CDS says boosting self-reliance biggest lesson from Ukraine

NEW DELHI: Chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan on Friday said that self-reliance in defence manufacturing was one of the biggest lessons for India from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the three services will have to be the driving force for the campaign to succeed.

He also said the RussiaUkraine war was reminiscent of World War I era trench warfare, and the conflict had entered a stage where the front-lines were hardly moving and even a three-km advance was being claimed as a success by the Russians, a reference to the fighting in Bakhmut. “You can look at any conflict from several perspectives -- political, economic and diplomatic. As CDS, I see this war from the point of view of a military practitioner. The biggest lesson for us is to become self-reliant. We can’t be dependent on military supplies from outside,” Chauhan said while taking part in a session on The Old, The New, and The Unconventional: Assessing Contemporary Conflicts at the Raisina Dialogue.

He added that self-reliance in defence will give India the capability to produce what is required in large numbers even as the country depends on its friends and allies for advanced technology. “We have taken some baby steps towards self-reliance in the last two to three years. The government has taken a large number of initiatives to boost it. I think for this campaign to succeed, the three services will have to be the driving force,” Chauhan said.

The government has taken a raft of measures in the three years to promote self-reliance. These include creating a separate budget for buying locally made military hardware, increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) from 49% to 74%, and notifying as many as 411 weapons and systems that cannot be imported.

Chauhan said the ongoing war in Ukraine, now a year old, has busted the earlier notion that future wars would be short and swift. “This has been a longish war. The question is what kind of capability should you have – capability for a short, intense war or a long haul. Both of these require different types of weapons and technology. In the Indian context, we do not think there will be a long drawn-out conflict. But we should have a healthy mix for both scenarios,” he said, stressing that self-reliance will play a key role in achieving the goals.

“It is amply clear that future wars may not be short and swift. There is a high risk of supply chain disruption in a long war. We have to ensure that there is indigenous capacity for the production of weapons and systems that are needed. Self-reliance is the way forward,” said Air Marshal Anil Chopra (retd), director general, Centre for Air Power Studies.

Responding to a question on China, General Jim Mattis, former US secretary of defence, said the US was prepared to confront China even as he stressed that if Russia succeeded in Ukraine, nothing would stop China from moving against India, Taiwan or Vietnam. “It was said Russia would win swiftly, but Western aid is giving Ukrainians hope to fight back and reclaim their nation.”

General Anil Chauhan