Antony Fails To Change Trend In 7-Year Term
Rajat Pandit TNN
New Delhi: The Tejas light combat aircraft, 30 years in the making, is just 60% indigenous as of now. The story of the indigenous Arjun main battle tank is even worse. Sanctioned in May 1974, 55% of the tank is still made of imported parts.
This is the recurring theme across India’s fledgling defence industrial base (DIB), with the government failing to whip DRDO and its sprawling empire of over 50 laboratories as well as the five defence PSUs, four shipyards and 50 ordnance factories into shape.
The defence ministry, with its constant flip-flops, has also failed to spur the domestic private sector into entering the defence production sector in a big way. Neither has it managed to attract FDI, notching up a measly $5 million in the last 14 years.
AK Antony may often tomtom “indigenisation’’ as one of his guiding mantras, which he feels can curb corruption, but the ground reality has hardly changed in the over seven years he has been at the helm of the MoD. India continues to be the world’s largest arms importer, with the armed forces still getting around 65% of their military hardware and software from abroad.
In sharp contrast, China has emerged as the fastest growing arms exporter around the globe after assiduously building a strong DIB.
But a “proper ecosystem’’ has simply not been erected in India. As if the “high import content’’ in the so-called indigenous projects was not enough, insiders say even the much-touted transfer of technology (ToT) provision buily into large defence contracts with foreign manufacturers is abit of a sham.
“Indian PSUs focus more on just assembling knockeddown kits from foreign vendors instead of properly absorbing technologies,’’ said a senior official, pointing to the ongoing “licensed production’’ of the Russian-origin Sukhoi-30MKI fighters by Hindustan Aeronautics.
India has inducted almost 200 of the 272 Sukhois contracted for well over $12 billion from Russia, with HAL producing most of the fighters. “As per plans, HAL should have begun making Sukhois completely from raw material two-three years ago. But there has been a big delay,’’ he said.
“Moreover, the cost of each HAL-manufactured Sukhoi is almost Rs 100 crore more than the same fighters directly imported from Russia (the last 42 Sukhois ordered cost over Rs 450 crore each),’’ he added.
The DRDO contends that funds allocated for defence R&D are not adequate. “We just get slightly over 5% of the total defence budget. The US defence R&D budget is around 12%, while China’s is 20%,’’ said a scientist.
But not many are impressed, pointing to huge time and cost overruns in almost all DRDO projects. While the indigenous development of Tejas, Arjun and other weapon systems is certainly to be cheered, the high import content in them remains another source of worry.
Take Tejas, which finally achieved its initial operational clearance last month. It has an American engine, British ejection seat, Canadian canopy sheath and Israeli radar. “A major chunk of its avionics and weapons are also imported,’’ said an officer.
The Army, in turn, has
inducted 124 Arjun Mark-I tanks, while trials are currently in progress
for the Mark-II version with 89 “upgrades or improvements”. The tank is
just about 45% indigenous as of now, with its main laser-guided missile
being the Israeli LAHAT.
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