HAL Bags Mega Contract in Indian Defence. The legendary military theorist, Sun Tzu, once said to have observed that the critical element in battle was foreknowledge, but that “no nation benefits from prolonged warfare but he will win who, prepares himself, waits to take the enemy; knows to handle both superior and inferior forces.”
As the Chinese general saw it, specialized tools and knowledge of the enemy – a prior reading of the adversary could shift the balance of fortune in the war. HAL Bags Mega Contract in Indian Defence.
Recently, New Delhi cleared the deal for the procurement of 83 LCA (Light Combat Aircrafts) Tejas aircraft, which will see a collaboration between State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and private firms as part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative as this was a much-awaited step taken right before India celebrates it Republic Day on 26th January this year.
HAL Bags Mega Contract in Indian Defence
This Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) ‘Tejas’has been New Delhi’s most ambitious program as this deal shows promise to India’s domestic aviation industry, along with many other indigenous defense manufacturers.
In the past, various countries like UAE, Sri Lanka, Egypt, and Singapore had shown their interest in the indigenous fighter jet as this move of including 83 indigenously built fighter aircraft comes to increase the squadron strength in the coming years, which has been depleting and the procurement of the fighter jets like Dassault (French) and Su-30 MKI (Russian collaboration with India) respectively.
India is finally manufacturing its own military aircraft is a milestone in itself, and it strengthens and justifies India as a powerful and rapidly progressing nation on the global front, that can be through “Tejas”. Moreover, there are various reasons behind New Delhi’s approval of this 48,000 crore deal for Tejas.
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Firstly, the decision to go “Atmanirbhar” which New Delhi made clear when DAP was being released in 2020, shows India’s ambition to modernize the Armed Forces especially Airforce.
Secondly, the spotless flight test record speaks volumes of the fighter jet. It is an all-weather aircraft specially crafted to the needs and specifications of varied climates throughout India.
Thirdly, Tejas was supposed to be built in collaboration with the United States during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government of 1998 but it was cut short due to sanctions imposed on India after the nuclear tests.
Fourthly, this specific contract given to the HAL gives a boost to the morale of the development teams of PSU as this can be India’s long shot to accelerate the development of its indigenous defense industrial complexes.
One of the criticism, this whole project has rigged up though is the cost of each fighter jet – in comparison to Sukhoi – 30MKI. With all the advanced additions to the Tejas Mk 1A variant, the price goes up to Rs 550 crore per fighter, which is significantly higher than the Rs 430 crore cost of each Sukhoi-30MKI.
Buying Tejas therefore, even at an inflated price is the right thing to do if India has to accelerate the development of its indigenous defense-industrial complex. Without having a structured and phased approach to improving a defense product, India will never have a successful defense industry, which is growing rapidly currently.
Along with this, New Delhi has been recently focusing to make changes through legislation and make India favorable to do business in India. One of the most important changes which came recently was the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) revised to align with the vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. A few salient features of this particular legislation are:
Time-bound Defence Procurement Process and Faster Decision Making
Defense technologies and R&D take time. Countries are very reluctant in sharing their technologies and it is expensive to have Transfer of Technology, and by the time the technology is transferred, it becomes obsolete. Thus, setting up a Project Management Unit for contract management has made attempts to streamline the acquisition process in India.
Revised Offset Guidelines
The Offset Guidelines have been removed as this particular process starts when offsets are a portion of a contracted price with a foreign supplier that must be re-invested in the Indian defense sector, or against which the government can purchase technology.
It was found that Offset guidelines were one of the hinders to the Transfer of technology, thus, New Delhi is not averse to the idea of procuring the transfer of technology until India develops its own.
Promotion of Defence Manufacturing for Domestic Players
Continuous promotion of domestic players is the key to making India a defense hub. In the current LCA Program, 60% of the parts of the aircraft are being manufactured in India itself. In 2015, India sold seven Dhruv Advanced Helicopters to Ecuador but all of them were grounded due to a crash, and the service of the choppers was unilaterally ended.
From then to now, a lot of things have changed since India is now focusing on sustainability and consistency which is the key in the defense market across the world. If sales of a product are done from the factory, the factory should also be capable of providing them after-sales service which builds trust in the products as advertised because defense contracts are recurring.
A catalyst of Change; if implemented properly
The Ministry of Defence has been taking a very unconventional route for the promotion of export and development of defense manufacturing which hasn’t been seen before.
- Firstly, they have started formulating Draft Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy 2020 (DPEPP 2020) to achieve a turnover of Rs. 1,75,000 crore including export of Rs. 35,000 Crore in Aerospace and Defence goods and services by 2025.
- Secondly, Innovations for Defense Excellence (IDEX) has been operationalised to provide necessary incubation and infrastructure support to the startups in the defence area.iDEX would be further scaled up to engage with 300 more startups and develop 60 new technologies/products during the next five years as India also explores space as the new frontier for engagement alongside ISRO and DRDO which monopolised earlier.
- Mission Raksha Gyaan Shaktiwas launched to promote a greater culture of innovation and technology development and file a higher number of patents in Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). It would be scaled up for promoting the creation of Intellectual Property in the sector and its commercial utilisation. New Delhi wants the private and public sector companies to work in tandem with each other to enhance better cooperation.
Self-reliance in defense manufacturing is a crucial component of effective defense capability, maintaining national sovereignty, and achieving military superiority.
The DAP 2020 not only protects the interests of domestic manufacturers by indigenization of technology but also provides impetus to foreign investment in the country. Given the key geostrategic challenges that New Delhi faces right now, India needs to carry out much-needed defense reforms.
The Modi government has lived up to its promise of self-reliance in the defense sector, however, whether the home-grown technologies can prove worthwhile in a war remains to be seen.
The large-scale indigenization initiative will mean giving up on game-changing technology in defense and reliance on domestic capabilities.