Avoid quick fixes in national security
India needs a blueprint to develop the capacity to build advanced weapon systems
Mock-ups of the Akash surface-to-air missile have been a regular in Independence Day parades. It has been touted as one of the successes in India’s tortuous attempts at producing weapons at home. The Indian Army has now said it wants to buy a foreign-made surface-to-air missile, Israel’s Spyder QR-SAM, despite having already inducted two Akash regiments. The reason: the Akash simply doesn’t work. This underlines the trade-off between trying to ‘Make in India’ and meet current weapon requirements of the armed services.
Clearly India’s trajectory is severely compromised by its small manufacturing sector. Indian security interests are also not served by depending on imported military wares. That does not mean that India’s soldiers use substandard weapons systems while it learns to develop its own weapons — a process that could take decades. What is needed is a long-term plan to build technological and institutional capacities to design, construct and even export weapons. Defence and aerospace are the cutting edge of technology and baby steps will be required to get even a foot in this door. Over the years New Delhi’s politicians and bureaucrats have developed a pattern of either slapping Sanskrit names on assembled foreign-made weapons or announcing grandiose plans to build advanced weapon systems even while the country struggles to make revolvers and combat boots.
‘Make in India’ should be seen as an evolutionary process. The government needs a roadmap, done in consultation with Indian and foreign industry, in which the milestone should be mastering specific capabilities, learning how to build world-class components and moving onto the crown jewels of defence — weapons design and system integration. The indigenisation success of the Indian navy, for example, has been possible because the initial focus was on hulls and superstructure, working towards propulsion and more sophisticated technologies. When it comes to electronics and actual weapons, the navy still imports the vast bulk of its needs. The Akash is a perfect example of how things should not be Made in India. The army needed a quick-fire missile that could knock out low-flying, high-speed targets like drones and fighters. This kind of advanced equipment should have been recognised as a technological goal for the future. National security is one policy area where quick fixes and symbolic politics should be avoided because the negative consequences are incalculable.