THE SERVICES MUST DRIVE THE SYSTEM
The Draft Defence Production Policy, 2018, ticks all the boxes on paper. The transformational shift, from being assessed as a top defence importer for the next decade, to ‘make India amongst the top five aerospace and defence producers’, ‘reduce import dependency’, ‘achieve selfreliance’ and ‘export to friendly countries’ in seven years (by 2025) is overambitious. The government must really wield axes—politically, bureaucratically, financially, structurally, legally and intellectually—to achieve this intent. Our massively underperforming defence PSUs, Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) need a metamorphosis in ethos and culture. Otherwise, this policy will be worthless.
Viewing it positively, it can happen if a leader of commitment, integrity and knowledge steers the policy. The government must find such a transformational leader— the next Kalam, Sreedharan, Kurien or Swaminathan.
Countries will only buy our arms once they are inducted and proven in the Indian armed forces. Hence, procurement processes must be refined. If ‘India’s weapons buying continues to be crippled by multiple and diffused structures with no single point accountability, multiple decision heads, duplication of processes, delayed execution, no realtime monitoring, no projectbased approach, and a tendency to faultfind than facilitate’ as mentioned in the internal report of the MoD, exports of $5 billion worth of arms will remain a pipe dream. Procurement has an umbilical connect with production. Both need simultaneous tackling.
The services should drive the system at all levels. Hence it must be integrated in concept and execution at all levels in the MoD, DRDO, OFB and DPSUs. In this policy, ‘integration of the services’ is conspicuous by its absence. If the services are not integrated, only unwanted numbers of substandard quality will be produced. The services, on their part, must improve their technical knowledge, proce dural acumen and management knowhow to handhold the development and production agencies to mutual benefit. Service officers must grow in the system as professionals rather than parachute in at the top as amateurs.
Defence research, development and production need deep understanding of the services environment and requirements. As private industry is just coming of age, the services need to seed the public and private industry with capable officers and technical personnel. Additionally, we need intellectual input from experts—in and out of the services—to stitch private and public industry together and make things happen. Delhibased Pseudoexperts who were failures when in the services need sidelining.
When defence budgets are dwindling in real terms, especially for modernisation, expansion of defence production is fraught with risk. Financial planning and diligence to synchronise procurement and production will be crucial. FDI will elude us if original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) don’t get orders due to delay of procurement processes. Our track record leaves me sceptical about the time frame. However, try we must.
Countries will buy our arms only once they are proven in the Indian armed forces. Hence, procurement processes must be refined