE Indian Armed Forces has

beenlargelydependentonimports for modernisation of defence equipment. Even as
modernisation efforts are supplemented by Defence Public Sector Undertakings and the Ordnance Factory Board,
which,inturn,aresupportedbytheprivatesectorincludingsmallandmedium
enterprises (SMEs), the combined nationalcapacityisinadequatetomeetthe
rapid modernisation targets set for the
sector. The Indian defence industry assumes responsibility in making the nation self-reliant in defence production
and national security. The Ministry of
Defenceanddefenceservicesarethekey
stakeholders regardless of the level of
privatisation. Public sector undertakings will continue to play a major role
andremainthemainstayofdefenceprogrammesinthegrowthofmanufacturingaswellasnationalsecurity.
The increase in defence spending
coupled with strong growth in the
commercial aviation market has attracted major global OEMs to India
who are required to outsource manufacturing work to the Indian industry
to meet the offset requirement in the
defence procurement programme
withthegovernment.
Against this backdrop, a potential
opportunity exists for the Indian private sectors active participation in
demonstrating Indias expertise in defence equipment manufacture, starting from design and culminating with
the manufacture of the finished product.Itisinseekingprivatesectorparticipation that Indias real and
sustainableadvantagelies.
The Government of India is clear in
its vision for the aerospace and defence
sectorindigenisation of the industry
and acquiring/building capability in
advanced technologies which will, in
turn, facilitate lowering of dependence
on imports. The Planning Commission
has also identified this industry as a
strategicsector.
Given the opportunities that exist
worldwide in this sector along with the
Centres backing to promote indigenisation,Indiaisrapidlybuildingcapabilities to evolve as the preferred

destination for manufacturing of defence and aerospace components. India has already established itself as a
low-cost, high-skill manufacturing
hub in a number of critical sectors; the
aerospace and defence industry is a
greenfieldindustrywithhugepotential
for employment generation and technological advancement, apart from its
strategicimportance.
The proposed National Manufacturing Policy on aerospace and defence industries emphasises the need
to have a strong value add in India
from the standpoint of national security as well as to boost the manufacturing sector in India.
To meet these objectives, the government endeavours to build a robust
indigenous defence industrial base by
proactively encouraging larger involvement of the Indian private sector
in the manufacture of defence equipment. With focus on indigenisation, it
has taken concerted steps to develop
the Indian defence industry through
opening up offsets and sourcing procurement from Indian vendors when
theyhaveprovencapabilitytomeetthe
specifications and delivery schedules

INDIGENOUS
INDUSTRY
CONTINUES TO
FACE POLICY AND
REGULATION
CHALLENGES
*

setforproductdelivery.
The government has also promulgated policies for meeting the aforesaid
objectives.TheDefenceProductionPolicy formulated in 2011 by the Department of Defence Productionunder
the Ministry ofDefence, Government of
India enunciates the agenda of indigenisation. The policy aims to achieve
substantive self-reliance in the design,
development and production of equipment/weapon systems/platforms requiredforthedefencesectorinasearlya
time frame as possible; to create conditions conductive for active private participationinthisendeavour;toenhance
the potential of SMEs in indigenisation;
andtobroadenthecountrysdefenceresearch and development (R&D) base.
The new defence offset policy also
aims to leverage capital acquisitions to
develop the Indian defence industry.
Recent amendments to the Defence
Procurement Procedure emphasise on
Buy Indian and Buy and Make Indian
as the preferred category of defence
equipmentacquisition.
In spite of these encouraging policy
pronouncements, the indigenous defence industry continues to face challengesintermsoftheexistingpolicyand
regulatoryenvironmentsuchasindustrial licensing, offsets, imports and exports licences, regulations, tax regime,
andsoforth.Asanimmediatemeasure,
thereisaneedtofosteranecosystemfor
innovation,R&Dandmanufacturingto
give a fillip to the indigenous industry,
besides bolstering the manufacturing
infrastructure through Public Private
Partnership (PPP) models, investing in
educationandskilldevelopmenttocreateasustainablepoolofhighcalibretalent, providing funding / grants for
developing micro, small, medium and
large scale industries. A favourable
manufacturing policy, tax incentives,
benefits and exemptions, foreign technology cooperation agreements, and
processes to build national capacity in
this vital sector will go a long way in
building Indias aerospace and defence
industrialbase.
NidhiGoyal,
Director- DeloitteToucheTohmatsu
IndiaPrivateLimited

procurement and R&D Boards, to

name a few. Individual service and
joint doctrines have been announced. Ministry of Defence has
reviewed and injected reforms in
military procurement procedures
nine times in the last 11 years.
Rules of engagement in defence
production and procurement sectors are now examined more closely than before. In sum, the
transition process in Indian defence sector is likely to continue
well into future till key elements of
this sector are transformed along
expected lines.
These expected lines are intricately embedded in Indias grand
strategic ambitions to play a major constructive role in global affairs, for which it needs to position
or approximate itself to, what noted American scholar Joseph Nye
Jr. refers, a Smart Power that concocts both hard and soft compo-

DRDO and unmanned

warfare
P5
Naval Aviation, a force
in itself
P9

Continued on Page 3

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2
P&WC spreading
across the world
More than 10,000 aircraft operators around
the world depend on the companys engines
INTERVIEW I Stephen Greene I Vice President, Communications Textron Systems Corporation

We will continue to grow in India

From left: Miro Sep, Sr. Marketing Account Manager, P&WC; Denis Parisien, VP, General
Aviation, P&WC; Jim Allmon, President & CEO, Blackhawk Modifications; Matt Shieman,
Chairman, Blackhawk Modifications; Nick Kanellias, GM, Sales & Marketing, P&WC

RATT & WHITNEY Canada

(P&WC) is a premier player in the
aviation industry. After having
carved a niche in the civil aviation sector,
the company is now making a major
headwayinthedefenceindustry.
Comprisingafocusedmanagement
and a highly competent and motivated
team, the company is spreading its
wings across the world at a very fast
pace. More than 10,000 aircraft operators around the globe depend on the
company's engines to power their aircraft and helicopters. P&WC currently
has more than 50,000 engines in service in over 200 countries.
Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC)
and Blackhawk Modifications have recently announced the launch of a
unique Progressive Maintenance Program (PMP) that delivers additional
benefits and cost savings for skydive operators using PT6A-42A engines on
Blackhawk Modifications XP42A CessnaCaravanconversion.

Commenting on the performance as

well as features of the engines, Denis
Parisien, Vice President, General Aviation, P&WC, says, We are very excited
aboutthisenhancedPMP,whichwillallow skydive operators to extend their
time between overhauls (TBO) to 5,000
hours. Denis Parisien, Vice President,
General Aviation, P&WC, who unveiled
the program at EAA AirVenture 2013
alongside Jim Allmon, President and
CEO, Blackhawk Modifications, further
adds, The new program is the result of
improved technology and the close relationship between P&WC and BlackhawkModifications.
Thanks to P&WCs powerful
PT6A-42A engine, the XP42A upgrade
provides up to 26 percent higher power
at 850 shp while continuing to provide
the reliability for which the PT6A engine family is legendary, noted Allmon. This results in improved aircraft

Continued on Page 3

With the Indian Armed Force in

a state of rapid modernisation,
what are the present offerings of
Textron Systems to the armed
forces?
Textron Systems is working with
the India Air Force to integrate
Sensor Fuzed Weapons (SFW) on
the Jaguar aircraft. This highly effective anti-vehicle weapon offers
99.6 per cent reliability and verified performance. SFW has several combat-proven features that
help prevent hazardous unexploded ordinance and leave a
clean battlefield.
OurShadowM2TacticalUnmannedAircraftSystemisthenext
generation of our renowned Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aircraft System. The Shadow M2

builds on the record of the Shadow

200 with greater performance and
multi-missionflexibility.
In addition, our Aerosonde
Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems single electro-optic/infrared
payload delivers day-and-night,
persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, while
its large payload size, weight and
poweraccommodateanotherpayload of choice.
Our Spider man-in-the-loop,
networked munition system incorporates sensors, communications and munitions for small unit
force protection. It can control
both lethal and nonlethal effects,
and is designed to prevent harm to
non-combatants while safeguarding warfighters.
Also, Textron Systems family
of Unattended Ground Sensors
(UGS) is a scalable, effective solution for both tactical and non-military applications covering a
variety of terrains and targets. This
includes the MicroObserver UGS
system,anext-generationsolution
that provides situational awareness for perimeter defence, force
protectionandbordersecurity.
Our multi-source intelligence, geospatial analysis and
customintelligencesolutionssup-

port military commands, intelligence and national agencies, and

commercial services. These solutions enable analysts to leverage
multiple intelligence sources for
situational understanding and
actionable intelligence.
What aspect of the business
would be the focus for the Indian
marketinthecomingyears?
We see broad opportunities for our
families of systems across many
different applications. We have
hadproductivediscussionsonvarious requirements with the Ministry of Home Affairs, Border
Security Force, DRDO and other
potential customers.
What are the opportunities and

challenges you see in India for

Textron?
TextronSystemspresencewillonlycontinuetogrowinIndia.Working with the government, armed
forces, security agencies and incountry technology partners, we
are tailoring our offerings to support current and emerging requirements.
Which are the tenders that Textron Systems is currently participating in and what is the status?
We are discussing our solutions
with many potential government,
armed forces and security agency
customers, and have responded to
several requests for information.
Whataretheplanstopartnerwith
Indian private sector companies?
Textron Systems understands that
indigenisation is a priority for India.
We are actively looking into several
possible industry partnerships, and
believethatthesewillbringgreatopportunities for all parties to grow
their capabilities successfully. One
recent example of this is a partnership, through our Overwatch business, with RSI Softech India Private
Limited, a Hyderabad company, to
jointly sell and integrate a portfolio
ofgeospatialsolutionsinIndia.

Indo-Russian cooperation has huge potential

I
IGOR VILNIT, General Director
Central Design Bureau for
Marine Engineering, RUBIN

NDIA has one of the worlds

largest Navies, with bluewater responsibilities and
more than 7,500 kilometers
of coastlines and hundreds
of islands to patrol. In the Indian
Navy ship-building programme
considerable attention is paid to
the submarines. There is no better
stealth weapon in the world today
than the submarine: assets of land
forces and air forces are exposed to
the reconnaissance satellites
placed in orbit, whereas it is not
easy to detect a submerged submarine. A modern submarine is one of
the most technologically advanced pieces of machinery ever
invented by the humankind.
The backbone of the Indian
Navys submarine fleet is formed by
10 Project 877EKM vessels designed by Rubin. Building these 10
submarines for the Indian Navy
(Sindhughosh class) and then keeping them up-to-date and seaworthy
is one of the success stories of IndoRussian co-operation. They are
equipped with the Club-S missile
system employing anti-ship missiles, and six of those ten are also capable of launching land-strike
missiles. Right now the contract is
beingimplementedtoenablethere-

maining four submarines launch

land-strikemissiles.
Starting in 2000, Indian Navy
submarines of the Project 877EKM
have been undergoing midlife upgrades in Russia. During this overhaul not only the hull but also
on-board equipment items were
checked or upgraded. Modernisation of weaponry and radio electronic equipment was the main
focus of the work done.
Russia is offering a second refit
and modernisation programme. It
can add from five-seven to 10 years
of lifetime to these ageing submarines. For instance, the INS
Vagli of Rubins Project 641 served
for 36 years until being finally decommissioned in 2011. Should the
Indian side accept this offer, it may
prove a timely and cost-effective
measure to bridge the gap until induction of next generation submarines. As far as we know the
Indian navy is now considering
this sort of work to be done.
In the past few years, Indias focus has been shifting to licence production and technology offsets.
Rubin is now watching carefully to
see precisely what requirements emerge from Indian
government. Defense pro-

THE AIP IS NO
LONGER A
STUMBLING
BLOCK FOR
PARTICIPATING
IN THE
COMPETITION
UNDER THE
PROJECT 75I
curement procedures require collaborators from foreign countries to
workcloselywiththedomesticmanufacturers through massive offset
programmes. As far as Rubin is concerned, we can also offer something
in offset to our Indian partners as India is interested in latest technologies in design and development of
modern naval and maritime equipment. For instance, when making
decisionwithwhichtobidintheProject 75I completion, we were referring to the preliminary information
from the Indian Navy. The first advantage of the Amur
class submarines over
the previous design is

that it has a more powerful weaponry. The crew comport also has been
improved. Due to the far more advanced sonar, Amur can detect less
noisy targets, and due to the far lowernoisesignature,theshipfaredbetter in simulated duels with
previous-generation submarines.
The Russian Air-Independent
Propulsion (AIP) for the Amur class
submarines which are offered to India was shown to the representatives of the Indian side when they
visited our facilities. The Russian
Navy also declared its intent to have
this particular AIP to be installed into the Russian navy ships. As the designer of this system, Rubin decided
that AIP shall not only provide for a
long underwater time, but also
stealth operations and be safe when
operated aboard submarines. Our
system differs from AIPs found in
other countries in that it generates
hydrogenonboardofthesubmarine
inavolume(quantity)thatisactually required for submarine operations. One of the advantages of our
own system is that our system does
not have noise producingelementsatall.
This AIP system is
flexible enough. There is
an
opportunity
to

build/shape this system in relation

toaparticularsubmarineaccording
to customer requirements. Depending on the customer-specified figure
for underwater operational time,
Rubin would shape the AIP system
so that it meets the requirement. In
theory, we can shape AIP so that it
can match the submarine's autonomous time at sea, and the latter
is 45 days right now, but again this
figureisdeterminedbythecustomer
and is referred to as the customerspecified autonomous time at sea.
Coming to a conclusion, the AIP is
no longer a stumbling block in the
way of Russia in participating in the
competition under the Project 75I.
Moreover, we have offered assistance to the Indian side in developmentoftheirownAIPsystemand
also in transformation of the system
they are working on so as to make it
applicable to submarines, because
we have a lot of things in common.
Further, we are ready to consider issues to do with creation of submarines jointly with India in the
interest of third countries. All this
gives us ground to assert that the
Indo-Russian military technical
cooperation has a strong foundations and a huge potential in
many naval areas.

3
MoD wiser unless it further refines its procedural arrangements.
And last but not least, capability-oriented
military modernisation drive tests politicostrategic resolve of the Indian decision-makers. This has two distinct yet related
dimensions consensual decision-making
and effective implementation. Instead of emphasising a whole range of acquisitions, the
Indian decision-makers need to prioritise
items and start wooing target suppliers/countries. This requires prudent diplomacy. Such a
strategy may pay indirect dividends like
shared efforts in design and development,
knowledge, industrial cooperation.
Perhaps the most important yet least emphasised factor that affects Indias ambitious
military modernisation drive is the less visible
universe of institutional interaction among
key agencies. Four distinct institutional pillars
political class (government of the day and
opposition parties), civil bureaucracy (MoD
and related ministries), military bureaucracy
(armed forces headquarters), defence scientific
bureaucracy (DRDO) and lack of inter-institutional interactions among themselves have
perpetuated the pathetically inefficient course
of military modernisation in India. Private in-

dustry, media and academia have been practically kept out of this quadrangular, virtually
unaccountable system. Opinions emerging
from the strategic community, largely filled
with retired diplomats, bureaucrats and military leaders, are thus considered an extension
or tacit approval of establishmentarian thinking.Lackofobjectivityandindependentassessments is clearly evident in Indian universe of
militarymodernisationdrive.
While Indian military modernisation
process is likely to muddle through chaotic
times that create more confusion primarily
due to half-hearted approach to refine the
system, an attempt to ensure healthy institutionally mandated interactions among
the key stakeholders could bring in positive
results for the armed forces. The first step toward this may necessitate inclusion of industry and multi-disciplinary academia into
the charmed quadrangular pillars and
ensure that media gets reasonable amount
of disseminated information for debates
and deliberations.
(Deba R Mohanty is a defence analyst and
heads a defence research firm in New Delhi. He can
be reached at deba205@gmail.com)

P&WC spreading across the world

Continued from Page 2

utility, allowing Blackhawk Modifications to better meet

operators needs.
For a typical skydiving mission, the aircraft features improvedclimbperformanceandisabletodescendat4,000feet
per minute, enabling several more flights per day. The increased engine warranty coverage of 2,500 hours per five
yearsprovidesadditionalbenefitsandreducedoperatingcosts
to operators that have chosen the XP42A aircraft upgrade.
Pre-selectedfleetleaderswillhavetheirenginessampled,
and based on the engine conditions, operators that have enrolledinthePMPwillhavetheirTBOextended.Theprogram
featureson-wingengineinspectionsat3,600hoursthatwill
support the TBO increase. The introduction of the new super
finish first stage gears kit and Engine Trend Monitoring are
keyenablersofthisprogram.
A webcast was held to provide XP42A skydive operators
withmoreinformationonthePMP.Whatsmore,P&WChas
staffed its EAA AirVenture booth with engine experts and aftermarket consultants to answer questions from attendees.
Engines on display will include the PT6A-41 and PT6A-65.
The new PMP is the latest example of the PT6A familys
tradition of superior customer value. Thanks to programs
suchasthis,itcontinuestobethebenchmarkbywhichother
enginesinitsclassaremeasured,concludedParisien.

Making Indian military modern

Continued from Page 1

nents of power as may be requisite from time to time. Military component of hard power is considered extremely
important in this construct. Thus, it is not surprising to
witness an Indian attempt to enhance its military power, a process that has run parallel to a growing economic
might, vibrant and democratic polity and relative sociopolitical stability. However, enhancement of Indian military power, especially in the equipment modernisation
domain, has met with numerous problems. Hence, decoding deficits in Indian military modernisation drive
becomes important.
When one examines deficits and disconnects in Indian military modernisation programme, it is necessary to
ask a set of questions based on reasonable assumptions.
First, are resource allocations for military modernisation
adequate? If you ask a military planner, he will answer in
the negative. But look at the larger picture. India spends
close to 15 per cent of its central government expenditure
on national defence. Indian military capital expenditure
has grown sevenfold between 2002 and 2013 (from
Rs 12,000 to 86,000 crore). Procurement allocations
hardly suffer from unspent syndrome any more.
Translating reasonable allocations into real military capability enhancement thus becomes a challenging task
for military planners.
Second, is it actually a planned equipment modernisation drive or a concocted replenishment effort thus far?
Though there is no reliable data available in public domain on even approximate rate of obsolescence or shortfall in the Indian arsenal, it is generally accepted that the
situation is grim and hence worrisome. Against a sanctioned strength of 39.5 squadron and aspirational

THE TRUSTED
PARTN ER FOR
THE AVRO
REPLACEMENT

CAPABILITY-ORIENTED
MODERNISATION DRIVE
TESTS POLITICO-STRATEGIC
RESOLVE OF THE INDIAN
DECISION-MAKERS

strength of 45 plus squadrons, the Indian Air Force badly

needs to replenish at least eight to ten squadrons in the
next five years to maintain its relative standing vis--vis
its adversaries. The Army has not inducted any artillery
piece in the last quarter century. The Navy is still waiting
for its aircraft carrier. Bulk of necessary systems and domains are in urgent need of replenishment. Ideally, capability enhancement should have been given more
importance over mere replenishment drive. However,
despite best efforts, Indian military planners seem to be
helpless in this regard.
Third,doesIndianmilitarygetwhatitwants,especiallyinadvancedtechnologydomain?Again,Indiaiswoefullydeficientinmeetingherowndemandsandthuscritically
dependentonforeignsources,mostlyincriticalandstrategictechnologies.EveryoneknowsthatunlessIndiamakes
a serious effort to modernise her own DSTI base, her military modernisation effort would face serious difficulties
whenconfrontedwithrealbattlefieldsituation.Reformsin
defence production and R&D sectors have been underway
for the past 10 years, but such efforts have at best been noble but spectacularly chaotic at the least. The Rama Rao
Committee report on reforms in DRDO is gathering dust.
Other committee recommendations like those of Vijay
Kelkar and Probir Sengupta have been disappointing.
Such a situation calls for serious introspection.
Fourth, does Indian military modernisation drive
suffer from time factor? The answer is obvious. Delayed
equipment induction actually leads to replenishment,
not capability development. The hitherto badly managed Indian military planning system seems to be improving, but systemic sediments need to be addressed
with due seriousness. Long-term perspective plans need
greater deliberations among the armed forces and once
demands are decided, procurement process must ensure
timely execution of projects. This is not happening simply because of three reasons: a) flexible quality requirements, b) lengthy and complex evaluation procedures,
and c) unclear production and procurement obligations. The 126 MMRCA tender is a case provides us a
good example badly planned and equally badly executed with question marks raised at every step of the
process. It is currently going through a parallel process
of evaluation in costs, offsets and technology transfers. If
or as and when the MMRCA tender comes to its eventual
conclusion, it is not necessary that lessons learnt from
this mammoth multi-year endeavour will make the

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The C295 is optimised for personnel and cargo

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Proven in rough airstrips, hot and high conditions.
The C295 does what the HS-748 Avro does, but
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After 150,000 accumulated flight hours, the C295 s
higher utilisation rates and availability over similar
aircraft mean its proven to be simply more efficient.
Therefore it has become the transport solution of
choice in 16 countries. For daily transport missions,
Airbus Military is your trusted partner.

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CONTROLLING THE SKIES

Even as the equipment utilised for Air Navigation Services is being upgraded at four major airports in the country Delhi,
Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai there is a shortage of employees to carry out such functions

IR Navigation Services
(ANS) in India is a key requirement for any country to make its sky secure.
The job of any Air Traffic
Control is not only to guide the civil aircrafttotheirdestinationsbutalsoguard
the skies from any unwanted flying object entering into its airspace.
Due to such a responsibility at
hand, the ANS operation is always a
sovereign function and the governmentdoesit.CurrentlyinIndia,theAirports Authority of India (AAI) has the
job to provide ANS.
This job will soon be carved out of
AAI and a separate authority will be
formed to carry out the ANS functions.
The AAI Board, at its 150th board
meeting held in October, has decided to
create an authority for ANS and forwardedthedecisiontothecivilaviation
ministry, which will send the proposal
to the Union Cabinet for approval.
Bringing it out of AAI would be
good for ANS, as its needs are neglected in the bigger AAI that also has to
operate over hundred airports across
the country.
Even as the equipment utilised for
ANS services ARE being upgraded at
four major airports in the country--Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai--there is a shortage of employees to
carry out such functions.
ANS is done by Air Traffic Control
officers, who are not adequate in
numbers and this is being seen as a
major contributor to the increasing
incidents of near-collisions that were
recorded at airports.
There are around 1,800 ATC officers spread across the country, while
the requirement is for over 1,000 more.
Shortage of ATCOs means the existing
officers need to work overtime and under pressure to fill in for the shortage.

THE SUGGESTION
TO TURN ANS INTO
A SEPARATE
COMPANY HAS
BEEN MADE BY
VARIOUS
COMMITTEES
Unlike their counterparts in the US
and Europe, the ATC officers have to
work seven days a week in a six-hour
shift a day. They also have to do overtime for around 60 hours. ATC officers
in the US and Europe work for fixed 200
hours a month and they also get off
days. An ATC officers job requires 100
per cent concentration and a break after every one-and-a-half hours.

One of the key reasons of the shortfall is also the remuneration. During
probation an officer is paid Rs 3.6 lakh a
year, which is much less than the Rs 3
lakh per month an ATC officer gets internationally. After three years in service in India, they make about Rs 7.2
lakh annually, while their international peers make Rs 5 lakh a month.
The government has time and
again tried to bridge the gap by getting in retired Air Force employees as
ATCOs but have never been able to fill
the shortage.
TheneedforcreatingATCasaseparate company got stronger after aviation sector in India registered a huge
boostonthebackofapassengergrowth
ofover20percentandaneedwasfeltfor
special focus to be given to the demands
and needs of ANS.
It is also widely felt that ANS operations require technical expertise and
technically proficient people should
manage them and a separate company
would expedite their decision making.
The recommendations to make
ANS a separate company have been
madebyvariouscommittees,including
Naresh Chandra Committee in 2003
and Roy Paul Committee in 2007.
The process to hive off ATC operations started in 2010 with the creation
of a post called Member -ANS on AAI's
Board to monitor ATC functioning. Before this, the job was handled by Member-Operations.
The problem of remunerations
would also be taken care after it is
carved out as around 60 per cent of the
currentAAIsrevenuecomesfromANS
operations. Revenue from ATC operations include charges for route navigation facilities, terminal navigation and
instrument landing. Every time an international flight uses India's airspace,
it pays a fee for ATC services.

DRDO and unmanned warfare

Various military-robotic unmanned systems including ROV Daksh, UAV Netra, UGVs, DELRAD, MUNTRA and
Entomopters are currently under development in different DRDO labs in the country

RESEARCH&DEVELOPMENT
ESTABLISHMENT(ENGINEERS)
(R&DE),PUNE
ROVDAKSHMK-II
After having developed and delivered
20 of Remotely Operated Vehicle
(ROV) Daksh to the Army by mid2012, R&DE is working on Mark II
version of Daksh. Being integrated by
R&DE along with Dynalog, Theta
Controls and PSU Bharat Electronics
Limited, the Mark II version will have
anenhancedmanipulatorarmwitha
better payload lift capability, reduced
weight that can offer easy portability,
ability to climb more heights and enhanced mobility. While the first version remains remotely operated, the
plan is to include autonomous modes
inMk-IIversion.Existingservomotor
which imparts movement to the machine will be replaced by Permanent
Magnet DC (PMDC) motors, something which will impart accuracy,

THE FORCES
REMAIN WARY OF
DRDOS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
GIVEN THE COST
AND TIME
OVERRUNS

agility to the robot while increasing

the speed of operations. Efforts are also on to modify Daksh for ChemicalBiological-Radiation-Nuclear
(CBRN) environments.
Suited for: Low-intensity conflict,
explosive detection & diffusion, reconnaissance.
End user: Army, CRPF and NDRF.
Development stage: Firing trials of
the robot with Light Machine Gun
(LMG) and Grenade launcher have
already been carried out to test the effect of the recoil.

UXOHANDLINGROV
While Daksh has been for the Army
and necessarily land forces, the Air
Force has shown interest in robots for
the collection of Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) that their fighter aircraft drop at the practice ranges. It
will be like a tele-operated loader (like
aJCBmachine)accordingtoR&DEofficials who felt it is too early to talk
about specifications of the ROV.
Stage of development: Three prototypes of UXO handler ROV are to be
delivered to IAF in 2.5 years.
End user: IAF.

COMBATVEHICLESRESEARCH&
DEVELOPMENTESTABLISHMENT
(CVRDE),CHENNAI
CVRDE has been working on a set of

semi-autonomous
Unmanned
Ground Vehicle (UGV) system
MUNTRA. The system consists of
MUNTRA- B- a base vehicle on BMP
platform along with three other vehicles,MUNTRA-NforNuclear-Biological- Chemical (NBC) sample
collection in the conflict area,
MUNTRA-S for surveillance and
MUNTRA-M for mine detection.
MUNTRA- N is fitted with NBC sensors,samplecollectionequipment,piquet-firing capabilities. Development
of MUNTRA-M which will be
equipped with ground penetration
radar for mine detection, vapour
detection system that can sense
explosive vapours from mines is
in advance stages. To make the
machines fully autonomous, the
platformswillbefittedwithDrive
by Wire (DBW) equipment. The
present range of operations is
five km, extendable up to 20 km.
The laboratory is also carrying
out research on increasing the
ruggedness of these UGVs along
with extended mission durations, extended ranges and easy
operability of these vehicles. The
trials have been conducted in
deserts of Rajasthan.
Purpose: Surveillance, mine detection, data generation, marking of NBC-affected terrain with
the help of piquet, sample collection, and day-and-night surveillance for the Army.
Development stage: The laboratory has completed the prototypes of MUNTRA-N and
MUNTRA-S and development of
MUNTRA-M in advanced stages.
End user: Army.

DEFENCELABORATORY,
JODHPUR(DLJ)

CAIR is working on a mini UGVa

man-portable robot with day-andnightvisionforLowIntensityConflict
(LIC) areas. The 28 kg UGV can carry
a payload of 50 kg and is armed with
self righting capability. It can cross a
600 mm trench (reasonably challenging for its size). Interestingly, in
whatmay soundlikea mini step incoordination between two robots, the
mini UGV can carry a wall- climbing
robot-designed by CAIR. The UGV
carries the wall-climbing robot on its
back till the wall. The wall climbing
robot then vertically climbs the wall
and enters the LIC zone thus achieving a coordinated operation.
Suitedfor:LIC,surveillanceinurban
locales.
Development stage: Complete.
Work presently involves enhancing
theminiUGVwithamanipulatorarm
so as to improve the payload capability and task-ability.
End user: CAPF
The lab has also tested a micro birdlike,flappingMicroAirVehicle(MAV)like Entomopter. Indoor and outdoor
flights for duration of 2.5 minutes of
this robot weighing 30 gm have been
completed.Leggedrobotsthatlooklike
spiders with six and four legs, with two
degrees of freedom for each leg are at
variousstagesofdevelopment.

Defence Laboratory, Jodhpur (DLJ)

has developed a detector probe that
has been the detecting device attached to DRDOs UAV Netra. The
probe named Defence Laboratory Radiation Detector (DELRAD probe)
weighs less than 22 grams and measures 50 mm X 45 mm X 27 mm. The
small size replaces the equivalent of
two GeigerMller tubes, each of
length of four to five inches- used for
measuring radiation, thus achieving
the compactness, a significant aspect
of robotics. DELRAD probe fitted in a
UAV can provide streaming data of
nuclear radiation.
Purpose: Generation of data of nuclear radiation in incidents such as
oneinMayapuri,Delhi,orincasesterrorists resort to radiation as the
weapon against masses. Fitted on
UAV Netra.
Development stage: Complete.
The work of integrating DELRAD
probe with ROV Daksh is currently
underway.

WHATPRIVATEINDUSTRYIN
ROBOTICSEXPECTS
TheforcesremainwaryofDRDOsannouncements given the cost and time
overruns that almost all DRDO projects are plagued with. The private industry too echoes similar feelings,

though from the other end, that of

supplying, developing and integrating the systems. In an area as niche as
robotics, the private players are
ahead of DRDO laboratories as it was
ondisplayattheexhibitionareaofthe
seminar, though, their domain remains specific to civil applications
and depend completely on DRDO to
float requirements for military purposes. One of the dealers, whose systems have been integrated on
DRDO-developed robotic platform,
said, The policies need to change in a
manner to encourage private participation not only in development, but
even in conceptualising. For instance, even if a private developer has

VEHICLERESEARCH
DEVELOPMENTESTABLISHMENT
(VRDE),
AHMEDNAGAR
VRDE is working on UGV for surveillance purpose along with a
Singapore-based
company.
Work is being carried out in two
phases- in the first phase and operating control unit has been developed, while autonomous
operation has been planned in
the second phase. The laboratory
is also working on a CBRN UGV in
the 50 kg vehicle category for detection, sample collection and
marking of hazardous area. The
vehicle will be fitted with biological, nuclear and chemical sensors and will also include a
manipulator- a robotic arm for
carrying out tasks.
Purposes: LIC, Anti-terrorist operations, NBC recce missions,
sample collection.
Stage of development: Advanced, two CBRN UGVs will be
mounted on manned NBC recce
vehicles.
End users: Army, CAPF.
Also being carried out in collaboration with a third country is a
rather complex project involving
coordinated operations between
UGVs and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The development
revolvesaroundthecoordination
between a rotary wing UAV, one
fixed wing UAV, four UGVs, one
each for combat, command, Reconnaissance-Surveillance-andTarget-Acquisition (RSTA) and
CBRN data collection.
Development stage: The project
is in initial stages.
End user: Army

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industrial resources. DCNS designs, builds and supports submarines and surface combatants. It
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solutions in civil nuclear engineering and marine renewable energy.
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design dragon rouge - photo : C. Chamourat

NAUGURATING an international robotics conference at the

DRDO lab, Research and Development Engineers (R&DE), in
Pune recently, the new DRDO chief
Avinash Chander pronounced a
ratherambitiousprojectinvolvingroboticsoldiersthatworkingroupstobe
reality by 2023. And while Chander's
claimscanbetakenwithapinchofsalt
given the time and cost overruns in
variousDRDOprojects,here'salookat
theroboticdevelopmentsthatarecurrently underway at some of the countrysprimeDRDOlaboratories.

CENTREFORARTIFICIALINTELLIGENCE
&ROBOTICS(CAIR),BANGALORE

a futuristic, creative and feasible idea

to develop a robotic system, he has to
wait for DRDO to float requirements
for his ideas to materialise. I should be
given an opportunity to develop for
the armed forces, the technology that
DRDO has never thought of. Why
cant I talk directly to the user the
forces and develop?
Another integrator said, Robotics is a complex area and Indian developments are limited to primarily
integrating the imported components. We need a bottom-up approach,whereinthedevelopmentand
production of the sensors, actuators,
compositesandothersuchelementsis
encouraged. We seem to have missed
that bus as a nation. The gap between research and development is
another area feels this integrator.
There are two aspects of research
applied research and fundamental research. The applied research involves
integration of existing platforms developed by other countries on our systems.
Fundamental
research
however is about invention. This area
does not exist in India as much as it exists in countries such as USA, UK or
even Israel. We do not encourage researches that do not guarantee output. Students in India have potential.
We need to integrate that with the requirements of our end-users. This
holds true especially in complex areas
suchasrobotics.

ALL SHIPSHAPE AT COCHIN

Apart from the first
indigenous aircraft
carrier, Cochin Shipyard
has undertaken the
construction of 20
fast-patrol vessels for the
Indian Coast Guard.
These ships are capable of
a high speed of 33 knots

vent and ultimately eliminate risks to the environment arising from the transfer of harmful
aquatic organisms and pathogens. The vessel
with accommodation for 28 persons also meets
the requirements of high comfort levels and
very low levels of noise and vibration.
The CSL has also signed a contract with Directorate General of Lighthouses & Lightships
(DGLL) for the construction of high -tech one
buoy tender vessel last year. This multipurpose
vessel is used for transporting and placing
buoys in positions at deeper depths, recovering
buoys and their moorings for examination and

overhaul, attending on their lighting equipment, towing and mooring of light vessels, distress management, etc.
Ship repair is another area where the yard
has been performing a yeomens service to the
repair and maintenance of strategic ships of
the nation. There is an acute shortage of ship
repair facility in the Indian Ocean area, the
nearest repair hubs being situated in the Middle East and Singapore. Immense opportunities exist in repairs of rigs/semi submersibles
and other offshore vessels and creation of facilities to tap this potential market appears to
have good prospects.
The existing aircraft carrier of
the Indian Navy, INS Viraat, has been looked af-

CSLS MARINE
ENGINEERING
TRAINING INSTITUTE
HAS BEEN RATED
EXCELLENT
SINCE 2004
ter by the yard for the last 20 years. This
1950s- vintage aircraft carrier is still going
strong, thanks to the engineering expertise of
the CSL repair team. Apart from this, the yard
has also repaired rigs of ONGC which are cru-

cial for its exploration activities. The increase

in the drilling capacity of Sagar Vijay, drill
ship of ONGC, from 300 M to 900 M was one
of the most important ship upgrades undertaken by the yard.
Apart from the above, the yard has taken
up many complex and sophisticated repairs
to various types of ships including bulk carriers, tankers, passenger ships , oil rigs and defense vessels.
The yard proposes to set up a ship-lift system in the above facility to cater to repair of
smaller ships, so that the yard can take up repairs to bigger ships in its existing facility.
In order to bridge the skill gap and build up
the marine engineering skills in India, the
yard set up the Marine Engineering Training

Institute in 1993. Today, this is the most reputed marine engineering training institute
in the country. The yard has a capacity to
train 140 graduate engineers every year.
CSLs Marine Engineering Training Institute
has been rated excellent by Credit Rating
Agency (CARE) since 2004.
Cochin Shipyards vision is to emerge as a
leading international shipbuilding and shiprepair yard. In order to achieve this vision, CSL
had looked at investing in a high-definition drydock. However, due to the downturn in shipping industry, the plan was shelved. Now, with
the construction of the IAC reaching an advanced stage, the yard is planning to go in for a
dock capable of repairing jack-up rig, semi submersibles and large aircraft carriers.

HECochin Shipyard Limited (CSL),

which began operation in 1972,
has exported 40 ships in the past
one decade. CSL has made its presence felt in maritime industry
through shipbuilding and repair of ships, both
defence and commercial.
The shipyards state-of-the-art facility
includes a modern marine coating shop, CNC
plasma cutting, 1,200 tonne hydraulic
press, 13-metre plate roller, shearing machine , one-side welding machine, CO2 welding and 80 cranes ranging from 10 T to 300
T. Based on the infrastructure and quality of
construction, the Indian Navy had assigned
the CSL the construction of Indias first indigenous aircraft carrier.
Apart from the first indigenous aircraft carrier, the CSL has undertaken the construction
of 20 fast-patrol vessels for the Indian Coast
Guard. These ships, although small in size, are
capable of a high speed of 33 knots.
The yard is also presently constructing
three offshore support ships for international
owners based in Norway. These vessels will be
filled with ballast water treatment plant to pre-

VIKRANTS CAPABILITIES
The 37,500-tonne carrier has been
designed to attain speeds in excess
of 28 knots, and to carry 36 aircraft,
17 in the hangars and 19 on deck. It
is powered by four LM 2500 gas
turbines that will generate over 80
MW, enough to light a small city. It is
designed to sail for over 8,000
nautical miles in a service period over
three decades. Its main weapon will
be its fighter aircraft.

Modernisation at Mazagon Dock

Mazagon Dock, which gifted the country the first gas turbine-propelled, multi-purpose destroyers around the turn of the century, is slowly
shedding its traditional style of shipbuilding as it moves towards indigenous capability

OUR COMBINED STRENGTH

DELIVERS
LIVERS THE ADVANTAGE

ITH their calender

booked till 2024,
the Mazagon Dock
Limited is moving
towards the second
phase of the Rs 826 crore modernisation project, with the yard looking to
build its most recent contract, Project
15 Bravo, under the Integrated Modular Construction style.
The yard, which gifted the country
the first gas turbine-propelled, multipurpose destroyers, around the turn of
the century, is slowly shedding its traditional style of shipbuilding as it
moves towards indigenous build capability. The yard, considered to have the
most suitable environment and space
to build destroyers, is involved in
building three war ships under Project
15 Alpha (considered to be advanced
versions of Delhi-class destroyers),
which when commissioned will form
the Kolkata Class.
Project 15 Bravo, with a deadline
of 2018, for the first of the four vessels,
looks to adopt finer details of integrated platform and advanced weaponry
and sensor management. Scorpene
submarines with its new deadline of
September 2016 has also been under
constant spotlight.
We have put our Express of Interest and are looking for experts from
countries with shipbuilding background to assist us in the modular
workshop. It's a global tender and we
are looking for a good participation,
says Rear Admiral (retired) Rahul Kumar Shrawat, Chairman and Managing Director, Mazagon Dock Limited.
On Scorpene, I can say that the hull
of all the six are complete. We assure
the most stringent level of tests and we
are seeing the results. In most of the
quality tests, the rejection rate is
small, he added.
Meanwhile, with its designs, the
destroyers Project 15 Alpha and
Project 15 Bravoare expected to
adopt the same style of integrated platform model used by the Delhi class,
along with the improvised stealth features. While the destroyers equipped
with advance missile system (the

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and national security requirements:
n Multi-mission unmanned aircraft systems and interoperable ground
control technologies proven through hundreds of thousands of
ight hours
n Smart air-to-ground precision weapons designed to defeat moving and
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n Multi-source intelligence, geospatial analysis and custom intelligence
solutions for counter-terrorism, irregular warfare and law enforcement
Our combined strength can deliver a decisive advantage to Indias armed forces
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IN THE NEW SYSTEM, WORKERS

STITCH THE EQUIPMENT ONTO
DIFFERENT MODULES OF THE SHIP
AND THEN ASSEMBLE IT TOGETHER
AT THE SLIPWAY

Kolkata Class will have BrahMos surface-to-surface

missiles,
rocket
launchers, torpedo tube launchers,
sonar Humsa, EWS Ellora and AK-630
guns), the shipbuilders are expected to
shape the corners giving more stealth,
with better sensory and weapon man-

agement systems. But the yard's proficiency remains in the efficiency

shown by Delhi Class's integrated platform management. According to navy
experts, a destroyer or a war ship's
ability comes in taking decisions in real time, which an integrated platform

helps. In an integrated-platform management , decision makers are able to

control real-time information, as
there is connectivity between the war
strategy room, command facility and
bridge.
At the dock meanwhile, a Goliath

crane and a wet basin along with the

modular workshop form the components of the new style of shipbuilding.
The idea is to decrease the time taken
in building war ships as in the new system the emphasis is on time management, adds Shrawat. Unlike the
traditional method, where the ship is
shaped around the keel and then taken
out to the water where its refitted, in
the new system, workers will stitch the
equipment onto different modules of
the ship and then assemble it together
at the slipway. With the new Goliath

crane equipped to handle a weight of

300 tonnes, the bulk of the ship would
be easily transported, cutting delay.
The wet basin with an added draft is also expected to help.
While the first of Kolkata Class
(named after maritime cities) is to be
ready by 2013 end, the rest have their
deadlines set, Kochi in 2014 and
Chennai in 2015. Project 15 Bravo
have their deadlines set, with the first
war ship in 2018, and the rest to come
in every two years, with the last to be
delivered in 2024.

www.textronsystems.in
2013 Textron Systems Corporation. All rights reserved.
Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company.

8
INTERVIEW I Antonio Rodriguez Barberan, Head of Commercial, Airbus Military

Providing the refuelling advantage

CII BRIDGES THE GAP

The need of the hour is to bring
all the stakeholders together and
chalk out a short-term plan for
immediate requirements
MAJORITY of Indian
naval requirements have
been met through indigenous industry. However,
with the need for increasing the pace
of modernisation, a simultaneous requirement to acquire state-of-the-art
weapons, equipment and systems
based on sophisticated technologies
is also being felt. While DPP 2013
makes Buy Indian the most preferred category for all capital acquisitions, Indian Navy and Indian
Coast Guard are also pushing forward technological collaboration
and technology acquisition by the Indian companies to meet the operational requirements and also to replace the vintage systems with the
world class platforms and systems.
Indian Naval and Maritime sector needs larger number of industry
participants to achieve greater selfreliance and indigenisation at all levels. There exist a great opportunity
for the industry in the naval armament sector to contribute for a national cause and also reap shareholder benefits. Government, on its
part, has been forthcoming to ensure
a level playing field, industry friendly
production policies and transparent
and fair procurement procedures.
There exist a huge gap between
the end-users requirements and industrys capabilities. The need of the
hour is to bring all the stakeholders
together and chalk out a short-term
plan for immediate requirements; a
mid-term plan for technology transfer and absorption and; a long term
plan for developmental projects. CII
has been instrumental in bridging

What is the current status of the

ongoing contract to supply new
generation refullers to the Indian
AirForce?
The final contractual negotiations
for the A330 MRTT multi-role
tanker transports are progressing
well and we are optimistic of finalisingthecontractlaterthisyear.Naturally, we are keen to proceed as
quickly as possible and, of course,
the quicker that we can complete
thenegotiations,thesoonertheIAF
can begin to receive its aircraft.
How will the MRTT give an advantage to the IAF in coming years?
TheA330MRTTisbyaconsiderable
margin the most advanced
tanker/transportin theworld. Itcarriesmorefuel,moretroopsandheavierloadsthananyotheraircraftinthe
sector.Itpassesfuelatthemaximum
possibleratetobothfastjetsandother
transports,andithasahighlysophisticated workstation with a 3D monitoring system for the air refuelling
operator to do his work. It is also extremelyreliablethankstoitsheritage
of being based on the best-selling
A330 commercial airliner. This is

notjustanemptypromisethereare
now17A330MRTTsinservicewith
four nations and the aircraft is performing very well, refuelling a wide
range of fighters and delivering outstandingmissionreliability.
What kind of technology will Airbus share with the Indian industry
as part of its offset obligations?
As everyone knows, the issue of industrialcooperationwithIndianindustry is a complex question which
isstillsubjecttoagreatdealofdebate
inside India. However, Airbus Military has a great advantage because
as part of the EADS family of companies we have the potential to work
with international partners on a
very wide selection of programmes.
Forthisreason,andbasedontheexcellent track record of EADS worldwide, we are very confident of
reaching equitable and mutually

FOR IAFS LARGE

FLEET OF AVRO
MEDIUM
TRANSPORTS, WE
STRONGLY
BELIEVE C295 IS
CLEARLY THE
LEADING
CANDIDATE.

beneficial offset arrangements with

Indianindustry.
What future contracts or competitionswillAirbuscompeteforinthe
Indiandefencemarket?
The next requirement on our agen-

da is the IAFs need to replace its

large fleet of Avro medium transports, for which we strongly believe
that our C295 is clearly the leading
candidate. It is already in service in
the kind of hot and high operating
conditions, and austere airfields
that it is likely to encounter, and its
reliability and excellent operating
economics are thoroughly proven.
So we are looking forward to responding in the next few months to
the request for proposals.
Then there are other emerging
requirements, which are not so well
defined, for medium transports in
other arms of the forces, some interesting maritime patrol and reconnaissance roles in which our
products excel, and eventually we
think the A400M airlifter will be of
interest to India further down the
line.SoallinallweregardIndiaasan
enormouslyimportantmarket.

SEVERAL
FOREIGN OEMS,
BIG INDIAN
DEFENCE
COMPANIES AND
MSMES WOULD BE
PARTICIPATING IN
A FIVE-DAY LONG
EXPOSITION
BEGINNING 23
SEPTEMBER
the gaps by providing platforms to all
the stakeholders for spelling out
users requirements, showcasing
manufacturers capabilities and creating conducive environment for
free and fair dialogue to shape up
the policies and procedures.
NAMEXPO 2013: A Premier
Naval and Maritime Exposition
and Conference is yet another effort in this regard. CII, Indian
Navy, Government of Kerala, Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of
MSME and Ministry of Earth Sciences have come together to create an ideal PPP model to further
the national interest. Several foreign OEMs, Indian large-scale defence companies from public and
private sectors and MSMEs would
be participating in a five-day long
exposition beginning 23 September
at Cochin Port Trust in Kerala.

100 years of unmatched quality

Alenia Aermacchi completed 100
years on May 1, 2013. How have
these 100 years been for the company in terms of growth and technologicaladvancements?
Alenia Aermacchi is the only aviation company in the world which
boasts of over a century of activity
under the same brand. The company was incorporated in 1913 by
Giulio Macchi as Societ Anonima
Nieuport-Macchi. 100 years later,
the Alenia Aermacchi brand gathers together the entire aviation sector of Finmeccanica, the main high
technology Italian industrial group.
Born on the 1st of January 2012
from the merging of Alenia Aeronautica, Alenia Aermacchi and AleniaSIA,todaysAleniaAermacchi is
asignificantmilestoneofan integration process launched in the middle
of the sixties with the aim of competing in international markets which
demanded solid companies offering
integrated product portfolios.
Today, Alenia Aermacchi has
grown its workforce to over 11.000
people against the 10 workers
who built the first Nieuport-Macchi
monoplane in 1913 and is the
main Italian industrial player in the
field of aviation, with its activities
equally balanced between the military and civilian sectors.
During this first century of activities, featuring a complex history of

continuous technological and industrial developments, the companies which progressively merged
under todays brand have designed,
developed, built, delivered and supported nearly 30,000 aircraft of all
categories, civilian and military, operated by air forces, airlines and private operators all over the world.
These 100 years mark a century
of records, technological achievements and development of an industrial system which has been
generating a significant economic
and social impact throughout the
country. Today, Italy can boast one
of the few aviation industries in the
world able to offer the best selling
new generation fighter, the Eurofighter Typhoon; the C-27J Spartan, a tactical transport aircraft
whose superiority is acknowledged
worldwide; an outstanding advanced jet trainer that won all the
public tenders to-date, the M-346;
the worlds first best-selling regional
aircraft, the ATR and several industrial collaboration programmes
ranging from the modern Boeing
787 Dreamliner to the A380, the
worlds largest passenger aircraft.
When the company started in the
early 20th century, the aviation industry was still at a nascent stage.
What business strategies or innovations in R&D have you adopted

THE SPARTAN
FLIES FASTER,
HIGHER, WITH
MORE PAYLOAD,
TAKING OFF AND
LANDING IN
SHORTER
DISTANCES AND
CAN OPERATE AT
HIGH ALTITUDES
overtheyearstoadaptorkeeppace
with the changing technology and
levelofwarfare?
The Italian aviation industry is famous for the records it set during
the interwar period. At that time, it
was the pure performance that
made the difference: speed, height,
distance, load. Today primacy is
sought elsewhere, in safety (the C27J and the Eurofighter are the
safest aircraft in the world within
their categories), reliability, operating costs and environmental impact (ATR, Superjet SS100).
Within only 30 years, aircraft
havegoneto703km/hspeedand,in
another 20 years, this will be from
700 to over 3,000 km/h. That is an

unbelievabletechnologicaladvancement. Todays progress is less visible

but not less important. The capacity
to autonomously manage a mission
typical of the Neuron unmanned aircraft, for instance, is a technological
endeavor so impressive and till a few
yearsagowasunthinkable.
The composite materials forming a considerable part of the structure of aircraft such as the Boeing
787 or the EFA are a further example
of a kind of technological procedure
which, although not highly visible,
has hugely impacted the industry
further developing it and the final
users. Composite materials, in fact,
allow a 20 per cent reduction in
weight, thus reductions in cost and
environmental impact, increase in
autonomy and improved performanceatequalenginepower.
Today, we invest 10 per cent of
ourturnoverinresearchanddevelopmentbecauseinvestingintechnology
is the best way possible to guarantee
our future. Without the capacity to
maintain the technological advantage over our competitors, we run the
risk of being overcome by countries
applying workforces at lower costs
and investing significant amounts of
moneytoachievethelevelofthemostadvanced manufacturers.
Indiaisheavilyinvolvedin
the modernisation of its

armed forces and is looking for partners who would sell it sophisticated
armoury.Thishastickedoffahealthy
competition between European
countriesandtheUS,eachvyingfora
slice of the Indian arms segment.
HowisAleniaAermacchiviewingthe
newdevelopmentsinIndia?
We have a positive outlook about
these new developments. Coupled
with the changes introduced in the
procurement procedures, these developments will allow Indian defence systems to stay tuned with the
evolution of diverse scenario and
market trends. We are confident
that this process will be beneficial
for the development of the Indian
industry as well.
India is inviting tenders to upgrade
its military transport air fleet. AleniaAermacchiisoneofthefivecompanies invited for the tender bids.
Here you would be competing with
four other prominent aircraft manufacturers. What unique features
wouldyoubeprovidingtotheproduct that would compel the Indian
governmenttochooseyourproduct
overtheothers?
The aircraft we propose, the C-27J
Spartan, is known as the best-performance, medium-tactical transport available on the market. Its
unique capabilities are well known
as the Spartan flies faster, higher,

with more payload, taking off and

landinginshorterdistancesandcan
operate at high altitudes which is
perfectforenvironmentssuchasthe
Himalayas with less penalties and,
most importantly, it is safer than the
competitors. The Avro Replacement Program gives India the opportunity to build this superior
aircraft in India, while acquiring
the knowledge of its technology. We
are confident that the tender criteria will allow the IAF to receive all
the benefits of having in-service the
best performance aircraft, without
certain compromises that may look
interesting at the beginning but
that in the long term will transform
what seems a good deal into an expensive and ineffective solution.
In future, what new initiatives are
you planning to bring to the Indian
market in terms of new products
andstrategies?
India for Alenia Aermacchi is a
strategic market. We are in the
process of implementing a series of
new interesting initiatives, both in
defence and in the civil sector with
Indian aerospace companies that
will be unveiled in the near future.
India is a growing economy that offers plenty of opportunities to exploit
new technologies and the latest industrial processes recently developed in the aviation sector.

Naval Aviation, a force in itself

From flying the Sealand INS 101 aircraft to the Seahawks, Sea Kings, Sea Harriers, Mig-29Ks and
numerous others, the Navy is today operating more than 200 aircraft

HE Indian Naval Aviation

completed 60 years on
May 11, 2013. It is on this
day that the first squadron
of MiG-29K INAS 303 was formally
commissioned into the Indian
Navy. But the roots of Naval Aviation go back to as early as 1948,
when a new directorate of Naval
Aviation was set up at Naval Headquarters (NHQ). While then Commander Y N Singh became the first
Naval Aviator to qualify as a pilot, it
was Lt Commander, later Chief of
Naval Staff, Admiral (retd) RH
Tahiliani who became the first Indian pilot to land on an aircraft carrier. Today, years down the lane, what
makes this past a golden history is
the glorious transition the Navys air
arm has undergone over the past 60
years. From the first Indian Aircraft
carrier INS Vikrant, the erstwhile
HMS Hermes, to the now under construction Indian Aircraft Carrier
(IAC), also to be named INS Vikrant,
the journey of Naval Aviation is one
that has transformed hand- in- hand
with the navys aspirations to be a
blue water force.
In his book Downwind Four Green,
Vice Admiral (retd) Vinod Pasricha,
former FOC-in-C of Mumbai- based
Western Naval Command, traces the
infancy stage of what he calls naviation. In his words: After independence, India was very keen not to
merely expand the Navy, but also to
purchase at least two aircraft carriers.
However, our financial situation, lack
of naval flying experience and the Korean war delayed this decision. Under
Capt H C Ranaldof Royal Navy who
had taken over as our first Chief of
Naval Aviation (CONA), ambitious
andoptimisticexpansionplans,which
envisaged an inventory of 300 aircraft, were put forth. 10 (selected pilots)sailedtoEnglandinMarch1949.
And though the countrys financial situation forced the Navy to acquire only one aircraft carrier in
1961, today, almost 52 years after
INSVikrantbecameapartofNavy,its
plans to acquire multiple aircraft carriers remain a more significant re-

quirement now as dictated by the increased importance of the Indian

Ocean Region (IOR), the so called
Chinese strategy of string of pearls
and piracy besides others. After having gone through a a long spell of operating only one aircraft carrier,
which continues even today with INS
Viraat, there seems to be hope at the
other end of the tunnel.
While INS Vikramaditya, Russian Admiral Gorshkov, is expected to
be handed over to the Navy by the end
of 2013, what may take us closer to
the initial plans of having two aircraft
carriers is the IAC-1 which is being
built in Cochin Shipyard with a possible delivery by 2018. Though the
country might go through a phase of
possessing only one aircraft carrier
between the decommissioning of present INS Viraat and the commission-

ACCORDING TO
THE 14TH PLAN,
THE NUMBER OF
AIRCRAFT MAY
DOUBLE, MAKING
IT LARGER THAN
MOST OF THE
REGIONAL AIR
FORCES
ing of IAC- 1, according to Vice Admiral Pasricha, there is no option but to
have three operational aircraft carriers, a stage which, IAC-2, still in planning stage may help reach. We need
one each on western coast and east

coast,whileoneisrequiredasastandbyduringrefitandmaintenance,according to Pasricha.
Besides being the story of the
Vikrants, Viraat and Vikramaditya,
the journey of Naval Aviation is also a

tale of its aircraft. From flying the

Sealand INS 101 aircraft followed by
the Seahawks, Sea Kings, Sea Harriers, Mig- 29Ks and numerous others,
the Navy is today operating over 200
aircraft. According to the 14th Plan,

this number is expected to double,

making it larger than most of the regional air forces. The present fleet of
Sea Harriers with the limited upgrade
is expected to serve till 2015-16. The
firstprototypeofnavalvariantofLight
CombatAircraft(LCA)Tejashasstarted flying and Mk- II is expected to be
ready by 2018. The already- beingacquired Boeing P-8 I will be imparting long-range anti-submarine warfare,
anti-surface
warfare,
intelligence,
surveillance
and
reconnaissance capabilities to the
Indian Navy along with its fleet of
helicopters.
When it comes to manpower,
training and even the technical advancements, the Navy has always
taken the lead. Navy was the first one
to adopt net-centric capabilities
among the three services. This techcentricity has always pronounced
the need of engineer-officers in the
Navy. Over years, the air arm of the
navy has its own, full- fledged training regime. The decision to not create a flying schoolfor naval pilotshas
been a conscious one, say veterans
who stress upon the sea- centricorientation of IAF- trained naval pilots as the key to expertise in flying
over the seas. While IAF is expected
to continue training naval pilots in
the years to come, the numbers they
train remain limited (between 2050 per year). To cater to the increasing requirements of pilots to fly their
aircraft, the Navy has signed a contract with Indira Gandhi Rashtriya
Udaan Academy (IGRUA) where the
first batch of pilots commenced
training from June 1. While its observers are trained at the Observer
School in Kochi, lady officers are
posted as observers at its shorebased aircraft.
Finally, whether the Indian Navy
is a regional force or a blue water
navy is an argument that will continue for years to come. But even for sea
denial, sea control and the extended
role the Navy has been playing in antipiracy operations, Search and Rescue
(SAR)missions,theairarmofthenavy
hasnowbecomeaforceinitself.

10

Raytheon: Trusted partner and

technology leader in defense & aerospace

AIR TRAFFIC
MANAGEMENT IS
A PRIORITY
BUSINESS AREA
FOR RAYTHEON
IN INDIA, ASIA
PACIFIC AND
GLOBALLY
ministrations(FAA)WideAreaAugmentation System (WAAS) marks10
years of uninterrupted signal service.

NCREASINGLY, governments
and people around the globe are
feeling a growing need to protect assets that are of strategic
importance to their national sovereignty. In response, Raytheon has
leveraged its experience as a global
defense and aerospace system
provider to develop an array of protection solutions customised to specific circumstances and needs.

AIRTRAFFICMANAGEMENT
Air traffic management is a priority
business area for Raytheon in India,

Asia Pacific and globally. With air

traffic set to double and air cargo
tripleby 2030, the company is witnessing the rapid pace at which the
worlds airspace needs to be modernised to safely accommodate the
growth. Two-thirds of the worlds 30
busiest airports (by aircraft movements) have or are scheduled to use
Raytheon systems. This includes the
next-generation AutoTrac III automation systems, already in operation at Indias three busiest airports
Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai
and the AutoTrac technology used

by Tata Power for the Indian Air

Forces modernisation programme,
MAFI. AutoTrac III is also now operational in Dubai and is currently being installed in Hong Kong.
The Indian GPS-Aided Geosynchronous Augmented Navigation
(GAGAN) System, which will provide
satellite-based navigation for civil
aviation over Indian airspace and adjoining areas in South and East Asia,
isonscheduletogointooperationthis
year. This is a true partnership between Raytheon and the Government of India. Raytheon is building

the ground stations for the GAGAN

System, and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) are
providing the space segment, additional ground equipment, as well as
participating in the integration and
operating the system. GAGAN will
enhance the GPS signal enabling airlinestoflymoredirectroutes,increasing capacity and efficiency while
reducing delays and fuel burn.
Raytheon is the world leader in satellite-basednavigationforaviationand
this year the U.S Federal Aviation Ad-

STRATEGIC INFRASTRUCTURE
PROTECTION
Raytheon is also ideally positioned to
lead the integration and deployment
of strategic infrastructure protection
solutions for customers everywhere.
Raytheon integrates its own protection and cybersecurity technologies
together with its network of global
partners to provide proven systems
solutions.Thecompanyappliesengineering expertise, built on large defense systems to ensure layered
protection of strategic assets critical

to a country and its citizens.

Raytheondeliversdifferentlevels
of protection based on the customers
needs. These range from passive protection that provides situational
awareness through monitoring to
non-lethal engagement that delays
intruders until security forces can
respond. The company can also deliver local area defense that includes
combat capability against manned
or unmanned threats to broad area
defense that provides extensive layered protection integrated with other national defenses to defeat a
variety of threats.
All countries have assets critical to their economies and population; India is no exception. Many of
these strategic infrastructure assets are vulnerable to damaging attacks, from simple theft to
coordinated terrorist attacks.
Raytheon is recognised globally as
a provider of high-quality defense
systems and is able to leverage its diverse portfolio and global partnerships to tailor protection solutions
for defense against evolving
threats. The company brings
decades of experience in providing
complete life cycle and logistics support for the systems it develops.

STREAMLINING INDIAN SHIPBUILDING

Today, the industry is not only capable of constructing all types of major warships ranging from aircraft carrier to nuclear submarine
and stealth frigate, but has also successfully carved out a niche for itself in Indias otherwise moribund defence industry. However,
beneath this shining achievemnt lie some fundamental weaknesses which need urgent attention of the policy makers
DRLAXMANKUMARBEHERA

HE growth of Indian warship building industry has

been phenomenal ever
sincemid-1950swhenthe
government took the decision to construct indigenously some
minor vessels like patrol craft, mine
sweepers and survey ships. Today, the
industry is not only capable of constructing all types of major warships
ranging from aircraft carrier to nuclear and conventional submarine,
and stealth frigate and destroyer, but
has also successfully carved out a
niche for itself in Indias otherwise
moribund defence industry. Having
indigenously constructed more than
90warshipsandwithanexecutionorder for another 44-odd ships, Indian
naval shipbuilding industry has also
achieved a degree of self-reliance
whichnoothersectorinthedefenceindustryhasachieved.
However, beneath these shining
indicatorsliesomefundamentalweaknesseswhichneedtheurgentattention
of the policy makers. First, the naval
shipbuilding industry, despite its successinwarshipconstruction,hashardly executed a major project within the
sanctioned budget or in time. The
ComptrollerandAuditorGeneralofIndia (CAG) has repeatedly highlighted
this aspect in its various audit reports
pertaining to the defence ministryownedshipyards,whichconstitutethe
backbone of Indian warship building
industry. In a report presented to the
Parliament in March 2011, the CAG
hadobservedcostoverruntotheextent
of260percentand226percentinProject 17 (Shivalik class of Frigate) and
Project 15A (Follow-on Delhi Class of
Destroyer), respectively. It has also ob-

served time overrun of more than four

yearsintheconstructionofthefirstship
of the Project 17. Comparing with majorinternationalshipyards,theCAGalso had noted that Indian defence
shipyardstakemuchlongerperiodsto
buildsimilarwarvessels.Evidently,at
this speed of construction, the Indian
shipyards, particularly the defence
shipyards are not in a position to meet
thegrowingrequirementsoftheIndian
maritimeforces.

SHIPBUILDING
INDUSTRY AS A
WHOLE SUFFERS
FROM LOW VALUE
ADDITION
BECAUSE OF
ABSENCE OF A
STRONG
ANCILLARY
INDUSTRY

A part of the inefficiency as highlightedbythesupremeauditorisdueto

the lack of competition within the
naval shipbuilding sector. It is noteworthythatalthoughthegovernment
has since 2001 allowed 100 per cent
participation of Indian private sector
in defence production, the private
shipyardsdonotenjoytheleveloftrust
that its public sector counterparts enjoys. So far, all the major warship projectshavebeenawardedtothedefence
ministry-owned shipyards on nomination basis without any regard to

theircapacityand,attimes,competency. The Project 28 contract with the

MoD-owned Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE), for
construction of four ASW Corvettes, is
aglaringexampleofgovernmentsapathy towards private sector. The contract was awarded to the GRSE not
because of the shipyards inherent advantage, but because Mazagon Dock
Ltd(MDL),anothershipyardunderthe
Defence Ministry, was already overloaded.Nooptionwasexercisedtoharness the expertise of the private sector,

even though the latter has shown its

competitiveness whenever it has got a
little chance. The assurance of orders
to the Defence Ministrys shipyards
have, however, provided very little incentive to them as they see no compelling reason to improve their
production process and inventory and
manpowermanagement.Notsurprisingly,thecostandtimeelementsofthe
project they are entrusted with take a
backseat in such kind of arrangement.
The second crucial element that is
absentinIndianshipbuildingindustry

isthedesigncapability.Sofar,theIndianNavyhastakentheleadroleinwarship design, with shipyards being

responsible for translating such designs into construction. Navys role in
design has although brought it closer
to the production process, which has
probably led to higher indigenisation
in naval shipbuilding than in any otherdefenceproductionsector,ithasunwittingly prevented shipyards from
thinking big. The separation of design
and other R&D from shipyards core
area of activities has not allowed them

to grow as an independent industrial

entity as seen in other countries. The
dependence on Navy for design has also diluted shipyards accountability
since the designs they are thrust upon
are often changed mid-way, necessitating a revision in construction plan
andprojectcost.Moreover,theNavys
design capability does not seem to be
enoughtomeettherequirements.This
isprobablythereasonwhythegovernment has a taken the decision to establishtheNationalInstituteforResearch
and Development in Defence Shipbuilding(NIRDESH)toaugmentcapabilityinsucharea.
Lastbutnotleast,theIndiannaval
shipbuilding industry as a whole suffersfromlowvalueadditionbecauseof
absenceofastrongancillaryindustry.
Presently, most of machinery and
equipment, besides weapons and sensors that go inside a warship, are imported. The gap in indigenous
capability is further illustrated in the
recentlyannounceddocument,Technology Perspective and Capability
Roadmap (TPCR), which the Defence
Ministry intends the industry to take
note of for building indigenous capability for higher self-reliance. Among
others, the TPCR identifies gaps in
most areas of ancillary industry,
ranging from marine engineering to
prime movers for generators, machinery control systems, and auxiliary equipment, which are presently
being imported. This is not only an
unhealthy situation from industrial
point of view but from Indias self-reliance perspective also.
(Theauthorisaresearchfellowat
InstituteforDefenceStudiesand
Analyses(IDSA),NewDelhi.Views
expressedarehis own.)

11

How they secure the airport

Indira Gandhi International airport has several levels of security which operate with utmost efficiency

HE airport in New Delhi,

which is operated by the
GMR Group, can boast of
being one of the best airports in the country in
terms of security with the help of five
level in-line baggage-screening system, vehicle-checking system, sophisticated CCTV system with more than
3,100 cameras and four layered
PerimeterIntrusionDetectionSystem.
Theseupgradedsecurityfeatures
have made the Delhi airport one of
the safest in the country and also
among the most secure in the world,
say the authorities.
Among them, the five-level inline baggage-screening system is the
firstforIndia.Rightaftercheck-in,departing bags are automatically
screened using high-end explosive
detection systems. These X-ray based
machines detect items and substancesinbaggagethatmightbeused
for unlawful interference in aviation,
or terrorist attacks.
Any bag, which could be found to
beathreat,goesthroughfourlevelsof
securitycheck.Inthefirstthreelevels,
it is checked through images and
manual intervention begins at the
fourth and fifth level. The passenger,
who owns the bag, is called in the
fourth level and the bag is opened in

AMONG VARIOUS
SECURITY
FEATURES, THE
FIVE-LEVEL
IN-LINE BAGGAGESCREENING
SYSTEM IS THE
FIRST FOR INDIA
hispresence.Thefifthlevelisrequired
only when the baggage is detected
with objectionable items and is taken
out of the terminal building.
Not only does the system check
bags, it also keeps people manning
the system on their toes by generating fake images. The system of generating fake images is called threat
image projection system (TIP).
Through these images, the security
personnels presence in the work is
tested, thus keeping their attention
levels high always.
Fromcheck-intoloadingontothe
aircraft, theairportoperatorfollowsa
stringent security protocol recommended by Bureau of Civil Aviation
Security, The International Civil Aviation Organisation regulating inter-

national security standards and endorsed by the airline body, International Air Transport Association.
The close-circuit television
(CCTV) cameras in and around the
Delhiairportarealsouniqueandcontradict the general perception that
cameras can only record incidents.
The 3,100-odd cameras in and
around the Delhi airport can not only
record but also raise an alarm the moment they detect anything unusual.
An informant CCTV system

makes the detection of an incident

much faster, as it is not easy to detect
an incident immediately when the
footage being monitored is from
3,100 cameras. In this case, the moment something unusual happens,
the person monitoring the camera
can see the live feed as well as the
recording of the untoward incident.
Thismakesthedetectionmuchfaster.
The footage from the operations
sideismonitoredbytheairportoperator and from areas apart from opera-

tions is manned by the Central Industrial Security Force. Around 4,500

CISF personnel monitor the airport
both from outside and inside.
The external security that includes roads approaching Terminal 3
and Terminal 1 is manned by the
CISF. The force has put a number of
barricades to monitor the vehicles. It
alsocarriesoutchecksinsidethevehicles whenever required. Every car is
scanned on entering the parking
area, where sniffer dogs also do the
round. The parking area at T3 can accommodate 4,500 cars.
The airport also has a four-level
Perimeter Intrusion Detection System(PIDS)tosecure37kmsoftheairport periphery from trespassers.
All the monitoring in terms of
alarms from cameras, PIDS and various other alarms is done at a state-ofthe-art Security Operational Control

Center (SOCC) at IGI Airport. This

centre operates round the clock under the charge of CISF.
AtthisSOCC,allthefeedsreceived
from the elaborate CCTV coverage
network at IGI Airport and also the
Perimeter Intrusion Detection system is monitored.
The airport in Delhi was specially chosen by the government to
showcase the security standards
maintained at the airports in India
for the International Civil Aviation
Organisation Audit of the country
in February, 2011.
The IGI airport was found to be
fully compliant with the provisions of
the Annexure 17 & National Civil
Aviation Security Programme
(NCASP) during the ICAO audit. As of
now, the CISF is the designated
agency for the protection of civil aviation operations at the airport.

India in IAFs air defence

A look at a few indigenous elements of air defence in the works

HILE the depleting

squadron strength of
the IAF is likely to be
taken care of by the
MMRCA, LCA, Fifth-Generation
Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) and the upgrades of its existing platforms, there is
moretoIAFmodernisationthanitsaircraft.AfterhavingoperatedthePechora, Igla and OSA missile squadrons for
years, the IAF is witnessing a transformation in Air Defence (AD) systems in
tandem with its doctrine, which, accordingtoopen-sourceliteratureisdefined as one structured to allow
wide-areasurveillancecoverage,high
degree of control of national airspace
and the tactical battle area, ability to
inflicthighattritionontheenemy,sufficient system redundancy to ensure
thatbattledamagewillnotsignificantly hamper sensor, data exchange or
command and control functions besidesothers.AndwhiletheIAFcontinues to acquire new systems the
radars, SAMs and sensors to meet

its doctrinal requirements, it is interesting to observe the Indian content

in these acquisitions, especially in the
backdrop of the recent changes in DPP
which give priority to Buy (Indian),
Buy & Make (Indian), Make (Indian)
and lastly, Buy & Make and Buy (Global). Here is a look at the few indigenous
elements of AD systems that are in the
process of becoming a part of IAFs inventoryinthenearfuture.
This basic doctrine of the IAF published in September 2012, which is
available in the open domain, lays
stress upon establishing a mixture of
ground-based and airborne weapon
systems, control and reporting
mechanism and integration of all
these units to provide in depth coverage as the principle requirements of
AD. The changed AD definitions can
thusbeachievedwith thehelpofstateof-the-art electronic warfare (EW) assets, surveillance and reconnaissance
systems, airborne warning and control systems (AWACS), sound com-

mand, control, communications and

intelligence system, and ground defence equipment along with logistical
andadministrativesupport.
As far as the weapon systems for
meeting these requirements are concerned, the indigenous Akash SAM is
in the process of getting inducted into
the IAF along with DRDOs built-in
Rajendra radar system. The joint
statementissuedduringFrenchPresident Francois Hollandes visit early
this year also underlined the settingin-motionofDRDO-MBDAMaitriSRSAMprojectwhichwilltakecareofthe
IAFs short range air defence thus replacing the OSA AK-1 defence system
of the IAF. Being developed jointly by
Defence Research and Development

Laboratory (DRDL), MBDA and

Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL),
Maitri formed one of the major attractions of Aero India 2013. Besides the
ground-based radar systems, some of
the significant additions to the IAF inventory in the recent past are the
AWACS. The Embraer-mounted indigenous DRDO AWACS, for instance, made quite a sensation in the
recently concluded Aero India. The
radar is likely to be inducted into the
IAF by 2014, and Air Chief Marshal
NAKBrowneinSeptemberreportedly
said that the system would be deployed along the western borders.
With these as exceptions, majority of
IAFs array of sensors/radars remain
conventionallyimported.

According to a senior IAF official,

In the no-war-no-peace scenario,
the definition of air defence (AD) does
not remain limited to just the conventional ideas of protecting ones vital
areas(VAs)andvitalpoints(VPs).Itis
about achieving air control so as to be
able to deploy air assets in a manner
dictated by the doctrine, which in
turnisdrivenbythenationsaimsand
objectives. Thus, AD today encompasses a rather larger canvas than
just protection, more so in the
changing global dynamics where terrorism/non- state actors are capable
of carrying out 9/11 like attacks. And
when the demand-scenario is changing at a fast pace, depending upon the
DRDO/Indian industry to develop

these system may be suicidal.

But, is the Indian industry/DRDO
ready to cater to these changing demands? According to one of the officials of a solution- provider, The
domain of sensors and radars is driven by components that demand precision. While the countrys defence
labs are good integrators, we are far
from being the manufacturers of precision components. We seem to have
missed the bus when it comes to the
manufacturing of critical components.So,whilethecountrymaycontinue to cater to the IAFs
requirements of defence systems, for
us to manufacture them in-house is a
long shot, probably farther than the
range of an ICBM.

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