Navy sign MOU with CODISSIA

Rear Admiral Deepak Bansal, VSM, Admiral Superintendent NSRY (Kochi) and V Sundaram, Director CDIIC during the MOU signing.

Indian Navy, Naval Ship Repair respectively. The MoU will foster Yard (NSRY), Kochi and CODISSIA cohesive involvement of both parties (Coimbatore District Small Scale and help in solving problems projected Industries Association) Defence by NSRY harnessing Government of Innovation and Incubation Centre India initiative of Atal Innovation (CDIIC) has signed a Memorandum of Mission, which has been conceived to Understanding (MoU) at Coimbatore . encourage innovation and technology

Rear Admiral Deepak Bansal, development by engaging Micro Small VSM, Admiral Superintendent NSRY and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Start(Kochi) and V Sundaram, Director ups and Research and Development CDIIC signed the MoU on behalf of Institutions and academia. Indian Navy (NSRY, Kochi) and CDIIC The MoU allows NSRY to use world class facilities of MSMEs based in Coimbatore for hardware development, material testing and analysis and obsolescence mitigation programmes in respect of legacy equipment. In addition to this, the Yard would be exposed to new manufacturing techniques, Industrial Safety and Quality Assurance which are being pursued by modern MSMEs. These would be vital for the yard especially as it is poised for major expansion in the wake of an enhanced charter.

CODISSIA is a body comprising more than 2000 MSMEs, with an objective to promote and protect Small Scale Industries in Coimbatore.

The Naval Ship Repair Yard, began as an Electrical and Engineering Workshop in 1945 to support a small flotilla of Royal Indian Naval Ships based at Kochi. After the nation’s Independence, it was renamed as Base Repair Organisation (BRO) in 1948. With the induction of new ships and enhanced tasking, the BRO was later rechristened as ‘Naval Ship Repair Yard (NSRY)’ in 1988.

BrahMos Cruise Missile Successfully Test Fired from Navy’s Stealth Destroyer, INS Chennai

BrahMos, the supersonic cruise missile was successfully test fired from Indian Navy’s indigenously-built stealth destroyer INS Chennai, hitting a target in the Arabian Sea. The missile hit the target successfully with pin-point accuracy after performing high-level and extremely complex manoeuvres.

BrahMos as ‘prime strike weapon’ will ensure the warship’s invincibility by engaging naval surface targets at long ranges, thus making the destroyer another lethal platform of Indian Navy. The highly versatile BrahMos has been jointly designed, developed and produced by India and Russia.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO, BrahMos and Indian Navy for the successful launch.

Secretary DDR&D & Chairman DRDO Dr G Satheesh Reddy, congratulated the scientists and all personnel of DRDO, BrahMos, Indian Navy and industry for the successful feat. He stated that BrahMos missiles will add to the capabilities of Indian Armed Forces in many ways.

AN INDIAN PARADOX

Shobhana Joshi

Former Secretary, Defence Finance

There are two major areas which contribute to delay in the acquisition of capabilities. One is technical evaluation and conduct of trials and the second is benchmarking the cost. Often, the Services Qualitative Requirements (SQRs) overstate the capabilities being sought, which can result in retraction of RFP (request for proposal) and this contributes to the delay. Adding India-specific requirements can also cause integration problems in standard off-the-shelf equipment. Benchmarking is another major impediment in the process and a CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) report had highlighted that benchmarks have been more inaccurate than accurate. One of the reasons was the tendency to rely on Last Purchase Price which has sometimes resulted in comparison of systems of two different technologies or using incorrect escalation factor. It is suggested that 164 trainees comprising Midshipmen (99th INAC and INAC-NDA), Cadets of the Indian Navy (30th Naval Orientation Course Extended) and two International trainees from Sri Lanka Navy passed out with flying

Though the central government is actively pushing the modernisation of the Indian Armed Forces, technical evaluation, conduct of trials and benchmarking the cost are delaying the actual acquisition, says Shobhana Joshi, former Secretary Defence Finance who is currently the co-chairperson of the Society for Aerospace, Maritime and Defence Studies (SAMDeS).

the competitive process should lead to price discovery and benchmarks should be applied only in single vendor cases.

India’s tryst with self-reliance in defence sector

India started out with the objective of self-reliance in defence with a domestic defence industrial base which would meet the needs of its defence forces. However, there were barriers to entry for the private sector as it was one of the reserved sectors. Though initially there were attempts to develop indigenous design capability, following the 1962 war with China and the USA arms embargo after the Indo-Pakistan war in 1965 , there was an urgency to upscale the defence capability and a licensed production model with Transfer of Technology became the model for manufacture of weapon systems, mostly erstwhile Soviet origin weapon systems. This model focussed on build to print capability and enabled India to produce a range of weapons from aircraft to helicopters, warships missiles tanks and combat vehicles. However, it did not create capacity for design and technology development. The weapons were primarily for domestic use as the license agreements often had restrictions on third country supply. Therefore, whenever weapon systems had to be upgraded or replaced it created a colours, marking the culmination of their ab-initio training.

The parade was reviewed by General Manoj Mukund Naravane, PVSM, AVSM, SM, VSM, ADC, Chief of the Army Staff, who awarded medals to meritorious Midshipmen and Cadets on completion of the Ceremonial Review. Vice Admiral M A dependency cycle of imports and India presented a paradox of having a defence industrial base yet importing weapons.

Full potential of private sector remains untapped

The defence sector was opened for private sector participation only from 2001 with an FDI cap of up to 26% which was periodically enhanced and current level is 74% under automatic route. However, data from Department of Defence Production website brings out that from 2016-17 to 2019-20 the share of the private sector in defence production was in the range of 1920% while that of the public sector and OFB (Ordnance Factory Board) was around 70%. In order to increase the participation of private sector, the government needs to reduce duplication of capacity in the public sector and OFB. The investments which have already been made on plant and machinery can be leased out to the private sector on long-term lease to optimize resources. Non-military and dual use products like transport and mobility vehicles should be manufactured only by private sector. Some incentives in the form of tax breaks should be given to encourage private sector to participate in defence manufacturing. Government should continue with

Passing out Parade at Naval Academy

In a spectacular Passing out Parade (POP) held at Indian Naval Academy (INA), Ezhimala,

its efforts to promote exports. Hampiholi, AVSM, NM, Commandant, INA was the Conducting Officer.

The ‘President’s Gold Medal’ for the Indian Naval Academy B. Tech course was awarded to Midshipman Ankush Dwivedi. The ‘Chief of the Naval Staff Gold Medal’ for the Naval Orientation Course (Extended) was awarded to Cadet Cedric Cyril.