Geopolitics

WHY ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY NEEDS MILITARY POWER

geopolitics Vol V, Issue X, MARCH 2015 n `100

DEFENCE n DIPLOMACY n SECURITY

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MAKE IN INDIA? The Defence Budget is a huge dampner for India developing a quality military-industrial base

BAE Systems is proud to be a founding partner of defence manufacturing in India. Since the 1960s when India built the Avro for the Air Force to our association with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited on Jaguar and India’s very own production line for the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer, we have partnered Indian industry by sharing technology and capability. We are excited to extend our Make in India legacy to the M777 Ultra-Lightweight Howitzer programme.

Beyond serving the armed forces, we are committed to help India develop a self-sufficient defence industry for India, in India, with India.

We believe there’s never been a better time to Make in India.

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CONTENTS

COVER STORY (P22)

MAKE IN INDIA AND THE BUDGET The Ministry of Defence seems to be clueless as is evident from the way it has been struggling to revise the procurement procedures, offset guidelines, the ‘Make’ procedure, et al, to bring them in sync with the latest ‘Make-in-India’ buzz.

(P12)

FOCUS

(P17)

MOD

US AIRFORCE

SPECIAL REPORT

COMBAT POWER GAPS

UNUSED AIRSTRIPS

The dynamics of combat power encompass elements such as military’s firepower, mobility, logistic capability, manpower and sustainability. These factors ultimately determine the outcome of a war.

Indian Air Force is in continuous process of reviewing the abandoned airfields for revival based on the operational requirement of the IAF.

FACE TO FACE

(P36)

FACE TO FACE (P44)

INDIAN ARMOUR TO THE WORLD

“INDIA IS FOREIGN CUSTOMER NO. 1”

Rajesh Gupta, Senior Sales Manager talks about the helicopter armouring solutions that MKU provides.

The company has been supplying battle-tested products globally.

Mikhail T Globenko, Deputy Director General, Marketing & Sales, MiG Russian Aircraft Coporation, in an interview with Geopolitics, talks about the company’s prospects in India.

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March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

CONTENTS

VOL V, ISSUE X, March 2015 Editor-in-Chief

K SRINIVASAN PRAKASH NANDA

JCS.MIL

DEFENSE.GOV

Editor

THE AFGHAN CONUNDRUM (P56) Afghanistan faces an uncertain future in the aftermath of the departure of foreign combat troops from the country. The terrorist groups appear to have gained considerable confidence in the wake of the withdrawal of foreign troops.

Managing Editor

THE CHANGING DRAGON (P61 ) Though one cannot be sure, the changes of military leadership in Tibet, along with the fight against corruption within the People’s Liberation Army, could result in changes in the behaviours of the Chinese troops facing the Indian territories.

(P20)

SPOTLIGHT

GAPS IN TRAINER AIRCRAFT

TIRTHANKAR GHOSH Consulting Editor

M MURLIDHARAN Correspondent

NAVEED ANJUM Copy Desk

CHARCHIT SINGH Senior Proof Reader

RAJESH VAID Designers

MOHIT KANSAL, NAGENDER DUBEY Photo Editor

H C TIWARI Staff Photographer

HEMANT RAWAT Director (Corporate Affairs)

RAJIV SINGH

Director (Marketing)

RAKESH GERA Legal Advisor

PILATUS

VASU SHARMA

Despite being one of the top air forces of the world, IAF continues to have gaps in its pilot training, all due to the lack of a modern Intermediate Jet Trainer.

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DIPLOMACY (P64) PURSUIT OF LAKSHMI, BUT WITH SHAKTI

WHY ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY NEEDS MILITARY POWER

geopolitics Vol V, Issue X, MARCH 2015 n `100

DEFENCE n DIPLOMACY n SECURITY

www.geopolitics.in

In order to have a secure environment for trade in the Asia-Pacific region, India needs a strong military.

MAKE IN INDIA? The Defence Budget is a huge dampner for India developing a quality military-industrial base

Cover Illustration: Satish Upadhyay

for NEWSEYE MEDIA PVT. LTD. All information in GEOPOLITICS is derived from sources we consider reliable. It is passed on to our readers without any responsibility on our part. Opinions/views expressed by third parties in abstract or in interviews are not necessarily shared by us. Material appearing in the magazine cannot be reproduced in whole or in part(s) without prior permission. The publisher assumes no responsibility for material lost or damaged in transit. The publisher reserves the right to refuse, withdraw or otherwise deal with all advertisements without explanation. All advertisements must comply with the Indian Advertisements Code. The publisher will not be liable for any loss caused by any delay in publication, error or failure of advertisement to appear.

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Readers are welcome to send their feedback at geopolitics@newsline.in

The total number of pages in this issue is 72+4

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March 2015

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LETTERS



LETTERS TO EDITOR

Make-in-India:

BrahMos leads the way The BrahMos programme has become a synonym of success and achievement in which India and Russia have worked hand-in-hand in its production

B

RAHMOS, one of the proud possessions of the Indian Defence Forces, has charted a highly successful trajectory in a very short span of time. The supersonic cruise missile programme, initiated in 1998, has carved a niche for itself by becoming the world’s best tactical strike weapon system with the versatility to be launched from multiple platforms for multi-role missions. Initially conceptualised to be developed as an anti-ship cruise missile system, BRAHMOS has subsequently validated its capability as a powerful land-attack strike weapon. The universal missile has been successfully tested in sea-to-land, sea-to-sea, land-to-land, land-to-sea and subsea-to-land configurations, even as it is preparing to be testflown for the first time in air-to-ground configuration from the Su-30MKI strike fighter in March, 2015.

The unique state-of-the-art BRAHMOS has empowered the Indian Armed Forces manifold and, in fact, made it the only military force in the whole world in possession of such a powerful weapon.

The successful BrahMos JV saga presents the best testimony of a long-standing, deep-rooted, time-tested strategic partnership between India and Russia.

It is the incessant flow of scientific and technological know-how from both the JV partners in their respective fields of excellence that has resulted in the development of the 290-km-range tactical weapon.

Today, the BrahMos programme has become a synonym of success and achievement in which India and Russia have worked hand-in-hand in designing, developing, producing, testing and delivering the high-technology weapon system to the Indian Armed Forces.

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While the Russian expertise has contributed in designing and developing the critical propulsion systems, i.e. the ramjet engine technology and booster for the missile, the Indian scientific community has immensely contributed in designing several key components, including the fire control system, electronic system, guidance system, avionics and materials for airframe of the weapon.

One of the most vital aspects of the BrahMos JV programme is the establishment of a robust Missile Industrial Complex, whereby a large number of public and private sector entities from India have been producing and delivering many critical components of the missile system. Sudhir Mishra, CEO & MD says, “Our approach from the beginning was ‘From Mind to Market’ which has made BrahMos a ‘Total Solution Company’”. In

fact, BrahMos is the only defence company that handles all stages of the missilerelated work, ranging from design, development, serial production, marketing, delivery, after sales support and maintenance, to upgrading and designing/innovating new products.

BRAHMOS, thus, is espousing the very cause of the ambitious Make-in-India campaign launched by the Government wherein a “highly complex missile has been shared and co-developed through JV”, generating involvement of more than 20,000 persons directly and indirectly from around 205 Indian industries, according to Sudhir Mishra.

“BRAHMOS has set the standard to be a market leader. With our endeavour to continuously progress, we are moving ahead in making India globally recognised and respected in the defence arena.

The success of the BRAHMOS model is a shining example that can be emulated not only towards making India self-reliant in defence production, but also in tapping the lucrative international arms market,” the BrahMos Chief has said, while emphasising that more indigenous contents are being incorporated into the BRAHMOS Weapon System.

Additionally, the BrahMos JV has also keenly focused on the creation and nurturing of human capital by employing and imparting training to a very highly skilled work force, including young scientists and engineers.

“Make in India is basically that the knowledge & products has to be made in India. That is the key,” says Mishra.

The BrahMos JV programme has, indeed, galvanised the entire Indian defence sector making it a role model for successful knowledge based technology generation in the country.

February 2015 www.geopolitics.in

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efer to the story, “Make-in-India: BrahMos leads the way” (G eopolitics , February 2015). BrahMos, an India-Russia joint venture, is a twostage supersonic cruise missile with a 290-km range for destroying high value and strategic installation, is a programme about which India can feel proud. BrahMos’ capability to fit on various platforms whether it is shipbased, land-based, air-based and missile-based, makes it a market leader in the hypersonic cruise missile class. The government’s plan of Makein-India suits best for BrahMos. The Union Government is quietly working on a plan to export defence equipment and armaments produced in India to friendly countries. A beginning could be made by exporting BrahMos missiles to Southeast Asia and South American countries. Vietnam, Indonesia and Venezuela have expressed willingness to procure the supersonic missile.

Meanwhile, in a great move, HAL recently handed over the first supersonic cruise missile BrahMos integrated with Su-30 fighters to the Indian Air Force, making the aircraft a “very lethal” weapon delivery platform. HAL has completed BrahMos integration with all the analysis being done by its internal design team. This was a proud moment for HAL. The successful completion of the first Su-30 aircraft integrated with BrahMos missile shows the synergy between DRDO, HAL and IAF. Apoorv Sharma, Rajkot

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our story “Rafale’s first combat in India” (Geopolitics, February 2015) made interesting reading. There is no doubt that Rafale badly needs the deal with India to be finished to survive. To be sure, the significant aspect of the Rafale deal is the cost. Originally pegged at $10 billion, the size of the deal has climbed to $30 billion. So, instead of bolstering the country’s air power, the Rafale is threatening to blow a gaping hole in India’s overstretched defence budget. The IAF’s requirement of 126 aircraft can be quickly met – at a fraction of the cost of the Rafale – by inducting more numbers of the technologically superior Su30s, which the IAF described as its “air dominance fighter”, and which is being produced at HAL. Each Indian made Su-30 costs approximately $75 million per unit. So, if the IAF goes for 126 of them, the total cost will come to under $10 billion, which coincidentally is the originally envisaged amount. Plus, the Sukhois will provide more bang for the buck. Meanwhile, India will spend US $40.4 billion on defence in the April 1, 2015-March 31, 2016 financial year, according to the Budget proposed by the Government in Parliament. That’s an

DIPLOMACY

DIPLOMACY

JE SUIS

CONDEMNING THE ATTACK: A protester carrying a poster that reads Je suis Charlie (I am Charlie Hebdo)

CHARLIE

The attack on Charlie Hebdo is not only seen in France as an attack against the freedom of the press but as an attack against the freedom of thought and opinion itself and its corollary, the right of impertinence and insolence, says MAX JEAN ZINS from Paris

‘J

e suis Charlie’ (I am Charlie): these words became the most popular slogans raised in France after the January 7 terrorist attack against the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris. On that day, nearly the whole leadership of the weekly was annihilated, including its best cartoonists, Stéphane Charbonnier (alias Charb), Georges Wolinski, Jean Cabut (alias Cabu), Bernard Verlhac (alias Tignous). Two policemen too, were also killed by the two murderers who irrupted into the weekly building with their machine guns, shouting “Allah Akbar” and screaming that they had to avenge the Prophet for having been the object of political caricatures a year ago. A spontaneous demonstration took place in the French capital on the evening of the very day of the attack.

It was not by chance that it occurred on the Place de la République (Republic Square). The demonstrators, who had hurriedly written ‘Je suis Charlie’ on their posters were very conscious of defending basic French republican and democratic values.

The next day, a Jewish shopping centre was attacked by another murderer who declared before being shot and having taken some hostages that he had planned his action. All together – journalists, policemen (some were Muslims) and hostages – 17 people were killed. On January 11, huge demonstrations were organised all over France.

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The Paris one was the most massive demonstration ever seen since the end of the Second World War in 1945. Many foreign leaders such as the British and the German Prime Ministers, the President of the Palestinian Authority, the Prime Minister of Israel and many African leaders took part in it. On January 13, with the help of a large part of the French media, notably the dailies, Libération and L’Humanité, the survivors of Charlie Hebdo published their first issue after the attack. Its front page showed the Prophet in a sad mood saying “I am Charlie”, this sentence being written above the cartoon: “Everything is pardoned (Tout est pardonné)”.

Charlie Hebdo, which had succeeded in 1970 the very famous HaraKiri weekly founded in the Sixties, is very popular in France for its satirical cartoons. Deeply rooted in a specific French tradition of political irreverence and insolence which does not hesitate to combine in the same caricature, sex and politics in the most crude style, Charlie Hebdo has hardly any taboo. It targets political and social leaders as well as religious clerics. Democracy, secularism and adherence to Republican principles are – for its journalists and cartoonists – the different faces of the same reality. They do not pretend to be anarchists. In fact, they deny they are because, as they say, they believe in “Laws and Constitution” which have to defend and preserve the right to criti-

February 2015 www.geopolitics.in

SKYNEWS

cize with humour, cynicism and spirit of subversion any topic that deserves to be criticized according to them. As the chief editor of Charlie Hebdo declared to the Communist daily L’Humanité after the massacre of his colleagues (he was fortunate enough to be on vacation in London that day): “Democracy can be only secular, because democracy assumes, as one of its principles, that any law is debatable and can be opposed to, that no law is intangible. But any divine law proclaims itself as immutable by essence, as if it was engraved in the marble for eternity, as if one could not criticize it or contest it. Divine law, then, is

incompatible with democracy as this can be easily seen in any country that founds its human laws on divine laws.

It is more so incompatible with democracy that God, as soon as we accept his entry on the political field, becomes a tyrant who cannot be knocked off his pedestal”.

A vast majority of the French people would agree with this in the 21st century. A lot of them started to think that way at the epoch of the French Revolution, when Robespierre and the majority of the then National Assembly decided that King Louis XV and his wife, who had allied themselves with the for-

Charlie Hebdo, which had succeeded in 1970 the very famous Hara-Kiri weekly founded in the Sixties, is very popular in France for its satirical cartoons www.geopolitics.in

February 2015

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eign enemies of the Republic, had to be beheaded on the guillotine even if their sovereignty was supposed to be of a divine nature. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of August 1789 gave a very clear definition of what is political freedom in France. The freedom of conscience (opinion) is seen as the most basic one, as it relies on the capacity of each human being to appreciate the meanings of his acts and to take upon himself to do so. The concrete territory of this freedom is defined by Articles 10 and 11. According to Article 10, “No one can be disturbed on account of his opinion, even religious one, as long as the

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efer to Diplomacy “Je suis Charlie” (Geopolitics, February 2015). It is shocking that the attack on the Paris based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo resulted in killing of several persons.

It is an extremely cowardly act. It is not only an attack on free media but also on mankind. It is an attack on freedom of thoughts and speech – the very basis of any democracy. Earlier too, some cases of violent protests against the media had been reported. No doubt freedom of

March 2015 geopolitics

RAFALE’S FIRST COMBAT IN INDIA Though the intricacies of the Rafale saga are not easy to follow, the facts remain that Dassault’s defence branch badly needs the Rafale order to survive and the Indian Air Force desperately has to replace its ageing MiG-21s with a modern fighter, writes CLAUDE ARPI

T

he battle to finalise the ‘deal of the century’ for the supply of 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) to the Indian Air Force (IAF) is the first, but perhaps the toughest fight for the Rafale. Few in India know the meaning of the French word ‘Rafale’, which is today associated with the aircraft; ‘Rafale’ means a ‘gust of wind’. But today, the French plane is in the midst of a ‘tempest’, with rivals, competitors, foes and friends alike trying their last chance to get back in the competition and participate in the mega (‘made in India’) defence project.

When the ‘Rafales’ prevailed in the MMRCA competition, many thought that the Big Deal would soon be signed; three years later, it is still going through rough procedural airstreams. The reasons are not the qualities of the aircraft, but other complications. Till the end of 2014, the French side seemed optimistic. In November, Eric Trappier, Dassault’s Chairman declared that his firm expected to conclude a deal by March: “The final phase of exclusive negotiations on the contract should conclude

within India’s current budget year ending in March 2015.” He added that this date was a ‘reasonable goal’. However, is it still today reasonable to expect a deal that soon?

On December 2, when this writer interviewed the French Defence Minister and asked about the pace of the negotiations, Le Drian said: “The negotiations are proceeding well. For a project of this scale and such complexity, which brings the transfer of numerous ‘know-hows’ to several industrial stakeholders of India, the pace is comparable to that of other negotiations. Both our Governments share the will to conclude it and this is, of course, essential.”

Of the 126 aircrafts to be supplied to the IAF, 18 planes are to be manufactured by the French supplier, Dassault Aviation, from its facilities in France, while the remaining 108 planes have to

be built in India, under a large Transfer of Technology agreement, by Hindustan Aeronautical Ltd. (HAL). The main ‘battle’ today centres over who is ultimately responsible for the construction of the 108 planes at HAL facilities and the quantum of technology to be transferred by Dassault and its associates, like Thales (let us not forget that 40 per cent of the ‘indigenous’ Tejas are still

imported today).

In January 2012, the French firm Dassault Aviation had been selected for supplying 126 MMRCAs to the IAF. The Rafale fighter had gone through a long competitive process which lasted five years, with the American F/A-18 and F-16, Russian MiG 35, European Eurofighter and Swedish Saab Gripen in the race.

The real tragedy is that it has taken 14 years to reach the present stage: the initial Request for Information (RIF) was issued in 2001. The ‘complications’ then started: the Request for Proposal (RFP) was delayed for six years and could be issued in 2007 only, as the then Defence Minister, A K Antony, wanted to add new clauses, such as the Total Life-cycle Costs, in the Indian defence procurement policy.

Everyone is aware of the Elephant’s slow pace. Commenting on India over-

STEALTH POWER: The multi-billion MMRCA deal to acquire 126 Rafale deal is still stuck with the French firm Dassault allegedly reneging on certain provisions of the request for proposal (RFP) linked to providing guarantees and accountability

taking China in terms of growth, The Global Times recently said: “India is a proud nation, competitive and unwilling to lag behind. So it is eager to challenge China in every aspect, from aerospace, military force, to economic strength. ” However, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party added “democracy, which the nation is so proud of, has become a burden for development. For example, building a railway in India takes much more time than it does in China.” It also applies to the Rafale deal.

The intricacies of the Rafale saga are not easy to follow, since Dassault is, as the French say ‘muet comme une carpe’ (‘silent as a carp fish’ which makes bubbles with no sound); the Indian Ministry of Defence and the Indian Air Force are not very loquacious too. One can, however, gather from various sources that the main disagreement raised by the French is that Dassault is not ready to take the ‘full responsibility’ for the 108 fighters to be manufactured in India by HAL, while there is apparently no issue with the 18 fighter planes to be manufactured in France by Dassault.

“The negotiations are proceeding well. For a project of this scale and such complexity, which brings the transfer of numerous ‘know-hows’ to several industrial stakeholders of India, the pace is comparable to that of other negotiations. Both our Governments share the will to conclude it and this is, of course, essential.”

JEAN YVES LE DRIAN French Defence Minister

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February 2015 www.geopolitics.in

www.geopolitics.in

February 2015

An Indian defence ministry official recently told some Indian journalists (on the condition of anonymity): “Dassault has to accept commitment mentioned in the RFP.” Another ministry insider said that Dassault was not agreeing to HAL’s demand to take responsibility for the manufacturing process in India, “regardless of French government’s pressure, (Dassault finds that) it is too risky”. He added: “Accepting terms and conditions of the original tender have emerged as the key issue to be resolved.

The RFP clearly stated that under the transfer of technology agreement, the French will have to take full responsibility of Indian manufactured fighter jets.”

The negotiations seem stuck on the imposition of penalties in case any delay occurs in the supply of the aircraft manufactured by HAL. The question is: can Delhi ‘legally’ impose liabilities on something over which Dassault has no control? This sounds like one of these clauses drafted during the Antony Raj, where the ‘foreign’ supplier has to pay’.

This is also true for the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, which will be discussed during Obama’s visit. The Economic Times recently editorialised: “It makes little sense to keep nuclear suppliers’ liability open-ended and unlimited. This is what has held back vendors from the US, Japan and elsewhere from concretising their India plans.”

Be that as it may, a way out needs to be found. Early in January this year, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, while speaking of ‘complications’ in the negotiations “with the French side reluctant to meet commitments that the IAF had specified in the tender”, announced India’s Plan B: “The Su-30MKI is an adequate aircraft for meeting the Air Force’s needs”. Is it only a bluff? Is Delhi serious? There is no doubt that it is an option (with its own problem), if the negotiations fail. In December 2014, the Minister had, however, assured his French counterpart that the Rafale negotiations would be placed on a ‘fast track’. More recently, he asserted that Le Drian “had committed to send an empowered person to negotiate after New Year”.

Fourteen years after the RFI, the negotiations appear to be on the fast track. After their December encounter, the Indian Defence Minister wrote to his French counterpart who promptly answered (the content of their correspondence has not been made public), then the Indian Defence Secretary, R K Mathur paid a two-day visit to Paris on January 12 and 13.

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increase of 7.74 per cent over the previous year. The previous year’s budget went up 12.4 per cent. So, I think India may not have the funds to seal the deal with Dassault Aviation to purchase Rafale fighter planes.

Dassault Aviation should stick to the original terms of its deal where the cost and the original conditions implied production of the initial 18 aircraft in France, with the remaining 108 to be manufactured at the state-owned HAL facility in India under a technology transfer agreement which will give wings to the “Make in India” policy, or else the deal should be called off.

Saravjeet Singh, Muktsar, Punjab expression doesn’t mean crossing limits and the codes of journalism, society and law. The protests against any cartoon or caricature should be in a civilised manner and according to the accepted terms of the law and not by killing people. Such acts must be condemned.

A cartoonist may be put on trial and prosecuted in a court of law. The terrorists are becoming bolder and are ready to die as they are brainwashed by extremists and religious fanatics. Such terrorists are abnormally inhuman as they cannot make a difference between right or wrong. The terrorists cause more harm to their religion.

M Kumar, Delhi

All correspondence may be addressed to: Editor, Geopolitics, D-11 Basement, Nizamuddin East, New Delhi-110013.

Or mail to: geopolitics@newsline.in

GEOPOLITICS 210mm x 274mm + 5mm Bleed each side

PHOTO FEATURE

MAKE AND FLY IN INDIA While Aero India 2015 at Bengaluru heralded India’s resolve to make its mark on the defence industrial map of the world, it was also a showcase of the best aviation products. Geopolitics presents a vignette of the show

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March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

PHOTO FEATURE

PHOTOS: HC TIWARI, HEMANT RAWAT AND MOD

www.geopolitics.in

March 2015

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SPECIAL REPORT

NEED FOR THE CLOUD Though the country’s defence establishment has yet to make a foray into cloud computing, the niche sector provides immense possibilities for business

C

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ment Company too have developed solutions, but those are mostly for civilian use, though armed forces, readying for a mission-ready cloud infrastructure for its anytime, anywhere operations, too take a look at their offerings.

According to experts on military cloud computing, the cloud computing strategy and infrastructure could provide a very good framework to achieve synergy across all armed forces. A missionready cloud infrastructure application is one that, if it fails, will impact the dayto-day operations of a military and damage it in the long run.

As military organisations learn to use and manage the cloud environment, a clear roadmap

lution accelerates affordable development, deployment, innovation and performance of cloud implementations while reducing infrastructure costs and risks. It is scalable and measurable combining Lockheed Martin missionfocused cloud management and cyber security solutions with VCE’s pre-integrated technologies from Cisco, EMC and VMware to deliver a highly-secure computing platform that can scale as organisations’ demands for IT growth. In addition, Starfire Mission Ready Cloud delivers a turnkey pre-integrated Consensus Audit Guideline (CAG) compliant secure private cloud.

Japanese ICT firm Fijitsu and computer firm Hewlett-Packard Develop-

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

US ARMY

loud computing and infrastructure have been the in-things in the world of Information Technology for years now, with start-ups taking to it like fish to water and corporates making cautious switches. But military forces of the world, especially the Indian armed forces, are quite sceptical of the idea and are only now thinking of the possibilities.

Though no work in having a mission-ready cloud infrastructure in the way military operate – be it at its administrative levels or in the field – has begun in India, fresh thinking on this front provides for great opportunities to businesses in the niche sector.

As an example of the way forward in India, US Department of Defence has concrete thinking, with a proper cloud computing strategy put in place and work has begun. In October 2014, American defence firm Lockheed Martin announced a secure missionready, turnkey private cloud solution for federal, state and local government agencies, and private sector organisations. The integrated solution called Starfire Mission Ready Cloud is based on pre-integrated, pre-tested technology from Lockheed Martin and VCE, the Virtual Computing Environment, a collaboration of Cisco, EMC, and VMware.

The solution encompasses Lockheed Martin cyber security technology and cloud command/control technology as well as cloud computing and data center technology from VCE. Starfire Mission Ready Cloud enables government agencies to comply with their security requirements while realising a full range of cloud computing benefits for mission critical applications.

Lockheed Martin’s integrated so-

VIRTUAL WARFARE: A squad of US soldiers learn communication and decision-making skills during virtual missions

SPECIAL REPORT

INFRASTRUCTURE cost savings.

The military has always had different security needs than the commercial world, as well as a need to deliver a high quality of service. When building a cloud infrastructure, it must be ensured that it is not only efficient, but also maintains the level of reliability and functionality needed to meet mission goals. The cloud allows the armed forces, through abstraction on the server layer with virtualisation, to provide a more secure environment. For example, in the event of a cyber threat, the attack may not be targeting an actual machine, but rather a virtual machine. The virtual machine is selfcontained and abstracted from the hardware platforms, adding another layer of security to the environment that previously may not have been there.

Big data presents an ongoing challenge, and one that will continue to grow with the arrival of more unstructured data. Whether addressing Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) information, video files, imagery, or other forms of data, there is a need to have a consistent and well thought out approach to how we tackle the big data challenge.

A fire or a terrorist event could take out a data centre, but unexpected outages are more likely associated with normal, everyday activities. For example, an equipment operator at a construction site across the street could inadvertently nick a network cable and shut down communications to the data centre.

These types of scenarios happen all the time. One area that is addressed is how to apply analytics as the data is moving across a virtual machine into the cloud.

One of the cloud’s advantages is its ability to improve efficiency. There’s redundancy built into the cloud model.

A cloud infrastructure provides the increased reliability necessary to seamlessly maintain service in various types of situations. As soon as problems are detected, data is automatically migrated to another part of the cloud. The additional resources used may not even be in the same data centre. If they are, the reDEFENSE.GOV

could emerge, encompassing all aspects of missions and mission support activities getting into a cloud infrastructure, sooner than later. But, as of today, there are critical concerns in the minds of the Indian military on some of the aspects of shifting to a mission-ready cloud infrastructure for its operations, rather than doing it in the conventional ways.

As militaries build their cloud infrastructure, there should never be a shortage of planning. As different arms of military work together, it enables fresh perspectives and best practices to be shared among them. The more time spent planning and collaborating on the migration progresses, the less likely they will run into problems, enable better understanding and development of an efficient system.

Also, as organisations move toward the cloud, it gives them a chance to take a fresh look at the way they license applications. If they currently license applications by the desktop, they might want to move toward a concurrent model versus everybody having their very own license. After all, some people may be using a particular application less than others, while some may not be using the application at all. So, while cloud migration presents some challenges, it also creates opportunities along the way for

www.geopolitics.in

March 2015

HITECH COMMAND: India and US Army officers watch the flight of an unmanned aerial vehicle on a computer as part of a demonstration during Yudh Abhyas

sources may be using a different power grid or connectivity path. In any event, all of the changes are made dynamically to provide a more resilient and smooth operation.

Abstraction separating the logical services from the physical hardware platforms gives the capability to make the attacker believe they are attacking the system when, in reality, they may be attacking completely abstracted systems that are there simply to attract threats. In addition, when there is a problem, a specific virtual machine can be isolated, so any potential threat is incapable of passing through to the rest of the network.

The cloud infrastructure, whether a virtual desktops, virtual machines sitting in a server environment, or a software-defined network or data centre, will help provide an additional layer of security against ongoing potential cyber attacks. There is a need to look at the policies and processes that can be used to mitigate vulnerabilities. Cloud is just one aspect of an overall mitigation plan.

It’s all about putting into place specific tactics, techniques and procedures, so when unusual events or anomalies happening across the cloud infrastructure are seen, it is known how to react in a proper fashion.

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SPECIAL REPORT

COMBAT POWER GAP The dynamics of combat power encompass elements such as military’s firepower, mobility, logistic capability, manpower and sustainability. These factors ultimately determine the outcome of a war

I

n case of a conflict in the neighbourhood, India will come up against a modern battlefield that will be characterised by short, intense operations, against a nuclear backdrop. A large number of short, swift, and lethal engagements, using precision weapons, with heavy attrition, but with minimum collateral damage, seem to be the likely scenario if a war is fought in South Asia and its extended neighbourhood. Wars will be fought in all six dimensions – space, cyber, air, land, sea and sub-surface.

Increased use of various types of sensors will bring total transparency to the battlefield. This will affect the achievement of surprise, both strategic and tactical, and there would be an overload of information at the command posts.

Rapid advancements in technology, in the fields of information, nuclear energy, biotechnology, aviation, space and underwater operations, are changing the concept of warfare. Capabilities for all-weather surveillance, night vision devices, and extensive use of satellites and multiplicity of sensors have also affected all types of operations.

In the field of information technology (IT), digitisation, networked communications, electronic warfare, as well as information warfare (IW), have highlighted the importance of systems integration. This has led to the concept of system of systems, which is a complete architecture of detection, selection, display, targeting and attack.

The government needs to finalise the contract for the 126 Medium MultiRole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) at the earliest to prevent losing its combat edge in quality and numbers. A specific fighter aircraft for precision attacks in the hills should be a high priority while a scientific study to determine its utility for the IAF and the Army needs to be commenced as early as possible.

An operations research study must be

12

carried out to determine the optimum numbers of Surace-to-Surface Missiles (SSMs) and Long Range Aircraft.

A credible inter-continental surfaceto-surface ballistic nuclear deterrence is to be developed in relation to China.

The fighter aircraft act in tandem with other weapon systems which form the cutting edge. However, what more is needed are the attack helicopters that are designed to perform aerial attack missions but do not possess cargo carrying capability, the SSMs, the Surfaceto-Air Missiles (SAMs), the Air Defence Artillery (ADArty) and the Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) among others. All of the above lend close-in protection to our airfields and other vital assets. These weapons systems come under the term – ‘combat power’ and would include the most important element – the men behind the machine!

It needs to be understood that combat power does not operate in isolation; it needs other non-combat aspects which impact on its effectiveness.

The future will bring about the obsolescence of many weapons systems and witness changes in the relationship between India and its likely adversaries as well as the re-equipment of their armed forces, technological innovations or doctrinal changes. This will call for the Indian Armed Forces in general and the IAF in particular to address the problem of restructuring their components. The period up to 2020 will allow predictions to be more realistic.

The IAF has the approval to build up to 42 squadrons by 2027; the present strength is 34 squadrons. The Su-30s of the IAF along with the AWACs, Maritime Reconnaissance Air-

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

craft and tanker aircraft can cover the countries in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) as well as the land borders.

The numbers of these force multipliers, however, need to be enhanced to cover the land as well as the maritime responsibilities. The IAF has consciously preferred to have all fighter aircraft including the LCA with airto-air refuelling capability.

While the upgradation of the Mirage-2000, the MiG-29, the MiG-27 and the Jaguar fleet will allow some room for manoeuvre, the induction of the 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) will serve to tilt the balance in IAF’s favour.

Another important but long standing aspect is the continued and prompt availability of spares and maintenance support for all weapons systems in the IAF’s inventory. The government has accepted that the anti-armour attack helicopters will function under the Indian Army. As in the Gulf War, when the Apaches destroyed Iraqi Air Defence radars to create a gap and enable safe passage to other fighter aircraft to attack Iraqi targets, attack helicopters have other uses for the IAF.

SPECIAL REPORT

SSMs, beyond the Tactical Battle Area, will form the other component of combat power. In the fast moving tactical battle space, in spite of tactical SSMs and Artillery, the need may arise for additional firepower from fighter aircraft to add to the weight of attack.

Currently, the state of SAMs in the IAF is reported to be far below the optimum level, for both the medium and short range variety. The Pechora Medium Range SAM, the OSA Short Range and the IGLA shoulder-launched point defence SAM – all need upgradation or replacement. The Army’s and the Navy’s SAM requirements need to be dovetailed with the IAF’s.

The indigenous Medium Range SAM Akash holds much promise and must be supported by all three services.

An example of a unified approach to the purchase of SAMs is that of the Barak Israeli SAM. It is understood that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with Israeli guidance is developing a Medium Range SAM with a range of 70 km and a Long Range SAM for 100 km in the future.

These can be taken into consideration.

Close in Weapon System (CIWS) is synonymous for the gun or short range missile protection to land-based targets of the Army and the IAF. All airfields, strategic targets, as well as Army formations are provided point defence by elements of the AD Artillery.

All three services use UAVs, and these Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) weapon systems have proved their worth as effective aerial delivery platforms too. When the task is dangerous, dirty and dumb, UAVs are the preferred modes of ISR and weapon delivery. Although their cost is much less when compared to manned fighter aircraft they do have shortcomings. As of now, they only carry Air-toGround Missiles of limited range and weight and with low sub sonic speed; they can only operate in a benign air defence environment. They have yet to develop their capability as fully operational UCAVs to compete with manned fighter platforms.

Missile Defence (MD), whether National Missile Defence (NMD) or Theatre Missile Defence (TMD), is another technological advancement, which will

have a major effect on warfare in future.

The proliferation of Nuclear Biological Chemical (NBC) weapons, smart weapons, imaginative employment of IT, more lethal and precise weapons, the fielding of many types of missiles and major up-gradation of aviation assets, all have made substantive changes to the concepts and methodologies of waging war. Asymmetric Warfare, for example, focuses on fighting a stronger enemy and still winning. In the same context, non-nuclear deterrence, which is aimed at deterring regional conflicts with only conventional weapons, continues to be important.

In conventional operations, front, depth and rear areas would be engaged simultaneously with real time surveillance, integrated Command Control Communication Computers Intelligence Interoperability (C4I2), target acquisition and highly lethal precision weapons systems. The battlefield will become more digitised, more transparent and would experience a major increase in deployment of electronic devices, signalling the growing primacy of the electromagnetic spectrum.

READY TO FIRE: Akash Surface-to-Air Missile test fired at Integrated Test Range (ITR) Balasore MOD

www.geopolitics.in

March 2015

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SPECIAL REPORT

ELECTRONIC WARFARE NEEDS TAPPING India’s Electronic Warfare (EW) systems on drones, satellites and aircraft are slated to become more advanced and precise

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lectronic warfare systems can effectively change the flight paths of enemy missiles, misinform enemy administrative and troop control divisions, as well as paralyze entire armies. In effect, electronic warfare denotes a series of well-coordinated operations to destroy or suppress electronic troop control systems and weapons, and to protect similar friendly unit systems.

India’s Electronic Warfare (EW) systems on drones, satellites and aircraft are slated to become more advanced and precise in terms of range for surveillance in enemy territories. India’s current EW system capability has a limited range of about 10-20 km. These limited range EW systems cannot intercept beyond the line of sight. As for the future EW systems to be incorporated on the drones and aircraft, they will have longer ranges of up to 400-500 km to inspect deep into enemy zones. Even higher platforms will be developed for the advanced range EW systems.

In the past, electronic warfare was called radio warfare, anti-radar operations and radio direction finding. The assertion of electronic warfare confirms the dialectical law of unity and struggle of opposites, implying that the invention of new weapons and other military systems simultaneously facilitates the creation of other systems for offsetting their threat. New passive jamming systems, namely, multi-wave dipole reflectors (chaff), automatic chaff-scattering devices and radar wave absorbing materials for reducing combat equipment visibility, have now been developed.

From the initial production of Transceivers for Indian Army’s radio communication equipment, India’s public sector Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL)

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has evolved to have 350 products to its credits, including high-tech products such as radars, sonars, communication equipment, electronics warfare equipment, opto-electronics, tank electronics, and components, among others.

Recently, it handed over the Artillery Combat and Control Systems, which it had developed in association with DRDO to the Indian Army. Some other products that were executed recently include High Power HF Communication Sets, Frequency Hopping VHF Transreceivers, UHF Handheld Radio, UHF Radio Relays, Upgraded Fire Control Systems, Shipborne and Airborne Electronic Warfare Systems.

With a relatively stronger R&D base and close collaboration with DRDO, the

company relies for about 75 per cent of its turnover on indigenous technology and the rest 20 per cent on foreign technology. The major segments that would contribute to BEL’s increased revenue are radar, communications and electronics warfare. To achieve the target, it has set up Development and Engineering teams to work closely with the armed forces for certain major projects, including the Tactical Communications Systems, Battlefield Management System, Command Information Decision Support System, Future Infantry Soldier System and High Data Rate Multi-band Software Defined Radio.

Besides, BEL has identified several new business areas such as nuclear power instrumentation, railway instru-

INDIGENOUS SURVEILLANCE: DRDO’s indigenously designed and developed aerostat system is capable of carrying electro-optic and COMINT payloads for surveillance

DRDO

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mentation, solar/clear energy solutions as the key to increasing its civil business. The company is hopeful that business from these new areas will result in additional annual revenue of `5 billion.

Tata Power SED, has in 2011 won a rare defence contract and was declared the lowest bidder in a $186 million contract to develop and supply two integrated electronic warfare systems for mountainous terrain (IEWS-MT) for the Indian Army. Tata Power beat Elta of Israel, according to Indian Defence Ministry sources. Of the four vendors earlier shortlisted for the trials, Bharat Electronics and Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) failed to clear technical trials.

This is a major breakthrough for the private sector to be a system integrator in an important electronics warfare (EW) programme, which until now was the exclusive domain of Indian state-owned companies. It is expected to open a larger market for future EW systems for private players, said a Tata Power executive.

Tata Power has also beat Selex of Italy to win a $260 million contract to modernise 30 Indian Air Force military airbases, which was the first win by a domestic private-sector defence company against overseas bidders. The Buy (Global) tender for IEWS was floated in 2007. The tender was sent to Elisra and Elta of Israel, Thales of France, EADS of Germany, and among domestic companies, Tata Power, Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Electronics, ITI and Axis Aerospace, among others.

After technical evaluations, only Tata Power and Elta remained in the competition. Tata Power’s bid of about $186 million was slightly lower than the $188 million bid of Elta, said Defence Ministry sources. The contract is likely to be sealed soon.

The IEWS-MT would be a vehiclemounted system to deploy in the mountainous terrain of the northeastern border with China. The IEWS-MT will include active and passive EW measures. Passive EW measures would include scanning the electromagnetic spectrum and location-fixing of enemy transmitters, while active EW would involve jamming and interception of adversary communications, including cellular and radar. Tata Power developed the command-and-control software, including a customized geographicalinformation-system engine.

The potential of advanced EW systems has been identified by the Indian

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BEL

SPECIAL REPORT

FUTURE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM: BEL’s Troop Level Radar is an important constituent of Akash Missile System (Army version)

Armed Forces and various procurement plans are being materialised. The staterun Bharat Electricals Limited (BEL) has indicated that procurements to the tune of roughly $5.5 billion will occur in the next decade related to EW systems. The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force are anticipated to induct such products valued at roughly $2.2 billion each and the Indian Navy at roughly worth $1.3 billion.

There will be upgrade programmes of MiG-29 and Sukhoi, new EW suites for Light Combat Aircraft and light attack helicopter and upcoming projects pertaining to naval platforms and systems.

The ever-growing potential of EW systems as a force-multiplier for the military has been recognised in Indian public and private firms. Due to the critical nature of EW technology, pooling in of resources by firms has been seen as the future course for India. Besides that, global firms are also flocking in to push their EW systems here due to major upgrades of existing platforms and the need for new ones in India.

In late September 2014, the Indian Electronics and Semiconductors Associaiton (IESA) organised the country’s biggest ever defence electronics show, Deftronics, in Bengaluru to provide a common platform to those involved in the Electronic System Design and Man-

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

ufacturing (ESDM) sector to discuss the future prospects connected with the industry.

The electronics industry was 65 per cent dependent from outside and it was time the percentage was brought down to 25 per cent.

The scenario of warfare had changed now from use of weapons to electronic warfare and cyber warfare. In future, computer intelligence will acquire more importance and the use of electronic components would be more than 70 per cent. India needed to capitalise on this and those involved in defence sector needed to play a greater role.

The need of the hour is achieving product excellence coupled with cost effectiveness and timely delivery of products. Indian electronic industry has a great role to play along with foreign collaborators. There is a need for India to move from imports to exports.

The world is entering the hypersonic era, when $150 billion investment is expected to flow in. This enabled a greater opportunity for Indian companies and take active role in manufacturing products worth over $100 billion.

A committee headed by Mohandas Pai had also recommended marketing strategies for the products manufactured in the ESDM sector. It had also recommended creation of `500-crore fund for promotional aspects.

FOCUS

INDIA’S UNUSED AIRSTRIPS

Indian Air Force is in continuous process of reviewing the abandoned airfields for revival, based on its operational requirements

HISTORIC LANDING: C130J Super Hercules during the historical landing at the world’s highest airstrip in Daulat Beg Oldie

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hanks to the British, India has a rich military aviation history, of which over 450 unused and abandoned airbases and airstrips are a part of. Among these are nearly 400 unused or abandoned airstrips, all aviation infrastructures waiting to be exploited for both military and commercial purposes, as has been done in major cities and towns of this nation already.

Almost all of these unused or abandoned airstrips in the country were built by the British during the World War II period to support the allied forces’ war effort and these were used as staging positions for operations in the entire region. These airstrips were temporary advance airfields, mostly in the early 1940s.

Unlike the permanent airfields built in the United Kingdom and designed for the strategic bombardment of Ger-

many, the tactical combat airfields were temporary. These airfields were often improvised airstrips to be used by the tactical air forces to support the advancing ground armies engaged on the battlefield.

Once the ground armies moved out of range from the airfields, the Allied air forces moved their squadrons and groups closer to the troops on the ground, leaving behind the previously used one for other support efforts or just abandoned them.

There were five main types of airfields built during those years: Emergency Landing Strips (ELS), Supply and Evacuation (S&E), Refuelling and Rearming (R&R), Advanced Landing Grounds (ALG) and Tactical Air Depots (TAD).

While the ELS were rough, graded runways approximately 2,000 feet long to provide a place for emergency belly-

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March 2015

landings of damaged aircraft, the S&E were usually similar, but near the front line or an airfield in the rear used for transport of casualties or delivery of supplies and munitions.

The R&R had a runway and an aircraft marshalling area on each end, designed to provide an airfield near the front lines on which aircraft based in rear areas could land, be refuelled and rearmed, and take off again on a mission without having to return to their home field. The R&R could also be used for dispersal or for services other than refuelling or rearming was required.

These airfields could be expanded into ALGs by the addition of dispersal and other station facilities.

Generally, if a R&R strip was built, it would be sited wherever possible with a view to further expand it later into an ALG, so as to expand its utility through a road network and other additions to the

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PHOTOS: MOD

FOCUS

SAFE LANDING: An-32, transport aircraft of Indian Air Force during the inaugural flight at Advance Landing Ground (ALG) Vijaynagar, Arunachal Pradesh; (below) An Mi-17 V5 helicopter and C130J at Dharasu airfield in Uttarakhand

station and technical area in order for it to be used over an extended period of time. The ALGs could be expanded into TADs by the addition of hangars, shops, more dispersal hardstands, roads, and other facilities.

With such benefits in sight, India has decided to revive some of the ALGs in strategically important areas such as Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir and in the entire state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Daulat Beg Oldi at the tri-junction of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin was the first such ALG to be opened. DBO, as the ALG at the northern-most part of Ladakh at an altitude of 16,200 feet and just nine km away from the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is called, was made

18

operational for AN-32s on May 31, 2008.

Just six months later, the Indian Air Force (IAF) opened Fukche ALG, an old airstrip abandoned after the 1962 war, at an altitude of 13,700 feet, only three km from LAC in the southeastern part of Ladakh on November 4, 2008, again with an AN-32 landing.

On September 18, 2009, the IAF again carried out first time landing at Nyoma in southeastern Ladakh, 23 km from the LAC. Nyoma was used as a helicopter base by the IAF prior to the AN32 landing there. In late 2010, the IAF silently activated an advanced landing ground (ALG) for its air force transport planes at Dharasu in Uttarakhand to aid in the swift movement of troops during conflicts, wary of the build up of

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

Chinese military infrastructure along the 4,057-km-long LAC. Dharasu ALG, at an altitude of 2,950 feet in the Uttarkashi hills bordering China, was made operational without much fanfare with the landing of an AN-32 medium lift transport aircraft.

Dharasu was a “professional challenge” for years for the IAF and the “trial landing” of the AN-32 aircraft there was done by the 12 Squadron of the IAF. Now, the IAF is working on another ALG at Padam, South-West of Leh, in Ladakh. Once operational, Padam in the Zanskar valley will be the fourth ALG in Ladakh, after Daulat Beg Oldie, Fukche and Nyoma. The plans to have an ALG at Chushul, again in Ladakh, have been put on hold for now.

In August 2013, the IAF’s C-130J Super Hercules touched down at Daulat Beg Oldie at an altitude of 16,614 feet, located within 10 km of India’s de-facto border with China. Since then, there have been regular C-130J flights to DBO. Similar, C-130J landings at other

FOCUS

ALGs are being worked out by the IAF at present. After reactivating the ALGs in the western and central sectors along the Sino-Indian border, the IAF is also working on upgrading the ALGs on the eastern sector, particularly in Arunachal Pradesh.

On the eastern flank, an ALG is being developed at Tawang, a border town in Arunachal Pradesh that lies at the core of the Sino-Indian territorial dispute, for landing of both transport aircraft and helicopters. Tawang had been under administrative control of Tibet before it became a part of India.

Besides Tawang, seven more ALGs in Arunachal Pradesh are being developed with `720-crore package. The first landing is expected around 2016.

The ALGs are coming up at Mechuka, Vijaynagar, Tuting, Passighat, Walong, Ziro and Along, where helicopters too can be operated.

The disclosure on Padam and Tawang came within a week of India-China talks on boundary dispute between the

Dharasu ALG, at an altitude of 2,950 feet in the Uttarkashi hills bordering China, was made operational without much fanfare with the landing of an AN-32 medium lift transport aircraft then National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon and his Chinese counterpart State Councillor Yang Jiechi in early 2014. The IAF also plans to upgrade the Nyoma ALG, located within 25 km of the LAC, as well as the air base in Kargil, bordering Pakistan-occupied

Kashmir, into full-fledged airfields capable of handling all types of aircraft, including the fighter jets. With the C130J landing at DBO, the IAF has beaten its own world record for high altitude operations. This is also the highest-ever landing by a C-130J in nearly 50 years.

This capability to land at such high altitude areas gives the IAF a six-fold increase in its capability to deploy troopers in no time, when compared with An-32s and Mi-17s that were till now flying to DBO. Apart from these ALGs, the IAF has 29 abandoned airfields spread across 11 states in the country. The review of abandoned airfields for revival is a continuous, ongoing process that the IAF keeps doing and the possibility of revival of these airfields is based on the operational assessment and requirement of the air force. However, the government has not allocated or utilised any funds for the revival plans of abandoned airfields in the 11th five-year plan that ended in March 2012.

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SPOTLIGHT

GAPS IN TRAINER Despite being one of the top air forces of the world, IAF continues to have gaps in its pilot training

BAE HAWK

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ndian Air Force pilots are considered to be among the best in the world today. However, it is a known fact that they are mostly selftaught, so to say. Despite being one of the top air forces of the world, IAF continues to have gaps in its pilot training, all due to the lack of a modern Intermediate Jet Trainer.

The situation could have been worse. But some smart brains in the highest echelons of the Indian Air Force (IAF) figured out that they need to get past the worst at the earliest if they wanted to save the fighter pilot strength and still hold an edge in air combat.

That’s how India finalised a decade ago – in 2004 to be precise – that its rookie pilots get to train on the modern BAE Systems’ Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers. So, an order for 66 of the Hawk AJTs for `6,600 crore was placed. Now, that order has increased to around 130 AJTs, of which about 17 would go to the Indian Navy to train its combat pilots on.

Training of rookie pilots apart, Hawk has also emerged as the preferred aircraft of the air force’s showcase squadron – the Surya Kirans – which now stand number-plated. The air force will soon revive the Surya Kiran squadron with about 20 Hawk planes. But that will happen only after the required number of Hawk aircraft for Stage-III training of rookie pilots is delivered and inducted at Bidar.

The subsonic Hawk is the aircraft IAF’s rookie pilots train on last before they graduate to the supersonic MiG21s at air combat training institutions and hence, this stage training is a key element of IAF’s training modules.

20

Hawk is only one of the three legs in the three-stage training schedule. It is in the first two stages of pilot training – the more critical ones – that the IAF and the Indian Navy are still facing troubles.

Take, for example, the Basic Trainers for Stage-I training. It was not until 2012 that the IAF could decide on having a modern basic trainer aircraft for the purpose.

In May that year, the IAF placed an order for 75 Swiss Pilatus PC-7 MkII basic trainer aircraft at a cost of Swiss Francs 557 million to meet a part of its requirement of 181 Basic Trainer Aircraft (BTAs). But that decision was explained as a panic measure, as the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) effort to design and develop an indigenous basic trainer aircraft has not borne fruit or could be further delayed.

Within 10 months of the IAF placing the Pilatus order, it became clear that the IAF would prefer not to wait further to meet the remaining requirement of 106 basic trainers from HAL and would go with the PC-7s to meet that need.

This led to a war of words, with the then IAF chief NAK Browne making it clear at the Aero India 2013 that the air force would not want to complicate its pilot training schedules with two different basic trainers in the fleet and would have the Pilatus trainers for standardising the syllabus, instead of the HAL’s.

The IAF seems to have won a major

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

war on this front, with the government considering the proposal of the air force to get the Pilatus planes manufactured in India. However, it remains to be seen if Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar would agree to the proposal for HAL license-manufacturing the PC-7s.

For, the distrust between Pilatus and HAL are too deep for the two firms to mend the situation and the defence Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) taking up licensed production of the PC-7s.

It has been made more than clear

by HAL that it would prefer to continue with its own baby – the Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40) – that is still not off the conception stage. To get the HTT-40 off the designer’s table could take a long while, whatever could be the benefits for doing so. The first flight of the HTT-40 prototype too is far away.

The viability of having an indigenous basic trainer that could be a futuristic option and an alternative to PC-7s will

SPOTLIGHT

AIRCRAFT FLEET be known only years later. Hence, the IAF proposal to get 106 PC-7s manufactured in India could take off and aviation enthusiasts may still see an Indiaassembled Pilatus plane flying over the Indian skies soon.

However, there are cries that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ vision is being scuttled in the basic trainer programme, including within the military. Through innuendoes, motives of “greater benefit” in importing costly foreign weaponry are attributed to the men and women in uniform, for preferring the already available PC7s. The verdict on this one is still to be out, as the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar is in the process of analysing the proposal.

The biggest headache for the IAF and the Navy on the pilot training front is Stage-II. At present, the IAF is managing this task with the ageing 100-odd Kiran trainers that were built by HAL. After the grounding of HPT-32 Deepak trainers in August 2009 following a series of crashes, the IAF commandeered even the Kirans of its Surya Kiran aerobatics team soon after, to help fulfill the commitment on Stage-II training of the rookie pilots.

The worst situation on the Stage-II training arose due to the inordinate delays faced by the HAL’s indigenous Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT) programme that has been nicknamed ‘Sitara’.

PILATUS DEAL IN COLD WATERS? O

rder for 75 Swiss Pilatus basic trainer aircraft (BTA) for the Indian Air Force (IAF) has run into rough weather with the finance wing of the Ministry of Defence pointing out that 88 per cent of the acquisition cost over 30 years will be incurred in just seven years because of “inbuilt flaws” in the `4,000-crore deal signed during the UPA rule in 2012.

The Ministry of Defence (Fi-

The year 2014 was projected as the breakthrough year for Hindustan Jet Trainer-36 (HJT-36) Sitara aircraft, with it obtaining the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC). But that was not to be.

The IOC for Sitara is still awaited and uncertainty still looms over the success of this programme that has been in progress since 1999.

In February 2014, then Defence Minister A K Antony had assured the nation that IJT would obtain both its IOC and the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) by December that year. Hopefully, this happens HAL’S during Manohar Parrikar’s INDIGENOUSLY tenure as Defence Minister in BUILT KIRAN 2015.

AIRCRAFT The development of IJT is in the ‘advanced stages of certification’ with nearly 1,000 test flights completed so far.

The activities are progressing well with completion of

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March 2015

nance) raised the red flag in January this year after the IAF moved a proposal for Follow On Support Contract (FOSC) for five years at an estimated cost of `507 crore for maintenance and related issues of Pilatus aircraft — almost three times the cost for repairs and maintenance presumed at the time of evaluation of the lowest bidder (L1).

sea-level trials, night flying trials, highaltitude trials as well as weapon and drop tank trials on the IJT. The activities left for obtaining the FOC are the refinement of stall characteristics and thereafter spin testing.

In 2014, engineers and designers at HAL’s Aircraft Research and Design Centre were grappling with the daunting task of identifying and correcting the inherent asymmetry of the aircraft.

The asymmetry issues were preventing the stall and spin trials, as pilots were forced to abort the tests after the aircraft reportedly rolled around 16 degrees.

Though the IAF has supported the IJT programme from the beginning and also placed an order for 73 planes, ahead of the aircraft obtaining its IOC and FOC, it is now hoping that the first batch of the Sitaras would roll out of HAL by end of 2015, thereby providing some respite from the Stage-II training woes of the force.

21

COVER STORY

NOT

HOW TO PROMOTE MAKE IN INDIA PIB

T

he Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) had decided to flirt with its very own version of Make in India long before the Prime Minister beckoned the foreign companies to ‘come, make in India’ from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort in his maiden Independence Day speech in August 2014.

The ‘Make’ procedure, introduced by MoD in 2006, was expected to be a game changer, catapulting the fledgling defence industry in India to the big league of original equipment manufacturers.

The intention was to promote indigenous research, design, development and production of high-technology complex systems for meeting the requirement of the armed forces in future.

Projects to be classified under this

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category are required to be culled out from the 15-year Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) and offered to the Indian industry. What makes these projects attractive is the provision for funding to the extent of 80 per cent of the prototype development cost by the government. The requirement that the successful prototype must have a minimum of just 30 per cent indigenous content makes these projects very doable.

Nine years since the flirtation started in 2006 not one of the five or six proposals considered fit to be put on the ‘Make’ track has got going. Blaming it entirely on the procedural tangles, MoD went into a huddle almost two years back from which it is yet to emerge with a revamped and simplified procedure.

If anything, the ‘Make-in-India’ blitz-

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

krieg of the government ended up confusing the Indian and the foreign companies alike. Was it a call to the foreign companies to come and set up their production facilities in India? But then that goes against the grain of the stated policy of promoting indigenisation of defence production. So, was it a call to the Indian industry to put their act together and get the indigenous production going, inevitably in collaboration with the foreign companies? If that is what the ‘Make in India’ exhortation is all about, how is it any different from what MoD has been trying to do all along?

The present policy requires MoD to buy defence equipment directly from the Indian companies. Only if it is not available with them, equipment can be bought from the foreign companies. If

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FUTURE READY: File photo shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiling the ‘Make in India’ programme and logo in September 2014

The Ministry of Defence seems to be clueless as is evident from the way it has been struggling to revise the procurement procedures, offset guidelines, the ‘Make’ procedure, et al, to bring them in sync with the latest ‘Make-in-India’ buzz, writes AMIT COWSHISH

the equipment is required in large quantities or the requirement is of recurring nature, MoD enters into buy and make contracts with Indian or foreign companies for outright purchase of a small quantity of equipment followed by manufacture of the remaining bulk quantity in India through transfer of technology.

With no ‘Make’ project having fructified so far, all defence equipment has so far been purchased or made through these methods.

How is the new Make in India initiative different from ‘Make’ procedure?

The question, therefore, at this juncture is in what way the new ‘Make in India’ push of the government impacts the present policies and procedures relating to defence production and procurement.

Simply stated, how is the new initiative different, what MoD has been doing all along? MoD seems to be clueless about it as is evident from the way it has been struggling to revise the procurement procedures, offset guidelines, the ‘Make’ procedure, et al, to bring them in sync with the latest ‘Make in India’ buzz.

Increase in the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap The only big step, if it may be called that, taken in the recent months is raising of the FDI cap for the defence sector from 26 per cent to 49 per cent. But this was before the ‘Make in India’ campaign was launched and, in any case, it has had little impact on inflow of FDI. At ₹ 24.36 crore ($ 4.94 million), the total inflow at the end of December 2014 stands exactly

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March 2015

where it stood when the FDI cap was raised. In fact, this is the level at which the total inflow has been stagnating for a long time. This amount is so insignificant that it does not even constitute 0.01 per cent of the total FDI received from April 2000 to December 2014.

The stipulation that the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) could consider permitting FDI beyond 49 per cent on a case-to-case basis if it is likely to result in access to modern and stateof-the-art technology in the country has also failed to stimulate investment. For one thing, there is lack of clarity about what would constitute state-of-the-arttechnology. More to the point, the ecosystem in India continues to be a cause for concern not just for the foreign investors but for the Indian industry itself.

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Measures announced in 2013

In a somewhat belated zeal to boost the defence industry in India, MoD announced a slew of measures in April 2013.

One of these was to release the public version of the Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan (LTIPP) with a view to providing ‘useful guidance to the Indian Defence Industry for boosting its infrastructural capabilities and directing its R&D and technology investments’.

In the event, the public version of LTIPP was indeed released by way of a document called the Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap (TPCR) the same month. Though it soon became apparent that much more information would need to be placed in the public domain for the industry to pick up the challenge, MoD is yet to release TPCR 2.0.

Other measures announced in April 2013 included opening up of the private sector for transfer of maintenance technology, resolution of tax-related issues,

“We have been over dependent on imports, with its attendant unwelcome spin offs. We are thus pursuing the ‘Make in India policy’ to achieve greater self-sufficiency in the area of defence equipment.”

Arun Jaitley Finance Minister

READY FOR TAKEOFF: Rafale aircraft lined up during the Exercise Garuda-5 held in 2014

MOD

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March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

earmarking of ₹`500 crore by SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank of India) for providing loans to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) involved in manufacturing of defence products and creation of a fund of ₹`50 crore by SIDBI Ventures Capital Ltd for providing equity support to the MSMEs out of the India Opportunities Fund.

Realising that nothing much had happened on the question of funding of MSMEs, the Finance Minister said in his budget speech of July 10 last year, “In the year 2011 a separate fund was announced to provide necessary resources to the public and private sector companies, including SMEs, as well as academic and scientific institutions to support research and development of Defence systems that enhance cutting-edge technology capability in the country. However, beyond the announcement, no action was taken. Therefore, I propose to set aside an initial sum of ₹`100 crore to set up a Technology Development

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Fund to support this objective.”

A document entitled ‘Implementation of the Budget Announcements 2014-15’, circulated as a part of the budget documents this year, shows the status of implementation of this announcement as ‘work in progress’.

Most of these issues should have been addressed by MoD and MOF ages back.

But they have not been able to do so, in part because some of the larger issues concerning licensing, taxation, deemed export status for the defence industry require inter-ministerial coordination, apart from consultation with a large number of stakeholders.

Ease of doing business in India – a stumbling block

It is embarrassing for a country aspiring to become a global manufacturing hub to be rated 142nd in the global index of ease of doing business. This index comprises ten parameters, on most of which India

“India only received $5 million in direct foreign investment in the defence industry over the last 14 years, in comparison to the $10 billion each that the telecommunications and automobile industries sectors were able to attract over the same period.”

Wall Street Journal is way down in the ranking order: 158 in regard to starting a business, 137 on the issue of getting electricity, 156 in the context of payment of taxes, and 186 when it comes to enforcement of contracts. Responsible people in the government have been expressing concern at this state of affairs and vowing to improve it.

Nine months into the five year tenure of this government and more than seven months after he presented the first budget, the Finance Minister had the opportunity to clear the air on how does the government want ‘Make in India’ to play out in defence. He also had the opportunity to announce a slew of measures to improve the eco-system to make it easier to do business in the country.

Takeaway from the Union Budget 2015-16 for ‘Make-in-India’ in defence

The Union Budget for 2015-16 offers little that has a direct bearing on any of the problems besetting the defence industry in India or for the foreign companies desirous of entering the Indian defence market, except for some lesser important issues like the proposed law on bankruptcy. (The Finance Minister announced in his budget speech that a Comprehensive Bankruptcy Code of global standards will be brought in fiscal 2016 to improve the ease of doing business.)

Tax-related issues remain unaddressed

At least one thing which the industry was absolutely justified in expecting from this budget was resolution of the tax-related issues and announcement of some incen-

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March 2015

tives for the defence industry. MoD had announced in April 2013 that ‘resolution of deemed export status for certain defence projects and rationalisation of tax and duty structures impinging on the Indian defence industry has been taken up by the MoD with the Ministry of Finance’.

It is disappointing that the opportunity to address this matter has been lost.

Budgetary allocation for Prototype Development under the ‘Make’ procedure

In some sections of the strategic community concern is being expressed about the meagre budgetary allocation to promote ‘Make in India’ in the defence sector.

There is a provision of ₹`144.21 crore in the capital budget for ‘Prototype Development under Make Procedure’ but this is seen as grossly inadequate as most of the ‘Make’ projects are big projects that would cost thousands of crores of rupees.

While the absence of any package deal for the defence industry in the union budget is indeed disappointing, apprehensions about inadequate budgetary allocation for the ‘Make’ projects are misplaced.

At this stage, such projects do not require heavy infusion of funds. The only project which has made some progress is for development of the prototype of the Battlefield Management System (BMS).

Going by the media reports, MoD has zeroed down on two consortia, one led by the public sector Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and the other by Tata Power SED for the BMS project. As per the procedure, the Defence Procurement Board has to approve the short listed Development Agencies (DA) who are then required to prepare the Detailed Project Report (DPR). For all practical purposes, the project takes off the ground only after the DPR is approved by the Competent Financial Authority (CFA). Depending on the value, the CFA could be Secretary Defence Production, Defence Minister, Finance Minister or even the Cabinet Committee on Security. Funding of prototype development starts only thereafter.

Even in the case of the BMS project it will take a long time for the funding to begin for prototype development. Though the entire procurement is believed to cost around ₹`40-50,000 crore, the prototype development cost is going to be only a fraction of that. Thus, the amount provided under the relevant budget head for the fiscal 2016 should not be a cause for concern.

Concerns about inadequate capital acquisition budget

Concern is also being expressed about the

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zero increase in the capital budget for the coming year. At ₹`94,588 crore the Budget Estimate (BE) for 2015-16 is exactly the same as the BE of 2014-15. This is being interpreted to mean that there are no additional funds available this year for capital acquisitions.

The reality, however, is that the capital budget for 2014-15 has been reduced by a whopping `12,623 crore at the Revised Estimate (RE) stage. This reduction is on account of MoD’s inability to utilise the entire allocation. But for the reduction, MoD would have been left with approximately `33,454 crore at the end of January 2015.

Going by the past experience it would have been impossible for MoD to spend this sum in the remaining two months of the current fiscal.

The capital budget of ₹`94,588 crore for the coming fiscal has, therefore, to be seen with reference to the RE for the current year. Viewed in this perspective, it will in fact be a challenge for MoD to

“The biggest elephant in the room is of course enhancement of the FDI (capt) from 49 per cent to 74 per cent. Not a penny of FDI has come in since the last budget in June 2014.”

Amber Dubey KPMG

MID AIR OPERATION: Airbus A330 tanker aircraft refueling A400M AIRBUS

$20 BN WORTH WEAPONS PURCHASE IN THE MIX • • • • • • • • •

$12 billion to purchase medium multirole fighter jets $1.2 billion for six Airbus A330 tankers $1.1 billion for 22 Boeing Apache attack helicopters $1 billion for 197 light utility helicopters, $833 million for 15 Boeing Chinook heavy lift helicopters, $600 million for light howitzer guns from BAE Systems $200 million for 98 Black Shark torpedoes from WASS $350 million for 1,418 Israeli-made thermal imaging sights for T-72 tanks $250 million for 262 Barak missiles from Israel Aerospace Industries

absorb the increase of ₹`12,623 crore in the capital budget in 2015-16. In the past ten years since 2004-05, it has never been able to increase the actual capital spending from one year to the next by that much amount. Of course, the allocation will need to be enhanced if a contract like the one for MMRCA aircraft gets finalised during the year.

The Indian defence market is huge.

The estimates of money that India might spend on capital acquisition alone in the coming ten years, assuming a very modest yearly increase of 10 per cent per annum, range from $ 300 to 350 billion.

Unlike other sectors, defence sector is monopsonic, regulated entirely by the government. Therefore, depending on how this sector is steered by the government, it could give a huge boost to the manufacturing sector in India, creating much needed jobs across the entire spectrum of skills and expertise.

The problem at this stage is not so much about inadequacy of funds. The budget for 2015-16 disappoints not on account of the adequacy of otherwise of the budgetary allocation but on account of the missed opportunity to set the stage for defence manufacturing to take off.

This could be done by addressing the issues that are holding back the potential of the Indian industry and dampening the enthusiasm of the foreign companies.

Make in India website

The Make in India website lists the De-

BAE SYSTEMS

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March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

COVER STORY

fence Production Policy of 2011 and the ‘Make’ procedure of 2013 as the ‘growth drivers’. It also refers to the FDI policy of 2014 which raised the cap to 49 per cent.

Under the rubric of ‘sector policy’, the website lists, among others, the Defence Procurement Procedure of 2013, the Offset Policy of 2012, and the Guidelines for formation of Joint Ventures that were also issued in 2012.

All these policies and procedures have been found to be wanting in one respect or the other and most of them have been under review for the past two years, if not more. As if this was not enough, the Defence Research and Development Organisation, the ordnance factories and the Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) have their own thing going largely independent of these policies. The new ‘Make in India’ initiative cannot ride on the old horses, pulling the cart in different directions.

Chugging along

Three years on, we do not know what is going to happen to the MMRCA project.

The Avro-replacement programme of the Indian Air Force, which was intended to create additional capability in the private sector in India to take on bigger aircraft manufacturing projects in future, is moving in circles. Incidentally, of the $ 300 billion likely to be spent by India on capital acquisitions in the next ten years, a sizeable proportion would be spent on aerospace related products.

The US government has offered several technologies to India but more than two years after the first offer was made we do not know where to go from here.

BrahMos is a success story but the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project with the Russians is still at the discussion stage. Meanwhile, Russia is entering a new era of strategic relationship with Pakistan. The transition from ‘Look East’ to ‘Act East’ in the recent months has done little to bring the amphibious aircraft project with Japan out of the woods. Need one say more?

The organisational setup within the MoD that handles these matters has not

“The budget allocation may not be sufficient even for contracted projects as they are carry over from the 2014-15 budget on capital account.”

Rahul Bhonsle Defence Analyst www.geopolitics.in

March 2015

been able to steer the effort to strengthen the industrial base in India or ensure speedy acquisitions for modernisation of the armed forces primarily because of lack of coordination and the proclivity for risk-aversion in decision-making. A number of committees set up by the government in the past have suggested various measures to deal with this problem but these reports have remained perpetually ‘under consideration’.

The central government cannot do much without the support of the state governments. The state governments, such as Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh, Gujarat and Maharashtra, on their part have shown keenness to facilitate realisation of the objectives of Make in India in defence.

But the stage has to be set by the Government of India. The budget for 2015-16 seems to have missed that opportunity.

Basically, the problem is threefold: absence of an overarching cohesive policy on defence manufacturing and procurement, disjointed and inflexible procedures, and organisational structures within the MoD hamstrung by convoluted decision-making processes. Resolution of many of these problems does not have to wait till the next budget. The time is clearly running out.

The author is a former Financial Advisor (Acquisition), Ministry of Defence and presently a Distinguished Fellow with the Indian Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

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DEFENCE BUDGET

NOTHING FOR On one hand, the government seeks FDI in defence industry and raises the upper cap. On the other hand, it declines to facilitate infusion of funds by granting infrastructure status to the defence industry. The contradiction is quite inexplicable, writes MRINAL SUMAN

“A

strong Indian defence industry will not only make India more secure, it will also make India more prosperous,” declared Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address at Aero India 2015.

He went on to state, “More broadly, our

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defence industry will succeed more if we can transform the manufacturing sector in India. That is why we are focusing on developing India’s defence industry with a sense of mission. This is why it is at the heart of our ‘Make in India’ programme.”

Creation of additional jobs and skill

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

enhancement figured repeatedly in Prime Minister Modi’s election campaign. Subsequently, in his Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the historic Red Fort on Independence Day, he promised to give a boost to indigenous industrial production. He had recognised the potential of a thriving

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‘MAKE IN INDIA’ PIB

manufacturing sector to generate jobs for millions of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled hands.

Six weeks later, mission ‘Make in India’ was formally launched on September 25, 2014. It aims at persuading indigenous and foreign companies to invest in manufacturing in India by making it an irresistible destination, both for capital and technological investments.

A high level workshop was organised on December 29, 2014 to chart out broad contours of the initiative.

To start with, 25 sectors of the econ-

omy have been identified and defence manufacturing is one of them. A national portal has since been launched with the declared objective of facilitating investment, foster innovation, enhance skill development, protect intellectual property and build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure. An Investor Facilitation Cell has also been set up to help prospective entrepreneurs.

During the last few months, a number of steps have been announced to improve ‘ease-of- doing-business’ in India.

As regards the defence sector, two major

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March 2015

measures were announced in August 2014. One, many components of defence products list have been excluded from industrial licensing requirements. Similarly, dual use items having military as well as civilian applications have been deregulated.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) cap has been raised from the earlier 26 per cent to 49 per cent composite (includes all kinds of foreign investments). Although portfolio investment will be under the automatic route, it cannot exceed 24 per cent of the total equity of the

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investee company. In addition, the government has declared its willingness to allow even 100 per cent FDI for modern and state-of-the-art technology on case to case basis.

High hopes from the Budget

The objectives of ‘Make in India’ in the defence sector cannot be limited only to the generation of jobs and upgradation of technologies. Far more importantly, indigenous defence industry impacts the national security imperatives critically. No country that depends on imports for most of its defence requirements can ever aspire to command re-

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spect in the comity of nations. Imported arms are like crutches. Therefore, indigenous defence industry cannot be equated with other industrial sectors. It deserves focused treatment and everyone was expecting the budget to kickstart the process through various policy initiatives.

As the current government has been repeatedly declaring its resolve to make India more self-reliant, a number of radical policy initiatives were expected to be announced in the budget presented on February 28, 2015. Three key expectations can be recalled.

One, areas considered critical for

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industrial development and growth of a country are normally given the infrastructure sector status. Such sectors get focused attention and are also assured of tax benefits with easier access to domestic and global funding. In India, infrastructure sectors like roads and highways, ports and airports, railways and power have been seeking huge investments. It has been seen that foreign investors are far keener to invest in infrastructure sectors.

As the defence industry needs support both on account of tax incentives and capital infusion, grant of infrastructure status would have been of immense

SOURCE: HT

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READY WITH A KITTY: Arun Jaitley, Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs and Information & Broadcasting leaving the North Block along with Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, to present the Budget PIB

help. There appears to be a dichotomy between the government’s declared intent and policy. On one hand, the government seeks FDI in defence industry and raises the upper cap. On the other hand, it declines to facilitate infusion of funds by granting infrastructure status to the defence industry. The contradiction is quite inexplicable.

The defence industry has also been demanding for long that it be made eligible for the application of the ‘deemed export’ provisions. As per the Exim Policy issued by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, the term ‘deemed exports’ refers to those transactions in which the

goods supplied do not leave the country and the payment for such supplies is received either in Indian rupees or in free foreign exchange. However, supply of goods by the main/sub-contractors is regarded as ‘deemed exports’ under this policy only if the goods are manufactured in India.

Benefits accruing in respect of manufacture and supply of goods qualifying as ‘deemed exports’ include advance license for intermediate supply/deemed export; deemed exports drawback; and refund of terminal excise duty where supplies are made against international competitive bidding. Supplies made by an Indian sub-contractor of an Indian or foreign main contractor, are also eligible for deemed export benefits provided the name of the sub-contractor is indicated either originally or subsequently in the contract, and payment certificate is issued by the project authority in the name of the sub-contractor. Such a provision can give a big boost to the ancillary industry.

Fundamental changes that were expected in the budgetary process were:  At present all unspent funds lapse at the end of a financial year. Not to surrender funds becomes a race against time. As a result, funds are often spent imprudently closer to the end of a financial year. Therefore, it will be far more prudent to allow the unspent funds to be carried forward to the next financial year.  The sole objective of issuing a public version of the perspective document, outlining the ‘Technology Perspective and Capability Roadmap’ covering a period of 15 years is to give adequate advance notice of

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impending procurement proposals to the industry to facilitate investment decisions. However, industrialists do not base such decisions on the projections that they consider to be of academic, speculative and conjectural in nature only. Assured budgetary support to MoD must be indicated for the plan periods to impart credibility to the perspective plans.  Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are universally accepted as engines that drive technological progress in all industrial sectors.

Their importance in the defence sector gets further enhanced due to the fact that the defence industry is highly technology-intensive.

SMEs are small players with limited resources and cannot compete on their own. They need governmental support. As is done by all nations, tax and duty structures should be rationalised to facilitate their growth and the long promised special fund should be made operative to provide financial support to deserving SMEs. Although Finance Minister Arun Jaitley called ‘Make in India’ to be the second most important pillar of his tax proposals (after black money), there is not much in his proposals to give a boost to it. To be fair to the Finance Minister, the 14th Finance Commission (FC) has considerably reduced his kitty by recommending allocation of 42 per cent of the central government’s tax revenues to the States. Satisfying all sectors with reduced fund allocations would have been a major challenge. Apparently, the defence sector has been a major loser in this grab for resources.

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$4.5 BN OFFSETS TO ENTER DOMESTIC INDUSTRY

T

he Indian Ministry of Defence has mandated discharge of offset obligations by vendors under different categories of defence acquisitions with the primary objective of leveraging its capital acquisitions to develop the Indian defence industry.

The idea is to foster development of internationally competitive enterprise; augment capacity for research, design and development related to defence products and Services; and encourage

development of synergistic sectors like civil aerospace and internal security.

The offset provisions apply to all capital acquisitions categorised as ‘Buy (Global)’, that is outright purchase from foreign or Indian vendor, or ‘Buy and Make with Transfer of Technology’ that is

Expectations belied

Finance Minister Jaitley’s opening remarks while announcing the defence allocation turned out to be highly misleading. “Defence of every square inch of our motherland comes before anything else. So far we have been overdependent on imports, with its attendant unwelcome spin-offs”, he said. He claimed that the government had been both transparent and quick in making defence equipment related purchase decisions, thus keeping the defence forces ready for any eventuality. Further, he reiterated commitment to pursuing the ‘Make in India’ policy to achieve greater

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purchase from foreign vendor followed by licensed production.

They apply to Indian firms or their joint ventures under ‘Buy (Global)’ procurements. The 30 per cent of the estimated cost of the acquisition in ‘Buy (Global)’ category acquisitions and 30 per cent of the foreign exchange component in ‘Buy and Make with ToT’ category acquisitions will be the required value of the offset obligations.

Further, foreign vendors could consider creation of offset programmes in anticipation of future obligations through offset banking.

The offset policy was introduced in 2005 and thereafter, has successively evolved to put emphasis on the capacity augmentation for Research, Design and Development related to Defence products and Services by making it as a key policy objective. The policy further enlarged the scope of the avenues for discharge of offsets and included the option of provision of investment in kind in Indian enterprises in the form of equipment and/or transfer of technology.

The Defence Ministry was asked to apprise the Parliamentary Standing Committee about the gains of the offset provisions and also whether the new Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) has

self-sufficiency in the area of defence equipment, including aircraft.

However, all the above statements proved to be the usual rhetoric. He increased the budgetary provision for the defence by a paltry 7.74 per cent from the last year’s allocation of `2,29,000 crore to `2,46,727 crore. Very cleverly, he compared the proposed allocation with the likely expenditure of `2,22,370 crore during the current year, thereby claiming an increase of 11 per cent.

Apparently, MoD had failed to spend the full allotted amount during the current year and had surrendered funds to the tune of `6,630 crore. The Finance

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made any change in the existing provisions, according to its report submitted to the Indian Parliament in December 2014.

The offset policy mandates foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers to discharge offset obligations through a combination of permissible avenues with regard to eligible product and services in all procurement cases were cost of the capital acquisition is Rs 300 crore or more.

These offset contracts are under different stages of implementations by the foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers. Once executed, it is estimated that the respective contract shall cause, on account of offset provisions, generation of substantial business to Indian industries thus strengthening the defence industrial base. Further, due to liberalised banking provisions, the Original Equipment Manufacturers are expected to invest more in Indian industries which shall spur growth in the related areas independent of the existence or otherwise of any immediate main acquisition proposal the effect of which shall be visible in near future and the commensurate gains shall be visible in coming years.

Learning from the experience in implementing the offset policy over the years since Defence Procurement Procedure-2005, the Defence Ministry has gradually liberalised and fine-tuned the offset policy and the guidelines, thereof, to factor in the difficulties encountered in the implementation of the offsets to strengthen the domestic defence industrial base together with other synergic

Minister chose not to mention that under-spending by MoD was not due to its inability to manage procurements.

Closer to the end of a financial year, Defence Finance officials are instructed by the Finance Ministry not to concur any major expenditure proposal to ensure that unspent funds revert to it to bridge the fiscal deficit. It is a standard ploy.

As can be seen from the table (on page 34), the defence budget is 1.75 per cent of the estimated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and has been declining every year. It shows a degree of lack of concern for the security challenges. As regards the modernisation needs of the

COVER STORY

sectors. This has resulted in the enlargement of the available avenues for discharge of offsets together with amplification of the products and services and specifying other measures making them more users friendly.

Notably, the policy has graduated successively from only public enterprises to include both private and public enterprises as offset partners; specifying and enlarging the products and services qualifying as eligible; allowing banking of the offset credits and enhancing the period of utilisation; inclusion of civil aerospace and homeland security sectors; equity and non-equity investments; investment in kind in terms of transfer of technology/equipment to Indian enterprises, government institutions and establishment including DRDO; incentivising active envelopment of MSME, by inclusion of multipliers; enabling acquisition of state of art critical technologies by DRDO; allowing Tier-I sub-vendors to discharge the obligations; extension of the discharge timeframe; specifying the mandatory offsets; enhancing the reporting cycle to six months.

The Defence Ministry has set up the ‘Defence Offsets Management Wing’ (DOMW) under the Department of Defence Production in August 2012 and has entrusted it with the following responsibilities here: Formulation of Defence Offset Guidelines; Monitoring the discharge of offset obligations, including audit and review of progress reports received from vendor; Participation in Technical and Commercial evaluation of offset proposals as members of TOEC and CNC; Implementation of Offset banking guidelines; Administration of penalties under offset contracts

armed forces, the provision for capital expenditure remains unchanged at `94,588 crore. Whereas, the Air Force has been allocated `31,481 crore, the Navy’s share is `23,910 crore. The Army has the least allocation of `21,574 crore.

Considering inflation, the purchasing power has definitely declined compared to the current year.

Another point that deserves mention here is the fact that Annual Acquisition Plan (AAP) of each service is a two year roll-on plan for capital acquisitions and consists of the schemes included in five year plans called Services Capital Acquisition Plans. AAP consists of carry-

in consultation with Acquisition Wing; Assisting vendors in interacting with Indian Industry; and Other responsibilities assigned under offset guidelines or entrusted by the Government.

Post formation, the DOMW has been engaged in streamlining and strengthening the process of monitoring the discharge of obligations and has taken significant measures to achieve the same. A collegiate mechanism has been evolved comprising of senior officers from three Services, finance and legal department headed by JS/DOMW to oversee all matters pertaining to effective and efficient implementation of the offset policy.

The office of CGDA has been approved as the nominated audit agency to audit the offset discharge claims. A committee under the chairmanship of Additional Secretary Defence Production for examination of offset banking proposals has been constituted with the approval of the Defence Ministry.

The committee has formulated Standard Operating Procedures and checklists for the examination of the proposals received from the vendors. DOMW has also been constantly engaging with the vendors and other stake holders and responding to their queries in a regular manner through meetings and interactions. A facilitation mechanism has been evolved in the SCOPE complex to assist the vendors on various issues under the offset policy.

DOMW has been involved in the monitoring of the offset discharge claims from the vendors during the discharge of the contracted offset obligations. As on March 31, 2014, 24 offset contracts (16 from IAF, 5 from Navy and 3 from Army) have been signed. The total offset obligations work out to $4,876,260,438

over schemes from AAP of the previous year and new proposals. Requirement of funds for capital expenditure is accordingly worked out service-wise.

Normally, close to 90 per cent of the capital budget goes on committed liabilities of the carry over schemes, leaving around 10 per cent for fresh acquisitions. If that be so, Jaitley’s budget provides mere `3,148 crore to the new Air Force for fresh procurements. Similarly, the Navy and the Army get `2,391 crore and `2,157 crore respectively for new modernisation schemes. Needless to say, the funds are pathetically inadequate.

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March 2015

approximately (contracts with different denominations converted to USD) working out to `28,770 crore approximately ($4.5 billion) over a period from 2008-2022.

The obligations to be discharged till March 31, 2014 amounts to $1.37 billion approximately against which the vendors have reported discharge claims worth $708 million approximately through their quarterly reports. These discharge claims have been handled at DOMW and after prima facie examination, claims worth $370 million approximately have been sent to audit and interim penalty amounting to $34 million approximately has been processed against shortfalls reported.

In addition, the DOMW has been regularly participating in the different TOECs and the CNCs of on-going cases of procurement (44 in number) resulting in the conclusion of 18 out of 36 in all and signing of four offset contracts during last financial year.

While entering into an offset contract, the Original Equipment Manufacturers are granted full liberty in selecting their Indian Offset Partners. The Indian Offset Partners are chosen as per their core competencies, quality standards and cost effectiveness. The selected Indian Offset Partners by virtue of being integrated in the global supply chain of these large defence manufacturers have to necessarily become and remain internationally competitive.

The Defence Ministry is facing some problems in implementation of offset policy and it is in the process of revising it. However, he was in agreement with the members of the parliamentary committee about the delay in the process, as the policy has not been settled.

Take the case of the Army. It is implementing many ambitious projects like Future Infantry Soldier as a System; Network Centric Warfare; Tactical Communication System; Battlefield Management System; and enhanced night-fighting capability. These force multipliers are highly cost-intensive. In addition, the Army needs artillery guns, anti-aircraft weaponry and helicopters in huge numbers to bridge critical deficiencies.

An allotment of `2,157 crore appears to be a cruel joke.

Presently, the state of operational preparedness of the armed forces is alarming. Modernisation plans are lag-

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ALLOCATION FOR DEFENCE IN BUDGET 2015-16 Revenue Budget Capital Budget Total Defence Budget Percentage of Total Government Spending Percentage of GDP

2014-15 (BE) Crore 2014-15 (RE) Crore 134412 140405 94588 81965 229000 222370

2015-16 (BE) Crore 152139 94588 246727

12.75%

13.25%

13.85%

1.78

1.76

1.75

ging behind by more than ten years.

The current profile of equipment held is dismal. Instead of 30 per cent state of the art equipment, the holding is mere 15 per cent. More worrisomely, 50 per cent of the inventory needs emergent replacement. Therefore, funds allotted under the capital head will be the main concern of all those who are concerned with the current ‘hollow’ state of the armed forces. One dreads to wonder if India is gradually but surely slipping towards the pre-1962 state of defence preparedness.

The only comforting aspect of the budget is increased allocation of `144 crore for ‘Make’ category of projects under which the government supports indigenous development of defence systems by funding 80 per cent of the development costs.

Additionally, three policy announcements will prove beneficial to the defence industry as well. One, it is proposed to reduce the corporate tax from 30 to 25 per cent over a period of four years. Two, customs duty cuts have been announced on 22 items that will make it cheaper for Indian companies to

import parts to manufacture products.

Three, the rate of income tax on royalty and fees for technical services has been reduced from 25 to 10 per cent to facilitate cheaper technology transfer to small businesses.

Furthermore, regulations for foreign investors have been made simpler by doing away with the distinction between different types of foreign investments (especially between foreign portfolio investments and foreign direct investments) and replacing them with composite caps. Jaitley has also promised to take measures to improve ease-of-doing-business by replacing the system of multiple prior permissions required for setting up a business with a pre-existing regulatory mechanism.

In his Aero India address, Modi had accepted the need to develop a financing system suited to the special needs of the defence industry. “It is a market where buyers are mainly governments, the capital investments are large and the risks are high. We must ensure that our tax system does not discriminate against domestic manufacture in comparison to imports,” he had declared.

DEAL IN THE MAKING: A Royal Air Force (RAF) Chinook HC2 helicopter (foreground) and Merlin HC3 (background) fly in formation across the desert during pre-deployment training

Stressing the criticality of the defence industry, Modi had gone on to aver, “A nation with a strong defence industry will not only be more secure but will also reap rich economic benefits. It can boost investment, expand manufacturing, support enterprise, raise the technology level and increase economic growth in the country.”

Despite the above homilies, the budget contains no concessions for the manufacturing industry. One can only hope that the government announces some major initiatives for ‘Make in India’ mission outside the budget proposals. After all, budget presentation is just one of the acts of governance. New policies can always be introduced later.

Some observers feel that Jaitley may be depending excessively on the infusion of foreign funds to boost the defence manufacturing sector, expecting the recent increase in FDI cap to prove irresistible to foreign investors. His confidence may be misplaced as there is little excitement amongst the prospective investors. They find 49 per cent ceiling to be dissuasive as they do not gain control of the enterprise.

Two incongruities in Jaitley’s budget speech are striking. One, after giving a measly amount for the modernisation schemes, he asserted haughtily that he had provided adequately for the needs of the armed forces. Two, unlike his predecessor Finance Ministers, he did not make the customary declaration that additional resources would be made available to the defence forces if needed for the security of the country.

To sum up, it is a disappointing budget, totally bereft of any serious thought to the security needs of the country. For the strategic experts, previous regime’s indifference for the defence matters continues. They cannot be faulted if they feel that all the tall talk of self-reliance and ‘Make in India’ is mere sloganeering for public consumption and TV debates.

One gets reminded of the disappointment caused by the pointlessness of the infamous Simon Commission Report of May 1930. India’s disgust was well reflected through many derisive slogans; and one of them coined by the followers of Lala Lajpat Rai was – “Simon Commission has offered us a shirt that has no front or back; and we are expected to do without the sleeves as well”.

Jaitley’s defence budget is no better. It is a big letdown.

The author is a retired Major General

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March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

COVER STORY

DIGITAL MAKEOVER FOR CARL GUSTAV CHRISTER GORDON, Vice President, FFV Ordnance AB and MAJ. (RETD.) KUMAR VINEET MISHRA, Senior Manager – Training, FFV from SAAB talk to JUSTIN C MURIK about the Carl Gustav M4, the Swedish defence major’s new iteration of the iconic launcher On the differences between the old Carl Gustav and the new M4 version

The biggest difference is the weight of the weapon system. We have managed to reduce the weight by around 30 per cent – in terms of kilos, it is three kilos that we have managed to reduce. This is significant because the less you have to carry as a soldier the better it is. So, a loaded new weapon weighs the same as an unloaded old weapon. It also has the provision for the loading of new weapons types like programmable ammunition. So, instead of programming it on the round, this can be programmed inside the weapon. In addition to this, we are introducing a new sighting system to be able to aim and read the range to target. So, when you load the ammunition on the weapon, the computer on the launcher programmes the ammunition to go and burst exactly over that position. It also has an automatic counter for the number of rounds that have been fired from the system. In the old system you had a book where you write down the number of rounds that were fired.

The reason for the change in the weight of the system

The big change where the reduction in the weight comes from is the fact that the barrel is a bit shorter and the material used for the manufacture of the weapon has been changed for Steel to Titanium.

This is the biggest reason for the difference in the weight of the weapon. So, in spite of the fact that we have added features to it, it is still a lot lighter than the previous version. In fact, compared to the second version of the weapon, which used to weigh 16 kilos, the latest one weighs 7 kilos.

On the new ergonomics in the new weapon We have put the focus on the user in the system. We listened to what the end-users of the system from around the world had to say about – what’s good in the system, what’s not that good, and what can be changed. So, we put the feedback back to the design team as well.

In the old system everything was fixed like the handle and shoulder protection. In the new system everything can be moved, so if you have longer or shorter arms you can adjust for the desired length. So, each soldier has a customised weapon.

HEMANT RAWAT

On the ammunition used by the Carl Gustav

The new weapon can also fire all ammunition types that we are producing, including older versions of the ammunition that we had produced for the older weapon. We have tested it for the older ammunition also; to make sure it really works well. It was very important for the launcher to have the ability to fire older types of ammunition as well. We did not want the user to scrap his old ammunition after buying the new weapon.

Other capabilities that have been added to the launcher We listened to the user who talked about the open sight on the M3 version of the weapon and now we have added a red dot sight on the launcher now. If the user wants an open sight he can switch to that as well. The cabling on the launcher is for

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March 2015

the onboard computer. This makes the launcher more accurate.

About the integration of the new features of the launcher to older systems

There will be an upgrade kit that can be used to provide certain features of this weapon to older launchers, like introducing the computer systems, which will increase the capability of older launcher also.

On transfer of technology to India

There is a technology transfer with the Ordnance Factory for the manufacture of previous types of the Carl Gustav M3 and its ammunition. In fact the ordnance factory manufactures three different types ammunition for the Carl Gustav M3. The new ammunition has also been offered with the transfer of technology.

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COVER STORY

INDIAN ARMOUR FOR THE WORLD MKU is an Indian company that can be considered one of the pioneers of armouring solutions in the world. The company has been supplying battle-tested products globally and in the process, has built a formidable reputation for itself. RAJESH GUPTA, Senior Sales Manager spoke to JUSTIN C MURIK about the helicopter armouring solutions that MKU provides

HEMANT RAWAT

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March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

About the helicopter armouring solutions

We have been working with helicopter armouring for quite some time now, and we came across certain things. Like the same platform is used for multiple operations. In rotary wing aircraft, the weight was a limiting factor–the whole performance of the aircraft is dependent on the weight other things of course remaining constant. There are other things such as the aerodynamics or the density etc. which you cannot have control on. But what you do have control on the weight, payload and the performance of the aircraft. So, we decided that we should probably have something, which will be able to make the end user use the same platform for multiple uses. We noticed that there are a number of un-armoured platforms around the world, but depending on the threat perceptions, depending upon the theatre of operation, depending on the change that is happening globally, the increase in the asymmetric warfare, more and more end users required their platforms to be armoured, especially when they are operating in these vulnerable situations. Since these systems do not come with pre-fit armour, it has to be add-on armour. This set us thinking and our team of engineers came up with this modular technique which enables the deployment of an armour kit on board a platform very easily. Using this technique, two people, working on a platform, would probably be able to deploy the kit in about two hours depending on the size of the helicopter. The removal of the armour would also be done quickly without the deployment of any special tools. There is no structural change that is made on the platform while doing this and thereby no further certification is required. In India off course if you make any changes on a military helicopter you need certification.

All the attachment systems have been designed made and patented by us. They have been tested for airworthiness and tested to withstand the shock of impact when a bullet hits the panels. So, they are all airworthy. Combined with this, we also have a Gen-6 technology. The evolution of this Gen-6 technology helped us to reduce the weight of this armour kit very substantially. If you compare this with steel, the reduction is almost 70 to 80 per cent. Compared to other standard composite armour protections systems the savings were 40 per cent. Combined with the modular techniques and the armour panels and ballistic kits made using this Gen-6 technology, we came up with a solution that made it possible to have small light rotary wing aircraft to be armoured.

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On the operational performance of MKU armour

End users have told us that they have some platforms that had come prefitted with armour but that armour was done install and that armour kit was so heavy that it affected the performance of the helicopter. So, they removed the armour and were flying the helicopter without the armour.

We have already got these panels tested. Many of the helicopters that have been armoured by us have seen active field duty, they have come under fire and they have performed really well.

During the operation in Afghanistan there were many platforms used by the NATO forces, which had armouring done by us. And those platforms have done very successfully there. Even in the Latin American countries we have supplied armour solutions for the Mi-17 helicopters and platforms such as the Blackhawk etc. where they have been used in operations against the drug lords and they have come under fire and performed very successfully. So, it is a tried and tested technology that has been used very successfully worldwide.

On the approximate weight of the armour

dressed is that we do not drill a single hole in the platform. So, we are not making any structural changes as the kit is designed to take into consideration whatever exists in the platform. Say for example any holes and bolts that are already there, which is why every kit is customised. When we have to armour a platform we would be doing a prototype on that. If it is across multiple platforms, we would do a prototype which would conform to all those multiple prototypes and then would build the actual kit. When installing, we take care to use the existing options that are there. Whatever attachments need to be developed for those are developed.

The additional weight depends on the area that is protected. We can give you protection that is as light as 14-15 kgs per Metre Square. A normal small platform would require four square metres of protection. So, the total protections solution would be less than 60 kgs. On a Mi-17 the protection that we give could be as less as 250 kilos and extend upto 450 kilos depending on the area that is covered. The existing solutions would be three to four times as heavy. In rotary wing platforms, the payload makes a lot of difference. The thumb rule says that a 10-kilo savings on the ground results in probably a 60-kilo savings in the air. That same 10-kilo saving has a 20 multiplier when operating at high altitudes over 5 km over a glacier, which means that if you are saving 10 kilos on the ground it means that you are saving upto 200 kilos when you are flying around the glaciers. The performance of the air platform gets very adversely affected with weight. More power is required for lift, the hovering ceiling is reduced which increases the vulnerability of the platform, as the threat is from the ground.

On the timeframe for customisation

On the methods of deployment of the armour on platforms

These armouring solutions are totally an internal R&D and these products have been designed by out team of engineers in India and Germany. In 2007-08 we acquired a company in Germany which

We have some attachment systems that we have developed for deployments and one of the major concerns that is ad-

Once we get an enquiry, our team goes to build the prototype, take it up for serial production and then the post-production case will come in, which means the installation of the kit. The prototyping and the actual development of the kit may take two to four weeks and the deployment may be two to three days. So, the whole process can be completed in less than 5-6 weeks.

On the number of countries and platforms using the MKU armouring solutions

We have worked on more than 20 platforms and more than 200 aircraft globally mostly for choppers. We have done some work on fixed wing aircraft like the Pilatus and the C-130, but mostly for rotary wing aircraft. The reason is that the helicopters are more vulnerable to the small arms fire because they fly closer to the ground and the threat to these aircraft is from the ground while taking off and landing. For fixed wing aircraft the threat is from a distance.

On MKU’s R&D efforts

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March 2015

dealt with platform armouring and thereafter we have encouraged internal R&D and we have come up with newer solution not only in terms of saving weight but also in terms of deployment. We spend 6-8 per cent of our turnover on R&D. We are ahead of the technology curve because we pay a lot if importance to R&D.

On the incentives the Government can give to Indian companies

We are not looking for incentives but we are looking for policy statements which are less obstructive. For example there are many companies working on R&D in India but we have no facilities to test what they have made as they do not have access to the ballistic labs which are owned by the government. When you want to set up our own labs in India, you are not given a license. This is the reason we have a ballistic lab in Germany. Whenever we want to test a sample, we export it to our lab in Germany. We would like the government to change this and ensure that the R&D work being done by the companies here, they are able to have access to these test facilities. We want recognition, if a defence company is spending on infrastructure that should be treated as a national asset and the government should recognise it accordingly and support it.

The other policy change that we would look at is that if the capability exists within the country, to manufacture a product, the government should mandatorily use that capacity, instead of going global and accessing companies outside. There is a lot of capability, which has been introduced in the country in the last five years not only by us but other companies also.

Their capacities are underutilised because despite building and the infrastructure and having the capability, orders are going to Government PSUs and DPSUs on nomination basis. If the Government really believes in ‘Make in India’ they must make these changes to the policies so that the local industry is encouraged to work and invest in defence technologies.

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From Alpha to Omega, Making India

hemant rawat

cover story

Col. (Retd.) HS Shankar, VSM, CMD, Alpha Design, spoke to Justin C Murik about his company’s success story which has not only been making in India but has also developed a formidable export portfolio On the genesis of the company and its work culture

We started with just three people and now we have grown to about 850 people. Out of these 500 people working in our indigenous research and development (R&D), 90 per cent are in the age group of 20 to 29 years. They are engineers and very highly skilled technologists. Out of the rest of the 350 people, 50 per cent are women. We had already made an initial assessment that we would prioritise taking peoplefrom the lower income groups and the lower middle-income groups in our engineering cadre. The majority of our engineers are from these groups, and we did this for two purposes: we wanted to have a social purpose for our organisation, mak-

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ing money was not the only purpose and the second, we also felt that when people from the lower strata are given an opportunity, they perform equal if not better than anybody else. We felt that since they have a hunger in their stomach and they would produce more and they would also get on well with each other. This is exactly what has happened and their own financial position has improved, they are not the kind of people who will leave our company for other high-end companies who would give them double or triple the salaries. They are proud of working here,proud of working on high technology Products & Projects. By this, we are proud that about four or five thousand people are dependent on the earning of

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

these 850 people.

On the phases of technological development in the company

Technology development is being done in two phases: one is internal technology development by our own Research and Development group and the second is where there are critical technologies that has to be matched with Indian requirements. For this, our strategy was , acquiring that technology from abroad and then interfacing with whatever would be needed in our country. These are the two major aspects of any technology development process. Our company worked out a two-pronged strategy for this: one is to have a very strong R&D base. We realized

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that we don’t need to give as much prioritization to absorption of technology from a foreign partner compared to our own indigenous R&D. So, out of the total work force of 850 people, more than 500 people are working our own R&D. Since our technicians were already dealing with projects dealing with R&D, we could adapt foreign technology more easily to Indian conditions. This merging is more essential thanmerely getting foreign technology.

On the specific focus areas of Alpha’s R&D

The senior management of the company had dealt with premiere organisations of India like the Defence Research & DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the Indian industry and we looked for technologicalgaps that we could plug by working with them.

We focused on the requirements of the Army, Air Force and the Border Security Force (BSF) and we looked at products that were required in large quantities. So, we took these as our focus areas and from these we began. The Navy is a very goodcustomer but the quantities required are not very large and hence we gave priority to Army & IAF. We developed large number of subsystems with DRDO. In these projects we had to put in our own money, much more than the seed money that was given to us

by DRDO. We did this as it gave our engineers an opportunity to learn and then integrate these with bigger systems and also gave a ready access to Army and Air Force platforms. We got through DRDO a pathway for the Indian Electronic Warfare (EW) programme. In this project, which required 45 different types of RF modules, we developed 33 ourselves.

These are all part of projects, which will be fructifying next year, two years or five years later.

In the bigger systems, developedTactical Access Switch called the ULSB, which we created through our own R&D efforts. We got order for around2000 numbers. Then we developed passive nightvision binoculars, which was entirely our own design and for which we got an orderof 4600 units. We also made a hand-held thermal imager for the BSF, for which we got an order of 341 units.

We are concentrating primarily on some major areas of focus for our indigenous R&D, one is cooled and uncooled thermal sights, secondly we are concentratingon an RF Seeker for the missile system. This is a huge project for which we have put more than 120 engineers. We have funded this project by ourselves without any

help from anyone. We also have a software defined radio programme, which is also going to earn a lot of money, and it is also needed for the defence forces in large numbers. This is also an indigenous development programme. Then we have got what is called an Interrogator Friend or Foe, which is run in collaboration with the DRDO and this is again a huge programme.

We are also good in satellite communications, for which we have made quite a few projects.

In WCDMA, our own systems have gone to the Air Force through HCL. We have also done very good work in simulators, test setups and test stations.

R&D for the Mark II, Mark III versions of the product. Initially it was a new thing for some of the companies abroad, but when they found that this is the only way, they were convinced about working with us. So, if you look at all the products we have, it has always been onfifty-fifty basis. We meet all the quality and ESS requirements and ultimate qualification requirements. We are always Main Contractors.

d We focuse uirements on the req e y, Air Forc of the Arm F and and the BS at we looked at products th ired in were requ tities large quan

On the criteria for tie-ups with foreign companies

I used to be the Director, R&D of Bharat Electronics where, if I may say so, the Transfer of Technology (ToT) is a fad. They do these in some numbers of fully finished, then they go for semiknocked down, completely knocked down, and then, indigenous manufacture. Quite a few of those products may not go to the indigenous manufacturing phase at all. The Government of India pays hefty ToT fees. At Alpha, we worked out a model that anybody who would like to work with us would do so in ‘Buy and Make India’ process. We defined that we would give them only 50 per cent of the total package value and we would choose what was to be bought from them. The other 50 per cent would have to be done in India. From Day One, we did this. Wenever paid any ToT fees, as it is a work share. We gave work share to the OEM as we realized that partnerships from abroad have to be on a permanent basis. The foreign company has developed and come over here and they would not give away all their products or projects just like that. They would not give us the drawings and documents and run away because the foreign company also wants to have continuous presence, product wise and also financially. So, we worked out a fifty-fifty value. So, the 50 per cent value of the items that they have promised will continue to be there till a newer version is done. In the newer version, we will always have a co-developmental model together with our

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March 2015

On subcontracting for foreign players

Most of our tie-ups started with us making something for them and exporting. With Airbus Defence, we are currently making the missilelaunch detection system. When the relationship with Airbus started, their team came over to qualify our base. After seeing all of our manufacturing facilities, they only asked us to make a rubber cover. Our team was dejected on hearing that this was all they wanted but we persevered and after they were happy about what we made they asked us to make a mechanical casing. They were happy with the quality of the products and the timely deliveries that we made. So, before the Indian programme started, we had already been exporting to them almost 30 per cent of what they required from their other subcontractors. We now supply for them the items that they supply to other countries well. For the tank fire control systems we started as offset partners toElop /Elbit.

They were happy with our manufacturing facilities,assembly methodology, test methodology and our engineers and their skill levels. When Elbit got other exports also they took our help with the sub units.

This is the main reason why they signed an order worth $80 million of equipment with us during Aero India infront of Hon’ble RakshaMantri.

On the reasons for the company’s success

I would attribute our success to a combination of will, thrust, strategy, vision and a wonderful workforce with a hunger in the stomach and quick decision-making.

We cannot just keep blaming the government and asking them favours always. We have enough facilities and we can make the best of products.

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COVER STORY

AN EYE

FOR DETAIL

Controp is a premiere Israeli Electro-Optical systems manufacturer. JOHNNY CARNI, VP Marketing and Sales spoke to JUSTIN C MURIK about the innovative products this company is looking to introduce to the Indian security forces.

About Controp

We were the first ones in the world market to provide a continuous zoom lens to thermal imagers. Today, we have a range of Infra Red (IR) cameras right from short-range cameras from 120 mm focal length, all the way to 1400 mm, which is good for 20-30 km observation.

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On the requirements for the Indian market

We are offering the 350 mm and the 720 mm cameras to the Indian market. We have not yet given them the very large ones or the very small ones. We anticipate in the future, the Indian Army and BSF will need very long-range system, which is when we intend to offer them

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

the 1200 mm to 1400 mm range.

On the importance of Image Stabilisation in Controp cameras When we look for very long ranges on the ground, we need stabilisation. One of our strengths at Controp is to have a very highly stabilised system. When

COVER STORY

We are offering the 350 mm and the 720 mm cameras to the Indian market. We anticipate in the future, the Indian Army and BSF will need very long-range system, which is when we intend to offer them the 1200 mm to 1400 mm range

HEMANT RAWAT

install mechanical gyros on the cameras. The gyros and the accelerometers measure the movement and give the feedback to the imaging engine to capture a steady image. We can provide this for payloads of 300 grams and small UAVs like the hand-launched ones, or the larger ones also that are up to three kilos. The small 300 gram cameras use uncooled IR technology, which is lower in performance but its very small. The three kilo ones use a cooled IR camera which is an extremely high performance camera. No competitor in the world has managed to put cooled IR camera into such a small gimbal. The threekilogram system is important when you have small UAVs. For the big UAVs it does not matter if its three or six or ten kilos.

In Israel, the military uses small UAVs with these payloads. We were chosen to be the supplier to the Israeli military

these systems are installed on towers and when there are heavy winds that cause vibrations, the image will not get blurry and will still be stabilised even at very long ranges.

Our expertise is stabilising the system. The smaller the system is, the more difficult it gets to stabilise it. A large system is easier to stabilise because of its weight. A light system is more prone to vibrations. We have developed systems that are highly stabilised and they use three gimbals. All our competitors worldwide use just two gimbals. Three gimbals enable us to get higher performance and get a very clear image. We

because of the quality of the images that our systems were capable of getting on the small UAV.

On the Speed LR system

The Speed LR is a very long-range system that is capable of monitoring 20-30 km and it is also stabilised to give precise images. This system covers a large area so that the operator can save on infrastructure, communications and guards, as fewer monitoring stations will observe and assess a larger area.

These systems also have the scanning capability with automatic detection. With the help of the IR camera, the system scans the whole panoramic view and automatically detects any moving target. So, these systems can detect intruders up to 10 km away. If an intruder comes in through the sea, the system can also detect him as well. It is very easy for human to miss these intruders, but the automatic detection capability of our systems helps alert operators to these intrusions. We expect the Indian security forces to have the requirements for these automatic systems very soon.

On products for UAVs

We also have products with very small payloads, which were developed for small UAVs. These systems range from 300 grams all the way up to three kilograms. The unique thing about these small systems is not just their small size but also the fact that they have phenomenal image quality. Image quality is usually dependent on two factors. We use an HD camera and an IR camera with a zoom lens. The operator can detect the target in a wide field of view and then zoom in to try and identify the target.

The Israeli military chose our payload after chosing their UAVs. And all the manufacturers of the UAVs came to us for the payload. Even IAI or Elbit, which have their own Electro-Optical (EO) systems came to us and used our payload. If the customer has a defined idea about the quality, we can provide the best along with any UAV manufacturer.

On JVs with Indian partners

Here in India, UAV manufacturers like the TATAs and Alpha can use our systems on their products. We can provide products here to local partners so that we have Indian-made systems. We are scouting for local manufacturers so we can be ‘Make in India’. We are in talks with a company called Defsys, to be our local manufacturer for these products.

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COVER STORY

On Rockwell Collins presence in India

We have had a longstanding partnership with India even before PM Modi coined the term ‘Make in India’. We have a large presence in India with 650 people at our design center in Hyderabad, which enhances the company’s existing engineering capabilities. A lot of people do not view software as a product because it is hard but we produce a lot of products of software at the India Design Centre (IDC) since 2008. This India Design Center was created to help expand the global footprint, meet the needs of clients in this area, and increase access to high-quality engineering and design capability.

On collaboration with Indian companies

We have a longstanding partnership with Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) with an integral piece of their radio although that has not been marketed as a Rockwell Collins product. It allows the Indian industry to deliver a very high technology product for use in India.

We have been collaborating with the Tata Power SED where we have been making software-defined radio. We knew when we chased the order for softwaredefined radios in India, it had to be with an Indian OEM. We have had this partnership in place for years. These partnerships have in existence much before the ‘Make in India’ initiative was announced and we have been doing this all along with our strategy in India.

On the Patrol Persistent Surveillance System

If we want to talk about the Patrol Persistent Surveillance System (PPSS), this fits into the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Rockwell Collins integrates a lot of different systems. It can be viewed as an electronic fence where you can put sensors outinstead of putting humans to monitor a large area. This way you can have one human instead of ten human monitoring the system. The sensors that we use are based on an open systems architecture, so it would fit very nicely if there was a company in India that produces similar sensors or a technology that can be developed in India that can interact with our open system and Rockwell has developed the software that glues those systems together to make a clearer operational picture for the operator.

If the sensor detects a person walking by or a vehicle going on a road then it relays that information and a camera mounted close by can remotely point where that sensor was tripped, so that the operator can tell if that was their

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own patrol coming in or if their was an intrusion. These sensors are smart enough to tell an animal from humans.

These ‘Made in India’ sensors can then integrate with Rockwell Collins software and then there’s no reason a company in India cannot do that integration or installation or putting the kits together.

These sensors can be put on fixed sites along the border but if there is a particular area on the border where the BSF notices that people are repeatedly crossing over, instead of sending people there all the time, one could remotely monitor the area with these sensors. If the intruders then change their behavior, the sys-

tem of sensors can be taken out of the area because it is portable and installed at another spot, rather than investing in more long-term infrastructure with cameras and towers. This system has been deployed in the harsh terrain of Afghanistan and has performed well there. So it’s a close match to the terrain in India from the mountainous to the cold to the harsh desert. The systems can stay in place for a long time depending on how many times its triggered. Some of them can be used unattended for up to six months with an auxiliary battery pack.

This product can be integrated with various different kinds of sensors to

THE AVIONICS EXPERTS DOUGLAS P. SCHOEN, Director, Sales and Marketing, Rockwell Collins talks to JUSTIN C MURIK about the Patrol Persistent Surveillance System and the Helisure line of products on offer and the long-term presence of his company in India

HEMANT RAWAT

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

COVER STORY

have utility on the coastline as well. Our maritime surveillance radar can monitor large swathes of the coastline. The radar can then direct the camera to confirm if it’s a fishing boat or smugglers, so it’s completely scalable and it is open system architecture. We have seen a lot of interest in these monitoring systems and we have had initial discussions with operators.

On the Helisure avionics package

The Helisure product line is involved around safety to help the pilots make better decision and to keep them away from hazards. There are a few different elements to the system; one is an active sensor around the aircraft that can detect hazards when the aircraft is hovering. The Synthetic Vision gives the pilot a real awareness of what the terrain is like around him. We have had Synthetic Vision on our commercial flight decks for a long time. As we started to see market interest in this product, we realised that it was a great tool and we could modify it to work in the rotary wing environment.

So, we spent a lot of Rockwell Collins’ internal investment to take that database that is useful for an airline pilot flying at 25,000 feet and migrated it to an environment when your helicopter is flying at hundred feet so one can have more reliability and fidelity. We have seen a lot of interest in this as well.The Helicopter Terrain Awareness System allows the pilot to see instantaneously based on a colour code. This technology has been essential in reducing aircraft mishaps.

On retrofitting aircraft with the latest avionics

There has been interest from the civilian parties as well. When we design products for new aircraft we always keep in mind that there is a large retrofit market and we have been very successful in retrofitting aircraft. The Proline Fusion line product was developed with forward fit in mind like business jets and the global market there. We have just announced a retrofit opportunity for King Air aircraft.

So, existing customers who have old Rockwell Collins avionics can upgrade to the latest version. There is no reason why the Helisure can’t be retrofitted on rotary wing. The operator has to decide if it is worth it to retrofit their aircraft.

They have to look at how long they want to maintain the aircraft, what’s the value that they can get out of it. The real value for the operator is safety.

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On the the development and features of the MiG-35 aircraft

MiG-35 is the future of my company. It is largely based on the naval version of the MiG-29, but it is an entirely new aircraft. Russian aircraft have been famous for excellent aerodynamic performance and even aerodynamically, this aircraft is different form the MiG-29. It is an entirely new aircraft in terms of onboard equipment and its special capabilities.

The Russian Air force will also be buying this aircraft in big quantities. It is mainly based on Russian onboard equipment, including electronics, avionics and radar. It also has stealth capabilities. It has an open architecture, which is very good for export. We have vast experience in installing Indian equipment and we will be most happy to install Indian equipment for the aircraft. If India so desires, we will

“FOR US, INDIA IS FOREIGN CUSTOMER NO. 1” MIKHAIL T GLOBENKO, Deputy Director General, Marketing & Sales, MiG Russian Aircraft Corporation, spoke to JUSTIN C MURIK about his company’s prospects in India

We would e like to hav ct with big contra e have India so w ole here a bigger r rough in India th investing in defence technology

HEMANT RAWAT

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March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

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be happy to install something of Western origin and we will be prepared for that also because it has open architecture.

And as Russia has always been doing, we are ready for full Transfer of Technology (ToT). If India wants the Russian version, we are ready to supply it to India. If you want the version with Indian or Western equipment, we are ready to supply that also. Several foreign customers are also interested in the MiG-35.

On the engine to be used in the MiG-35

The current engine is the RD MK. It is largely the same as the one in the MiG29K, which is good for commonality (of logistics). It is a smokeless engine with a much longer lifecycle, several times longer, than with ordinary MiG-29. When the tender was on for the MMRCA, we had set a record for replacing the engine of

the MiG-35 in 59 minutes between taking out an engine and installing a new one.

It is a record. Your officers were there to verify this. So, in real combat conditions if something goes wrong with the aircraft, you can replace the engine and within one hour it is ready to take off again.

On the upgrade programme of Indian Air Force’s MiG-29 fleet

There were some delays in the upgrade of the MiG-29 fleet of the Indian Air Force as India wanted more than just an ordinary upgrade of the aircraft. You Indians are perfectionists. For India, we have done the deepest upgrade of the MiG-29 we have ever done, it is deeper than the one that was done for the Russian Air Force.

We have converted the ordinary MiG-29, which was an interceptor, into a full and complete multi-role version, taking both air-to-air and guided weapons for air-toground. The first six lead aircraft that we modernised in Russia, are already in India finalising their flight tests. Serial upgrades of the aircraft have already started in Nashik in India. Several aircraft are being upgraded by Indian personnel, who have undergone training. Several Russian specialists are in Nashik now because they have to supervise the upgrades. As time goes, the number of Russian specialists will decrease. Under the ToT, we have completely transferred all the technology for the MiG-29 upgrade. This has benefited India and you will also be using this technology for your future projects.

On the progress of the delivery of MiG-29K aircraft for INS Vikramaditya and any additional aircraft

We will complete the deliveries of the MiG-29K in this year and 2016. If you have one aircraft carrier then forty-five is enough, but if you are building two more carriers, you will need more aircraft. The Air Force is a large force, but if you diversify the type of aircraft in a smaller arm like the Navy, then it becomes uneconomical.

In a small arm you should have one or two types of aircraft, not more. Once we have established the servicing centre and the process will finish in one and a half year. We will be more than happy to supply additional aircraft for the additional carriers. The Russian Ministry of Defence has also bought MiG-29K, although the Russian version is different. Since the Russian Navy also has the same type of aircraft, it gives confidence to the Indian Navy that this aircraft, which will be used for 40 more years, will never be abandoned. Sales support will also continue as the Russian Navy also has these aircraft.

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March 2015

On the changes in MiG after becoming part of United Aircraft Corporation(UAC) Some internal competition has become less. We can sit together and discuss that in some areas of the globe, lighter fighters will be better and sold more easily. I think in India it is time to think about more light aircraft. Compared to the Sukhoi-30 we have three less hard points. The MiG-35 can use all the weapons that the Sukhoi can, except the BrahMos.

On the IAF’s MMRCA tender

We believe we still have chance if you redecide. For us after the Russian Air Force, India will come second, before everybody else. We will be only happy to continue the MiG story here.

On the Indian government’s decisions for 49 per cent FDI

We would like to have big contract with India so we have a bigger role here in India through investing in defence technology. We would be ready to invest in HAL, which has been our partner in all our projects in India. We are also ready to invest in India with the private companies.

Even if it is increased to 50 per cent we will be ready to cooperate with the Indian companies an there will be ways to make this cooperation profitable for India as well. We will sit together with Indian enterprises like BEL and DRDO and even private companies to sit together to see how it can be done. These private companies need to be approved by the Ministry of Defence.

On the offset programme for the MiG29UBG

Under the MiG-29UBG contract, there is a big offset programme. The requirement was 30 per cent and we invested more thinking that it would help us in the MMRCA. But still, these offset programmes are developing successfully. Our offset programme for the MiG-29UBG is a very good example of two things: ToT and creating jobs. These are two crucial points. Under this offset programme, the entire technology for upgrade has been given to India, free of charge. The training of Indian personnel has been conducted.

We have created service centres for future repairs and have been done by us. We have also created simulation centers for Indian pilots. We have also translated all the documents into English by Indian translators.

All this adds to jobs in India also. Even for the servicing centres, we take the view that these be run by IAF people with good experience who retire at an early age. For us India is foreign customer No. 1.

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THE AVIONICS EXPERTS COLIN R MAHONEY, Senior Vice President, International and Service Solutions Rockwell Collins and HJ KAMATH, Senior Vice President – Aviation, Zen Technologies talked to JUSTIN C MURIK about the unique features of this alliance which jointly developed the simulator in a record time of four months On Rockwell’s India strategy

Colin R Mahoney: We have a broader Indian strategy, but we have found the right partner for simulators in India in Zen Technologies. We have an established location in Hyderabad with 630 employees there now. While embracing ‘Make in India’, our approach to market is to seek the best of the best in the country to collaborate. It’s a question of expertise, we can do visuals and databases, but in this relationship we got a better option.

On the Zen-Rockwell Collins alliance

Colin R Mahoney: We see this as a strategic alliance with Zen Technologies, where we bring our expertise and Zen bring their expertise and we marry those things together and we get this one plus one equals three. Some collaborations

COLIN R MAHONEY HEMANT RAWAT

ZEN-ROCKWELL COLLINS TIE UP FOR SIMULATOR

Z

en Technologies and Rockwell Collins unveiled a next generation rotary wing simulator at Aero India 2015. This came just four months after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two companies to combine their strengths in simulation and training to offer advanced and high fidelity aviation solutions. The partners claim a cost reduction of 20 to 30 per cent as a result of their collaboration, making them more competitive in the Indian market. The collaboration will also result in them offering crucial in-country maintenance and support to the product.

As part of the alliance Zen will be face to the market and will be the prime for the flight simulation market. Rockwell

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will be the technical partners at the backend and will not be bidding directly for any programmes. Zen has a very strong ground portfolio and Rockwell Collins plans to take some of this and enhance its own ground portfolio as well. As part of objectives of this alliance, Rockwell Collins is looking at shifting some of its product manufacturing globally to Zen. The companies aim to produce top shelf solutions while ensuring cost benefits for customers across the region since the alliance’s capabilities are indigenised, including in software, electronics and visuals.

With the rotary wing platform launch, both companies aim to emerge, in the near future, as key partners to the Indian armed forces.

(From left) A Kishore Dutt, President of Zen Technologies; Ashok Atluri, Managing Director and CEO of Zen; Bob Wuestner, Senior Director of Simulation and Training Solutions (STS) Air Combat and Surface at Rockwell Collins; JP Kamath, Vice President of Flight Simulation at Zen; Colin Mahoney, senior Vice President of International and Service Solutions (I&SS) at Rockwell Collins; Jim Walker, Vice President and Managing Director of I&SS in the AsiaPacific region at Rockwell Collins; Ram Prasad, Managing Director, India at Rockwell Collins; and Nick Gibbs, Senior Director of STS Products for Rockwell Collins

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

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On the success of the Alliance

HJ KAMATH don’t really go anywhere, but we have developed a product in four months, which speaks to the commitment of both companies. Rockwell Collins has significant commitment to this collaboration with Zen. We are bringing in our projector capabilities and image generators and we are co-developing the software side of it and the databases and we are producing something here, which is going to be cost effective and also differentiated in the market in terms of the quality of the visual experience. A simulator is all about reality, if you don’t get it so seem like the real world, in all kinds of conditions using all kinds of sensors, then you are going to be sub-optimised.

Next Generation Rotary Wing Simulator: The next generation Rotary Wing Simulator housed in an ergonomically designed cockpit is configurable and fully addresses both the flight and mission aspects of rotary wing aircraft. The simulator supports anytime, anywhere training and is a costeffective, efficient alternative for pilot training in handling routine flights, emergencies and practice missions.

Unparalleled realism in training is provided using geo-specific cultured terrains, operations flight profiles, and avionics that can be used to train both new and experienced pilots before any mission.

The chopper simulator is capable of reproducing different kinds of scenarios. The display system of the helicopter projector is 180 degrees by 65 degrees. It is a very large vertical because the helicopter pilots need the height and the speed cues when they are flying. So, when they come in to land they are able to see down below.

The graphics system is the EP

Colin R Mahoney: I think we are going to be very successful and there has been a lot of interest in the product. We want to make this a very successful product line in India. Its not just an India-thing, how can we take this to other parts of the world where they have the same dynamics as India so we can go make this a global approach. If conditions are applicable in another emerging market we might export the fruits of this venture there as well.

Kamath: There are several reasons why Rockwell and Zen teamed up. One is to exploit the huge potential of the Indian market. We feel with the Governments ‘Make in India’ initiative, the potentials can be converted to opportunities quickly. In order to capture these opportunities, you need to be very cost competitive also. What’s happened is that all across the world, simulation technology, new and innovative ways of using technology to bring down the costs are coming in as budgets are also shrinking across the board. This is not just true for the US but across the world. They want more ‘bang for the buck’. The only way to do this is to find an opportunity to make something which is more cost competitive. With Zen’s experience of over 20 years supporting the Indian market. We are very hopeful of things happening in the Indian

8000, which has 4 gigabytes of texture memory so it has large very high-resolution databases. The simulator also has very good environmental effects like storms, different kinds of weather and atmospherics. The FAA can assign a Level D certification to the EP 8000 based simulator so that pilots can then go on to fly the real aircraft.

The core software along with the structure station and the aero model has been designed so that the pilots use lessons to mimic all kinds of malfunctions like blowing engines out with the instructor station. Rockwell Collins has provided Zen with tools that can be tailored to individual programmes and there are a lot of common open reusable elements. The EP 8000 has a whole earth model so different cities and their terrain can be accurately reproduced for pilots to train. The simulator will enhance combat readiness for crew members through a comprehensive training continuum that is customisable for all types of military platforms.

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March 2015

market. We are also trying to help Rockwell recapture some of the market share where they are currently out-priced with Zen’s manufacturing and development capability. Rockwell will be the backend technology provider for the simulator and the alliance with Zen is going to make a competitive bid with a significant difference in cost. This alliance is helping us in the context of ‘Make in India’ in order to maximize the content from India in order to help them in India in addition to the global scenario. So, this is a two way street.

On short span of time taken to develop new simulator

Collin Mahoney: Usually these alliances are hard to get traction. From the start we felt that this was a win-win for both the parties involved. So, what was remarkable about the partnership was that we tied up and made something quickly. There are many other examples of partnership where they are two years into it and they have nothing to show for it. So, this is great example of working well.

Kamath: We took just four months to develop the product because of the maturity of the processes Zen has developed over the past 20 years and off course because of the leadership stature of Rockwell’s processes. We made sure that people in both companies at each level worked well together on the joint project to ensure a successful partnership.

On the RFIs the alliance has been eyeing

Kamath: There have been a number of RFIs by the Air Force and the Navy, the Army has not yet released an RFI for simulators. Maybe, if the Air Force agrees to the pitch we have jointly responded in the past four months, it’s a large RFI. There are a number of RFIs out and we are developing products with a vision in mind.

On the‘Make in India’ initiative

Kamath: If the government gives the right incentives, and the manufacturing ecosystems are developed, we cannot get very far. Take for instance, the simulator projector, it is just a combination of cards.

If I don’t make any PCBs in the country, I would still be importing it and it would not make sense. It makes sense to have something in the country and then to augment the technology. A simulator company basically integrates components that are needed for the best training by getting the best in class constituents and incorporates them. This ensures that it has the best product for the customer at a competitive price.

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GETTING OFF TO A FLYING START UTC Aerospace designs and creates aerospace systems for commercial, regional, corporate and military aircraft. JOHN SHAW, Business Development Manager, and YUGANDHAR METTA, Programme Manager talk to JUSTIN C MURIK about UTC’s presence in India and their company’s innovative products might not be aware of where he is with respect to the terrain below him. TERPROM has been shown to be really effective in preventing this. The Indian Air Force is a very large air force like the USAF and the Royal Air Force. All these air forces have issue with controlled flight into terrain.

We are keen to showcase TERPROM to the IAF to use the product to save pilots and aircraft. Operators in air forces that use our product will be able to give an independent judgment on the merits of our product and that it actually works very well. In the UK, the RAF flight safety team was very keen to have this type of flight safety equipment installed. We were lucky enough to be selected out of the competition by them.

On the ability to install TERPROM on the IAF’s legacy aircraft HEMANT RAWAT

On the TERPROM Digital Terrain System

John Shaw: TERPROM Digital Terrain System, our ground proximity-warning sensor, is a very proven safety product. It has saved the lives of pilots throughout the world. In the UK, it is installed on the entire fast jet fleet including, Hawk AJT, it was on the Jaguar as well and it is now on the Typhoon. One of the other aircraft that it is installed on is the C-17 and the Indian Air Force has just bought C-17s.

We are keen to explore the other aircraft in the Indian inventory. The primary function of the TERPROM is to assist in the prevention of controlled flight into terrain, this is when the pilot controls the aircraft and crashes it into the ground by mistake. This could be because he has so many other things to do in his mission he

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TERPROM Digital Terrain System, our ground proximitywarning sensor, is a very proven safety product. In the UK, it is installed on the entire fast jet fleet including, Hawk AJT, it was on the Jaguar as well JOHN SHAW March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

John Shaw: We do install this on legacy aircraft in addition to new build aircraft. TERPROM is a piece of software we would be keen to engage with Indian industry to make that happen. We are keen to find Indian companies that make hardware Line Replaceable Units (LRUSs) that are on the aircraft so we can put the software into them. We have already shown that the system already operates on a lot of the aircraft that the Indian Air Force already has, so we think its very feasible for both legacy and new build aircraft.

On Partnerships in the country

John Shaw: From the hardware point of view we are trying to understand the potential partners in the Indian industry. We are at the early stages of trying to figure out how to go about it. With respect to the

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software, we do realise that India has very specific skill sets but the software that our system uses was written in ADA language, so we will be happy to look at software interfaces and other ways of round about the actual core code.

Most air forces in the world, have a specific budget, and a safety product is usually lower down the priority is compared to, lets say a communications package or new radar. The queries that we have received from potential customers have been pertaining to software and how they could be hosted, and what the kind of processing and storage is required. When we spoke to the army the navy and the air force here in India, to understand the technical benefits.

The TERPROM system operates differently from other systems that are around as it was designed specifically for military aircraft. There are other good products around but they were probably designed for commercial aircraft and are not quite suited for military type flying environments, which involve flying fast at low levels. Once we tell our military clients the explanation about this key differentiator between the competition and us, they seem to be convinced.

On UTC’s rescue hoists

Yugandhar: We have an electrical rescue hoist, for the Indian Chetak and Cheetah we already have a pneumatic rescue hoist. This electrical rescue hoist is suitable for 300 pounds and can be fit on the Chetak and the Cheetah. These have already been sent for trials and we are excited about the outcome of it. We have already supplied 23 of these hoists to the Indian Air Force for the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and the Mi-17 and we are looking for more opportunities in

HEMANT RAWAT

We are trying to pitch our Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) system to the Indian operators YUGANDHAR METTA Indian market. Depending on the numbers ordered, we can think of setting up an MRO in India where we can give immediate and fast services to the customer.

On the Electronic Flight Bag

Yugandhar: We are trying to pitch our

Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) system to the Indian operators. This lets a tablet device interface with avionics and display key aircraft data for commercial and military aircraft operators. The EFB uses our certified hardware and users can access conditioned power and avionics data through their tablet devices. This is useful for flight operations, maintenance and engineering and cabin crew among others.

On Mission Data Recorders

Yugandhar: Mission data recorders are used on the fighters, helicopters, and space vehicles and they record the complete information about the mission.

These systems allow mission commanders with instant debrief capability using synchronised playback of audio and video files from multiple aircraft.

On UTC Pitot Probes

Yugandhar: We have a very good presence in India with regard to the pitot probe. We have supplied the pitot probe to the ALH. We are also trying to supply it to the Light Utility Helicopter as well.

The tough design of our pitot probes provides vital information for aircraft flight control by providing highly precise pressure measurement over an extensive range of angles of attack and airspeeds even in icing conditions.

On Make in India

Yugandhar: UTC is very excited about the ‘Make in India’ initiative and we are looking at some of potential partnerships, especially in areas such as the mission data recorders if someone in Indiacan give UTC the MRO support.

UTC Aerospace Systems TERPROM Digital Terrain System

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COVER STORY

RADEL IS KNOWN FOR

ITS CAPABILITIES About your journey from HAL to developing an electronic sruthi box

The entrepreneurial streak existed within me from a young age since I used to fiddle around with many gadgets at home and develop innovative ideas. I joined HAL as a Management Trainee in 1969 and was inducted into the Design Department.

After a very rigorous and at the same time very valuable training spread over 18 months in almost all areas of the industry. The first project that I was assigned to was the Cockpit Procedure Trainer of the Kiran trainer aircraft. I was one of the four member team that worked on this project from 1970 to 1972.

However, my disillusionment with a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) job at HAL, led me to quit even before deciding

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what I wanted to do. As I looked around, I found many opportunities to turn into an entrepreneur and I literally grabbed them.

The first business that I took up was as a vendor to BHEL for supply of electrical coils used in their Energy meters. I invested in a coil winding machine costing about `10,000 and hired two unskilled youth, trained them on operating the machine and then got going. I was the best in quality of supplies to BHEL out of a dozen such vendors, because I developed my own customised electronic test jig and implemented a quality control system.

As I was a practicing and performing classical musician myself, I had invented the first transistorised electronic sruthi box way back in 1971 and an electronic

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

G RAJ NARAYAN, Founder & MD, Radel Group, spoke to Geopolitics on how ‘Make in India’ will open up huge opportunities for the MSMEs tanpura in 1979 using a combination of analog and digital techniques. The first ever electronic tabla that I invented in 1987 was based on microprocessors, because the complexity of the product needed the software-programmable processing power that only the microprocessor could achieve. There are totally eight different types of digital Indian musical instruments that I have developed. Subsequently, in 1997, I moved to completely digital audio in these musical instruments. The digital Veena synthesiser was invented by me in 2002.

Projects you are working on for the IAF

Radel has been able to successfully execute about 20 indigenisation projects for IAF and HAL. These include airborne as well as ground test equipment that were designed as well as manufactured completely in-house. The following projects are under progress: The Distributor used on the Rocket Pod used on a fighter aircraft of the IAF has been successfully indigenised using a modern electronic system in place of obsolete electro-mechanical technology of the foreign OEM. This unit has undergone successful certification following flight tests by the IAF. This item will now go into serial production.

An electronic Bomb release controller used on a fighter aircraft of the IAF has been designed and successfully tested. It is now awaiting integration and flight trials by the IAF. Once this is completed, the unit will enter serial production.

An electronic Line Replaceable Unit (LRU) of the Dornier aircraft is under development and has successfully undergone functional testing at HAL. The item is now in the Qualification Testing phase.

Radel has just completed the successful repair of a high voltage power supply for the Indian Navy for use on their helicopters. The project involved reverse engineering and design of a high voltage module using current electronics technology. Radel has already designed, developed and supplied a number of ground test jigs for testing some of the avionics on-board equipment of the ALH

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and Su-30 aircraft. Multiple numbers of these have been supplied to HAL and are operating in the bases of the Armed Services. Repeat orders for these are being periodically executed by Radel to meet the needs of HAL.

Your work for the Jaguar fighter and Dornier aircraft

Radel won a tender bid for the development of an indigenous ‘Distributor’ to replace the ageing and obsolete OEM unit. This is a unit that controls the firing of rockets from the Rocket Pod mounted on the Jaguar aircraft. Radel developed the indigenous unit using a completely solid state microcontroller based unit as a ‘Form, Fit and Function’ replacement.

The unit was successfully flight tested after a gruelling series of ground qualification tests. The indigenised unit is now certified for use on all Jaguar fighters of the IAF. Similarly, Radel has developed a unit that controls the bomb-release on the Jaguar.

Radel also won a bid for the development of an indigenous controller mounted on the Dornier 228 aircraft. This unit controls the starting sequence of the turboprop engine. As in the earlier case, Radel used state-of-the-art microcontroller technology to realise a ‘Form, Fit and Function’ replacement for the OEM unit. The unit is undergoing rigorous tests as part of the qualification and certification process.

Other projects you are working for

Radel has designed, manufactured and supplied a variety of customised electronics ground test jigs to HAL as well as other defence customers for their military aircraft projects. These are completely designed in-house using contemporary electronics technology. Radel has also supplied electrical wire harnesses to a very reputed global arms and weapons company.

Challenges in developing defence equipment in India

One of the greatest challenges for an MSME is the slow response times of large Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) as well as the armed services. It takes more than a year for an RFQ to be released from the date a feasibility of indigenisation has been established. It then takes more than three years for development and testing to be completed. During this whole period, the MSME does not get any returns on the project, let alone the heavy expenditure incurred on de-

sign, development and testing.

The whole process of indigenous development in India is further complicated by the fact that very few MSME organisations are aware of the stringent quality and reliability standards associated with A&D equipment. Radel is one of the few MSME organisations that is approved by CEMILAC, the centre for Airworthiness.

Hence, very often one finds organisations without sufficient competence and expertise bidding and capturing orders only to falter and exit without achieving anything. This results in great loss of time, money and effort not only for the bidder, but also the services which have to manage with the obsolete OEM equipment for a few more years.

Finally, funding for MSMEs engaged in defence projects is a matter requiring urgent attention. A&D is a sector with long gestation periods with development extending beyond five or six years. SMEs cannot sustain themselves for such periods without some special funding arrangements based on the track record of the concerned entrepreneurs. With selfreliance in defence and ‘Make in India’ being a priority of the present GoI, this issue deserves to be looked into very urgently.

Offerings of Radel in the defence and avionics space

Radel is an SME group known for its innovative capabilities over the last 35 years. In keeping with this tradition, Radel has provided completely indigenous solutions in the avionics domain, to the HAL and the defence services over the last eight years.

Its products and services portfolio includes airborne units of military aircraft and helicopters, custom designed ground test jigs for airborne items, electrical wire harnesses of defence grade, repair of avionics modules, multi-layer printed circuit boards, and engineering services for

Radel has designed, manufactured and supplied a variety of customised electronics ground test jigs to HAL as well as other defence customers for their military aircraft projects www.geopolitics.in

March 2015

installation of equipment on aircraft.

Radel indigenously developed and qualified the fully solid state Distributor, which fires the rockets carried by the Jaguar fighter of the IAF. This item has been approved for use on Jaguars by CEMILAC. Two more similar equipments, one for the Jaguar and another for the Dornier aircraft, are in the final stages of Qualification testing. Besides these, Radel has designed, manufactured and supplied a number of ground test jigs to HAL for testing various airborne equipment (gyros, radio compass, fuel flowmeter, intercom, etc.) of the Dhruv helicopters, which have been operating at the bases of the IAF and the Army. Radel has also been working on projects of the Indian Navy on obsolescence mitigation issues of some of their equipment.

On Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ programme

‘Make in India’ programme is a very important move by the central government, both in the industrial as well as the A&D sectors, are bound to open up huge opportunities for MSMEs with strong design and development capabilities.

The MSMEs will have a key role to play in the “Make in India” programme.

MSMEs have always been seen as the real soul of the Indian manufacturing sector. They have for decades been seen and used as the outsourced ‘vendor’ or ‘sub-contractor’ or ‘supplier’ by all the large manufacturing industries, both in the private and the public sectors. They are acknowledged as the real cost savers, innovators and trusted partners. There are numerous success stories of MSMEs growing along with their principals, especially in the automotive and industrial product sectors. It is, therefore, unfortunate that the Indian defence and aerospace sector did not permit this model to be replicated in a holistic manner till recently. Now that serious efforts are being made to attract MSMEs into this sector, there is no doubt that MSMEs will rise to the occasion by raising their standards of quality and reliability of parts and assemblies that they manufacture and supply to the larger players. This will lead to a significant reduction in costs as well as time of execution of projects since outsourced work can actually happen in parallel in multiple efficiently managed MSME organisations. As far as the A&D sector is concerned, the MSMEs also need to be integrated into the eco-system, but this can only happen if they are nurtured and supported by the government as a facilitator.

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SANJAY BHANDARI, Founder Chairman & Managing Director of the OIS Group of companies, in an interview with JUSTIN C MURIK spoke about the new products the company unveiled at the recently concluded Aero India 2015 troller, can emit a high intensity sound beam to scare the bird away. The system also has an eye-safe laser, which is also automatically controlled by the radar system. This system is targeted for aviation safety for both military and civilian airports. We have not seen a company in the world that has true 3D bird radar.

On the UAV detection radar

TAKING ‘MAKE IN INDIA’ HEMANT RAWAT

TO THE WORLD On the ‘Make in India’ products being leveraged to the world market

We are taking the products that we have been working on for several years: our own design, intellectual property, manufacturing facilities. In fact the four advanced surveillance radar systems leverage advanced technology developments that are under patent filings and we are taking it to the world. Since we are looking into the global market, we are looking at significant numbers.

The modular system design allows us the flexibility to customise options as per various customer requirements. So, alongside our ‘Make in India’ drive we are also simultaneously accelerating our global sales initiative.

About the products being developed for the market today

We have several products, each of them incorporating best-in-class technol-

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ogy with a couple of them being world firsts. Apart from the four radars, we have a slew of technology collaborations as the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for India for advanced Air Defence systems for select military programmes in India. OIS-AT has also ushered in global technologies through partnerships for manufacturing leading products in exciting categories like UAVs and Night Vision Devices in India. The Group has one of six industrial licenses in India to manufacture mini and micro UAVs.

On the 3D Bird Detection radar system

The 3D Bird Detection, Tracking and Monitoring and Deterrence Radar System is a world first along with its deterrent system. Once the radar detects a bird in the danger zone, like a landing or take off corridor, the person who is controlling this, possibly an air traffic con-

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

The 3D Multi-function, Multi-mode UAV Detection and Tracking and Air Surveillance Radar System is another world-first. This radar is the first in the industry that has been designed to develop UAVs. Traditional air surveillance radars are not able to effectively detect UAVs. This UAV detection radar also includes a unique Sense-N-Avoid feature to detect UAVs that may be on a collision course. The controllers of the UAVs can then take course corrective action to get out of each other’s path.

On the foliage detection radar

We have also developed Foliage Penetration Minefield, IED and Dismount Detection Radar System that is ideal for internal security, especially for tackling hostile forces that rely on ambush tactics. The Subterranean IEDs and mines that target our paramilitary forces, beneath the jungle cover are easily detected by this radar which is packaged on an aircraft or a UAV. For the military the same advantages prevail, enabling sighting of conventional enemy forces, their hidden mines and other equipment like tanks beneath the foliage.

The product availability of this radar is slated for year-end.

On the portable ground surveillance radar

We also have developed a Portable Ground Surveillance Radar System for both military and homeland security applications. There are other ground surveillance radar but they have limited range while ours is more advanced.

COVER STORY

ON THE BALL WITH

MINIATURE SYSTEMS DINANATH SONI, Executive Director of Si2 Microsystems, speaks to JUSTIN C MURIK about his company that has been supplying mission critical equipment to organisation like the ISRO and premiere projects like the Light Combat Aircraft It was deemed airworthy and it’s flying on the Tejas now. That’s the kind of capability we developed in India.

Fields of excellence

There was certain technology that India was barred from acquiring, especially by the defence labs and we had a mission saying that ‘you can’t say that to us.

We will bring in the technology that we need and it will be done here, we don’t need you.’ And that’s exactly what we did, and we are proud to say that we do it here in India.

Our predominant expertise is in the field of Radio Frequencies (RF) and microwave. We not only create devices, but also make systems and subsystems for these technologies. We are already doing radars and weapons systems.

Missile testers are our specialty, which we brought to this country.

About Si2 Microsystems

We are a design to manufacturing microelectronics company. We make things small, our expertise is in the field of system and package, basically miniaturising electronics. The application areas are commercial, industrial, aerospace and space.

We are already working with the Navy, the Army and Air Force. We supply mission-critical products and components to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Aeronautical Defense Establishment (ADE), the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

On make in India

We started this facility about eight years ago in 2007 and the idea was to bring in technology into the country, which was absolutely cutting edge. The idea was ‘Make in India’ way before the slogan was coined. With the current impetus bought to defence manufacturing with ‘Make in India’ I think it will help the Indian industry to grow. Allowing the private players to participate in defence manufacturing is going to allow us to get the technology that we need.

On Joint Ventures with foreign players

Most of the foreign players that we are working with are customers of Si2.

We offer the accessibility of a “One Stop Shop” from design to product, encompassing systems engineering, prototyping and packaging, and manufacturing for international markets. We provide the technology, so that’s the big advantage. We have been designing and supplying systems to MBDA missile systems in the past and when they were looking for an offset partner, we were an obvious choice. We are supplying the testers for the air base launchers for the Mirage 2000 upgrade. The missiles themselves will be designed and manufactured in India for the Indian Air Force. Some of the other international companies that we work for are Agilent, which is one of the leading RF testing players in the world, Honeywell, Bosch.

On homeland security technologies

With the threat of terrorism and untoward incidents happening we think that this is an area we should concentrate on. We had tie-up that lead to products that enabled early detection of explosives. We have developed a handheld explosives detector, which can detect even explosives buried underground up to a depth of several metres over a distance of hundred metres. This is manufactured in the country now. We are also bringing surveillance technology into India. This includes both jamming and anti-jamming solutions.

On the work for the LCA Tejas

We have done a lot of work for the Indian industry – our products fly on the LCA Tejas. Where certain ICs had gone obsolete on the communication controller of the digital flight control computer, we were able to replace those, form, fit and function, with an indigenously made part. For an IC it is extremely difficult and its a different ball game altogether.

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On Indian partnerships

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geopolitics MARCH 2015 | www.geopolitics.in

OVERHAULING THE PLA

XINHUA

Will the local commanders under a new boss in Tibet be more sensitive towards peace and stability on the India-China border?

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A

fghanistan faces an uncertain future in the aftermath of the departure of foreign combat troops from the country. This environment of a clear lack of confidence stems from the fact that despite an impressive numerical strength and training, its security forces are perceived to be vitally inadequate to successfully tackle and defeat the Taliban and other Pakistan-based terror groups. The latter are making steady inroads in the eastern provinces and are able to inflict serious human and material losses. Quite tellingly, even Kabul is periodically suffering from major terrorist depredations.The sense of insecurity that affects the country emanates essentially from various military, intelligence and logistical inadequacies.

In a recent assessment, the World Bank ranks Afghanistan as the worst country to invest in Asia and the seventh

worst in the world. This extremely disheartening ranking is due to persistent security threats, especially to the high number of deadly attacks committed during the summer of 2014 as also to the reduced amounts of international aid in the aftermath of the draw-down of foreign combat troops, widespread corruption in the administration and scores of other internal problems.

Former Interior Minister and presently National Security Adviser to President Ashraf Ghani, Mohammad Hanif Atmar lists the following terrorist groups as battling the Afghan security forces: the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistani Taliban, and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, the al-Qaeda, Islamic State, and Central Asian and Chinese groups (address by satellite to a conference organised by the Delhi Study Group on October 16, 2014 in New Delhi).

The Haqqani network, based in Mi-

ramshah in Pakistan and patronised by the Pakistan army, is the other terrorist group that continues to be active in Afghanistan. Apart from acts of terrorism, all these groups are deeply involved in poppy cultivation, manufacture of heroin and smuggling of the end-product across Central Asia, Russia and onto the West.

The symbiotic relationship between terrorism and drugs in Afghanistan and Pakistan cannot be over-emphasised, as this is one of the vital channels of funding acts of anti-state terrorism.

The terrorist groups appear to have gained considerable confidence in the wake of the withdrawal of foreign troops.

The prolonged squabble over the formation of the national unity government, achieved finally in early January 2015, also apparently helped bolster their optimism. However, the prospects for Afghanistan have since improved. From January

NEUTRALITY:

THE BEST OPTION FOR AFGHANISTAN An eventual success of the Taliban in recapturing Afghanistan is essential for the materialisation of Pakistan’s ultimate goal of achieving regional ascendancy over what it perceives as its archenemy, India. But that will be suicidal for Afghanistan, writes APRATIM MUKARJI

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ARMY.MIL

1, 2015, the US-led International Security Assistance Force, which deployed at its peak 130,000 troops and suffered 3,485 military deaths since 2001, has been succeeded by a 12,500-strong NATO “training and support” mission comprising 9,800 American troops and about 3,000 troops from Germany, Italy and other countries to train, advise and assist” Afghan forces.

President Ashraf Ghani-led government and the United States government also entered the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) - earlier held off by the former President Hamid Karzai despite virtual brow-beating by the Obama administration - on September 30, 2014, allowing about 10,000 American troops to stay on in the country.

Apart from the security aspect, the BSA also facilitates the continuation of many long-term international aid pledges vital for the reconstruction and development programmes.

Overall, however, the sense of uncertainty that affects Afghanistan emanates mainly from the resurgence of the Taliban and their advances as the draw-down of foreign troops was completed at the end of 2014. While democracy has been successfully established in the country, as proved by parliamentary elections and the smooth change over from the first elected President Hamid Karzai to the new President Ashraf Ghani, the unsatisfactory security situation urgently requires concerted international attention and action.

The Afghanistan government realises that as long as the terrorist groups continue to enjoy hospitality on Pakistan soil, the porous border between the two

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countries would continue to harm its goal of achieving reconstruction and development in peace.

Afghanistan’s NSA Atmar expressed his government’s angst in the satellite address when he indicated that madrasas (Islamic schools) were being misused for terrorism by “certain state and nonstate actors” in Pakistan and demanded that the “radicalised” madrasas must be closed down in South Asia.

President Ashraf Ghani left no room for speculation when, in the course of his address to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Kathmandu on November 29, 2014, he

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said, “While functioning states enable legitimate firms and virtuous networks to thrive, collapse or failure of states results in emergence of ungoverned spaces that provide the breeding ground for criminal enterprises and networks of violence to form symbiotic relations. The relations become lethal when state actors embrace and sponsor these non-state actors, providing them with resources and sanctuaries, and use them as proxies in their competition against other states.”

He elaborated purposefully, noting that “deeper integration within (the) SAARC, therefore, requires honesty in facing the various degrees of hostility, now co-

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

vert and now overt, between and among our countries and making genuine commitment to address the root causes of violence within and across our countries and forging instruments of cooperation to bring lasting peace to our people and societies”.

The rising developmental aspirations notwithstanding in today’s Afghanistan, the history of the country is replete with instances of malevolent external interference exploiting weak and splintered administrations, sharply divided loyalties, deeply embedded feudalism and regionalism, and rampant and historical lawlessness, all these leading to extreme

HELPING HANDS: (A file photo) US Secretary of State John Kerry shakes hands with Afghan presidential candidates Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani after a press conference in Kabul

MISSION READY: US 10th Mountain Division soldiers in Afghanistan boarding a Chinook Helicopter DEFENSE.GOV

vulnerability; and this is where the present security concerns originate. In more than one sense, the Great Game that was played a century ago between the British and Russian Empires (the latter replaced by the Soviet Union in the 1920s) and, later by Germany becoming a third player is now being enacted.

In today’s Great Game, Pakistan clearly holds the key to Afghanistan’s immediate and long-term future. However, the current power play is a much more complex phenomenon than the 19th-20th Century variety of the Great Game. Behind this complexity lies the Taliban, originally a joint creation of the United States and

Pakistan and now the sole responsibility of Pakistan, and in the latter’s view, its most precious strategic asset in Afghanistan. An eventual success of the Taliban in recapturing Afghanistan is essential for the materialisation of Pakistan’s ultimate goal, achieving regional ascendancy over what it perceives as its arch-enemy, India.

On the surface, however, Pakistan’s officially stated position on Afghanistan does not differ in any material way from that of any other neighbouring country. Following the installation of the National Unity Government led by Ashraf Ghani as the President and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah as the newly-created and largely undefined Chief Executive/Prime Minister in lateSeptember, 2014, Pakistan said that it was “a good beginning for promoting peace and reconciliation” in Afghanistan and that it was “ready to offer whatever help” the country needed to further the peace process. The Pakistan government was “absolutely certain” that relations with the new Afghanistan government would improve. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s adviser for national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz said that the initial talks between the two governments had been “very positive” and that both the Afghan leaders had shown their desire to forge “a much stronger and special relations” with Pakistan.

This, however, is nothing but the officially stated position and beneath the veneer of responsible behaviour Pakistan has not in any way slackened the pursuit of strengthening its geopolitical goals in Afghanistan. It remains totally dedicated to the necessity of continuing to influence developments and policies in Afghanistan in order to secure itself against what it perceives as the perennial threat from India to dismember it further (the first act of dismemberment, according to its narra-

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March 2015

US EMBASSY

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tive, occurred when India “invaded” East Pakistan in 1971). In a characteristic representation of this narrative, former Pakistan ambassador to the United Nations Munir Akram wrote that India’s “shadow wars” (counter to India’s claim of Pakistan waging ‘proxy wars’) commenced in 1971 when it actively trained and financed the Mukti Bahini (the liberation force) to fight the Pakistan army in the East Pakistan,” laying the ground for India’s eventual military intervention to break up Pakistan. Even after the Shimla Agreement (marking the end of the India-Pakistan war), bomb blasts continued in Karachi and other Pakistani cities to keep Pakistan destabilised and defensive. New Delhi has missed no opportunity to support Baloch-Pakhtun and Sindhi nationalists and other dissidents in Pakistan.”(Dawn, January 4, 2015) Pakistan feels threatened by “new Great Game” being played out in the region. A bourgeoning United StatesIndia nexus which has co-opted Afghanistan is proving to be “a serious threat to (its) security and integrity.” “Under the auspices of the Afghan intelligence directorate, headed by a member of the Northern Alliance with which India had developed close relations during the civil war against Mullah Omar’s Taliban, India set up bases in the guise of consulates close to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to sponsor and support the Balochistan Liberation Army,” Akram wrote in a skewed manner (the consulates were set up much later when the Karzai government was running the Taliban-free Afghanistan).

Akram also alleged that when Tehriki-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) emerged from the “embers of the Red Mosque operation”, Afghan and Indian intelligence were quick to seize the opportunity to “infiltrate and utilize some of the elements, particularly Baitullah Mehsud’s

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AFGHANISTAN COALITION MILITARY FATALITIES BY YEAR

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 US 2009 2010 2011

UK

OTHER

kin against Pakistan and its armed forces” and that this “has been openly admitted

by Afghan intelligence” In Pakistan’s narrative, defeating the TTP is synonymous with ending India’s secret war. Akram said, “However, Pakistan will have to defeat India’s secret war (against Pakistan) if it is to defeat the TTP. It is difficult to expect a change in Indian policy while people like (Ajit) Doval (India’s current National Security Adviser) are in charge.”

However, the idea of an Afghan neutrality is gaining ground once again as several negative parameters of the past are re-surfacing within and outside the country. Increasingly, as the investment of billions of dollars and the hard labour and sacrifices of both foreign and Afghan troops seem to be failing to establish a workable normalcy to facilitate enhanced reconstruction and development activities in the thirteen years since 2001,there is a growing awareness that only a strict policy of non-intervention by all other countries, especially those in the neighbourhood, would allow Afghanistan to progress in peace.

In his monumental work,The Wars of Afghanistan, Messianic Terrorism, Tribal Conflicts and the Failures of Great Powers (2011), US diplomat Peter Thomsen writes, while visualising Afghanistan in 2020, that the blow-back of radical Sunni Islamic terrorism against the Pakistani government and society, plus international pressures and incentives, have convinced the Pakistani military to end its proxy war in Afghanistan. Afghanistan and Pakistan have normalized their relations. They have joined other nations in

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2012

2013

2014

2015

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 Total

US 12 49 48 52 99 98 117 155 317 499 418 310 127 55 0 2356

UK 0 3 0 1 1 39 42 51 108 103 46 44 9 6 0 453

Other 0 18 10 7 31 54 73 89 96 109 102 48 25 14 1 677

Total 12 70 58 60 131 191 232 295 521 711 566 402 161 75 1 3486

SOURCE: ICASUALTIES.ORG

signing an international agreement recreating the Afghan buffer in Central Asia.

In fact, the desire to see Pakistan pause in its suicidal track, reflect on its bloodied history and thereafter mend its state policy of promoting and facilitating terrorism in order to regain and consolidate its foothold in Afghanistan and straining to achieve its ultimate goal of mortally harming India, seems to be quite widespread. Right from India to all other neighbours of Afghanistan as well as the major powers, every country fervently wishes that Pakistan rids itself of this demon. This sentiment was visibly present on the Army Day of the Indian army, celebrated on January 15, 2015, when Army Chief General Dalbir Singh said that one would have to “wait and watch” if the Pakistan army had had a change of heart in the aftermath of the gruesome massacre of school children and teachers in Peshawar in November. By the term change of heart he apparently meant that despite its dark history, the Pakistan army was still expected to learn its lesson and dismantle the terrorist network built up over the years. But, as Tomsen says, “History suggests that Pakistan’s army most likely will continue to angle for its own preferred extremist outcome in Afghanistan.”

However, it would be idle for the international community to wait for the day when the Pakistan army would decide to change its time-worn course. Instead, it is time the world shook itself up and initiate a process by which Afghanistan could be given guaranteed neutrality and ushered into the path of unbridled progress. The initiative has already been taken by the Central Asian neighbours of

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

Afghanistan. For the last three years, the member-states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) comprising Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan along with Russia and China, have been pledging their support for a neutral Afghanistan. The 2014 Declaration noted that “Member-states of the SCO reiterate their support for development of Afghanistan into a democratic, peaceful, prosperous and neutral state.”

In 2015, two countries with the observer status, India and Pakistan, are scheduled to gain membership of the SCO. Afghanistan and Iran, presently observers are scheduled to be SCO members in 2016.The move to bestow internationally guaranteed neutrality on Afghanistan may well gather momentum in the near future. However, reports suggest that in the wake of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan-Pakistan wishes China to fill in the strategic gap. If China shows this much of commitment to be deeply involved in Afghanistan, such a development may even work towards pushing India out of the country. Pakistan is said to be working in this direction, persuading China to replace the United States and block further advancement of India’s strategic interests. If the reports turn out to be true, the urgency of converting Afghanistan into an internationally guaranteed neutral state should be apparent all the more to the other regional powers and to the world at large.

The author is a former Senior Fellow, Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, and is an analyst of South and Central Asian affairs

DIPLOMACY

CHANGE OF GUARD IN Though one cannot be sure, the changes of military leadership in Tibet, along with the fight against corruption within the People’s Liberation Army, could result in changes in the behaviours of the Chinese troops facing the Indian territories, writes CLAUDE ARPI

DRAGON’S ARMY

I

MARINES.MIL

n China, each emperor wants to leave his name in the Middle Kingdom’s historical annals. While Mao is remembered for the wrong reasons: the infamous Great Leap Forward and Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping implemented ‘The Four Modernisations’; President Jiang Zemin spoke of ‘Three Represents’ and his successor Hu Jintao believed in ‘Scientific Outlook on Development’ as the party’s guiding socioeconomic principle.

After two and half years at the helm, Xi Jinping has introduced his ‘Four Comprehensives’ theory to take forward his vision of modern China.

The People’s Daily devoted a 2,000-character front-page editorial to the ‘Four Comprehensives’, which promotes ‘building a moderately prosperous society, deepening reform, governing the country according to rule by law and enforcing strict party discipline’. This will eventually help achieving ‘the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people’, so dear to Xi. The new theory, however, depends on the outcome of Xi’s massive anti-corruption campaign, targeting ‘flies and tigers’.

More than any other sector of the society, the battle for ‘the dream’ is raging in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Year 2014 witnessed a dual move by China’s Central Military Commission (CMC), headed by Xi Jinping. While the leadership tried to tackle head-on the rampant corruption in the PLA, the official catchphrase for the year has been ‘Actual Combat’. Military exercises have been a crucial part of the PLA’s preparedness. The objective being to make troops able to ‘fight and win battles’: military exercises, followed by review and

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self-criticism are ‘an inevitable procedure’, believes the CMC. The ‘resolute combat’ against corruption at all the levels of the PLA, regularly came in the national news during the recent months. In June 2013, the Chinese media mentioned Xi Jingping’s instructions to the PLA regarding the Party’s socalled ‘mass line’ education policy: the PLA requires opposing ‘formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism, and extravagance and must be ‘absolutely reliable and obey Xi’s commands’. In December 2014, The PLA Daily affirmed that there will be no escape for the corrupt; quoting the armed forces’ flagship newspaper, Xinhua commented that “in the battle against corruption, there will be no privilege or sanctuary of impunity for anyone”.

The PLA strongly denied that “continuing the campaign against corruption could destabilise people’s morale and public trust.” On the contrary, it asserted that the campaign would continue: “The battle against corruption has entered a crucial tug-of-war stage; the anti-graft campaign is in line with the people’s expectations and as the campaign deepens … the Communist Party of China (CPC) and political environment in China will become even healthier. The anti-corruption efforts will only boost the morale among the Party, the military and the public; not undermine it.” The message was clear that the cleansing campaign in the PLA was here to stay and in the current battle, there cannot be any safe haven for anyone.

Bill Bishop, the author of the The Sinoto go much deeper, if the CPC is to survive. cism China Newsletter argued that it is not Many historical studies have shown that it a usual purge campaign: “I am quite conis the crucial issue which triggered the colvinced it is a mistake to call the corruplapse of the former Soviet Union. What we tion crackdown under Xi a ‘campaign.’ I are witnessing today is the final struggle think people have been far too dismissive for the survival of a system. It is particuof some of the changes Wang Qishan [Polarly vital for the defence forces. litburo’s Standing Committee member] Whether Xi and Wang will is making within CCDI [Central succeed or not is another isCommission for Discipline In June sue, in the meantime, The Inspection] system.” The 2013, the Chines PLA Daily threatens: battle has indeed intene “The anti-corruption sified; a Xinhua piece media mentioned campaign has alnoted “the anti-decaready touched senior dence movement is Xi Jingping’s ‘tigers’ like Zhou still grave and cominstructions to and Xu plicated and will inth e P LA Yongkang Caihou, who will be evitably meet some re garding the Part left untouchable?” kind of resistance.” y’s According to Xinhua, President Xi Jinso-called ‘mass line’ the CMC has issued a ping knows very well document, ratified by that the question is not education the commission’s chairof fixing one or two adpolicy man, Xi Jinping, about versaries, such Bo Xilai or building a command loyal to Zhou Yongkang, the former the Party and good at combat. In Chongking Party boss and securia recent monthly briefing, Defence Ministy Tsar respectively; the present move has

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try spokesman Col. Yang Yujun stated: “In terms of the anti-corruption campaign in the military, no matter who is concerned or how high his position is, we will find him and conduct the proper punishment without tolerance for any corruption.”

After the conclusion of a first inspection round of the seven Military Area Commands (MACs) in December 2014, the CMC announced enhanced efforts to combat graft: “A slew of important problems and clues have been found since the inspection tour was launched in December 2013,” announced the Commission.

The Chinese media highlighted the unprecedented amounts of money embezzled by some ‘big tigers’ and spoke about “auctioning off key posts to embezzlement in construction projects and the open trade of power for money”. Xinhua argued that if China’s top leadership wants to root out corruption from all walks of life, it is necessary to remove the black sheep from the military first: “…because it can destroy military personnel’s sense of unity and ruin their faith in their career. If gen-

DRAGON’S WALL: Chinese Preisdent Xi Jinping talks with members of the Chinese People’s Armed Police Force in Beijing

erals fill their pockets with embezzled money while ordinary soldiers sleep in ill-constructed camps, who will fight for the country when needed? And if officers paying bribes get promoted and the hardworking ones are sidelined, how many soldiers will remain devoted and loyal to the PLA?” The Chinese media compared the PLA to a ‘great wall made of iron and steel,’ explaining that the current drive is aimed at ‘removing the rust from the surface of this great wall’ and taking measures to ensure that it remains rust-free forever. The leadership is aware that corruption is seriously threatening to limit the PLA’s operational capabilities. It is why it has become Xi Jinping’s personal ‘combat’.

Formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism, and extravagance are so well entrenched in the PLA, that many observers believe that it is an impossible task for the President. Bloomberg analyzed: “As China moves into the third year of its far-reaching anti-corruption campaign, experts and officials are worrying that without the

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grease of bribes, projects are stagnating and the economy is taking a hit.”

It may be noted that the CCDI has claimed that in the current campaign (for 2014 only), it had undertaken 53,085 investigations, 71,748 cadres have been ‘disciplined’, and 23,646, ‘severely disciplined’. Ren Jianming, a professor of clean governance at Beihang University in Beijing, told Bloomberg that officials were not used to a system that ran without corruption: “Officials don’t believe that, without bribing, they could be promoted.” One official told the same economic publication: “As a result, nobody wants to do anything, if we do things, we are exposed to all kinds of risks, including political risks. And we don’t have financial incentives.” Probably same problem is true for the PLA. Chairman Xi seems to have decided to go for a change of guard. Want China Times, the news website based in Taiwan announced the replacement of 40 senior commanders of China’s armed forces. The Taiwanese paper reported: “China’s President, Xi Jinping, has replaced 40 senior military

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commanders including the head of the People’s Armed Police according to a new nomination list posted by a Chinese internet user.” The article asserted: “Xi has continued his purge of PLA generals whose loyalty to him may be questionable. The nomination list released on December 20 suggests that various key positions within the Chinese military will be taken over by Xi’s close associates.”

But are the new generals honest? It is difficult to say. Close to us, let us look at Tibet. The fate of Lt. Gen. Wang Jianping is interesting; the commander of the People’s Armed Police (PAPF), one of the most powerful generals in China, recently lost his job. Wang Jiangping was an old Tibethand. A native of Hebei province, he was promoted to major general in 1997 and ten years later, he became lieutenant general.

He served as Commander of the Tibet Autonomous Region’s (TAR) PAPF from 1996 to 2000. He knows Tibet well and particularly the frontiers with India.

Will a ‘softer’ hand at the helm of Chinese paramilitary forces help stabilising the restive Himalayan region which is the base for any action on the Indian frontiers? It is not certain. Also interesting is the fate of Lt. Gen. Yang Jinshan, who for years commanded the Tibet Military District, opposite the Indian troops posted in Arunachal. In 2009, Yang took over the command of Tibet Military District; he ‘did’ so well that, three years later, he reached the Marxist ‘heaven’, the CPC’s Central Committee. In June 2013, General Yang was transferred on promotion to Chengdu as a Deputy Commander of the Chengdu Military Region, from where he continued to oversee the operations in Tibet (and the Indian border). In October 2014, he was suddenly expelled from the Central Committee ‘for serious disciplinary violations’; it was a first in the annals of the Party. Apparently, General Yang’s fall is linked to Xu Caihou’s wrongdoings.

In the meantime, the CMC has warned that ideological struggles within the PLA were ‘acute and complicated’. The Global Times asserted: “Military reform has entered ‘uncharted waters’ with concerns growing that reform could be impeded by ‘structural problems’.” Quite ominous!

In any case, whether Xi Jinping’s Four Comprehensives will remain in history is definitely linked to the cleansing of the PLA. Nobody can say today if Xi Jinping will succeed or fail, but the Communist Party’s fate certainly depends on the current battle.

A keen China-watcher, the author is based in South India

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H C TIWARI

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In order to have a secure environment for trade in the Asia-Pacific region, India needs a stronger military, writes BHARAT WARIAVWALLA

rom Vladivostok in the Russian Pacific down to where the Pacific and the Indian Ocean meet, is roughly the extent what is called the Asia-Pacific (AP) region. The area today is at the centre of economic and political rivalries between the world’s largest economies. Four of the world’s largest economies, the American, Chinese, Japanese and Indian, compete here, rather peacefully, for their share of the world’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It accounts for some 51 per cent of the world’s GDP and about the same share of world trade. There are also the world’s four largest military powers, the United States, Russia, China and India in this area. They too compete, but again with restraints.

The NSS (National Security Strategy) statement, 2015, authored by Susan Rice, the National Security Advisor to the US President, talks of this region as of vital importance to the United States. India, the NSS statement, says is its key partner in it. In the joint Vision Statement issued on the day the US President Obama arrived in Delhi, the region figured prominently. Today this region is at the centre of world politics, as Europe was at the height of the Cold War confrontation between the US and USSR. Both super-powers had their allies, the European allies NATO of the US and the Warsaw Pact allies of the USSR. This confrontation was entirely political and strategic. There was hardly any economic motive behind the rivalry.

Even though, the US and the USSR were very large economies there was hardly any economic interaction between them. The US trade with tiny Panama was larger than its trade with the USSR. In contrast, economic and to a much lesser extent, strategic relations characterize the politics of the AP region and also major countries outside it, Russia, the US and India.

The principal economic grouping of the region, consisting of 21 countries from the ASEAN region, American Pacific, the US and Canada and Russia known as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is at the centre of the world economy. There is of course the political and strategic sides to this.

India is not a member of APEC, though Obama said on his recent visit to India that we ought to be in it. All these countries are integrated to a varying degree by a single world market. In stark contrast to relations between the states during the Cold War era which were primarily strategic, relations between

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states in the globalisation (post USSR break-up) era are primarily economic.

Not just the formal institutions, like the WTO, IMF and the World Bank but also the broad world outlook of AP countries sustain a cooperative relationship. All of them want larger share of the world GDP and not territory or domination.

They pursue it by following the workings of the world market. They want Lakshmi, but keep Shakti, if an occasion needs it.

There are two competing paradigms of relations between sovereign states since globalisation began under the aegis of a country where the industrial revolution was first born and where capitalism first matured: Great Britain.

Through conquests but also trade, Britain linked its colonies as well as other independent countries (Argentina, China, Japan, and Germany) economically. British imperialism was all about linking sovereign economic spaces by trade and investments. But there is also the old paradigm of relations between States since something like a State was born. From Chanakya in 2nd BC to Kenneth Waltz today, scholars have theorised this relationship between sovereign states. Armed contest for territories, resources or gaining adherents to your faith have characterised this practice of relations between states.

So, we have today in the AP region two competing paradigms of international relations: the trading and the territorial systems. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Japan last October described them as Vikasvad and Vistarvad. Vikas, or development, expansion or Vistar are two policy courses open to the countries of the AP region. The word Vistar, he used in his speech in Japan referred to the Chinese naval expansion in South China Sea. But Vistarvad also characterises a state that primarily relies on military power to attain its goals of domination over other states.

Since we began to participate in the globalisation process during the years of the Prime Ministership of Narsimha Rao, we have chosen the policy course of Vikas. So did Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh. Actually Narasimha Rao pioneered this policy with his policy of linking India’s economy to the world economy. Stealthily, Rao began to integrate the Indian economy in the world economy. His polity of Look East, which now is renamed Act East by Modi, was aimed at relating India to the countries of the AP region, now was economically

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SURGING ECONOMIES: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the BRICS leaders ahead of G-20 Summit, in Australia PIB

the fastest growing region in the world.

The question is what is the utility of military power in relation to countries that have Vikas as their foreign policy goal? Obviously one cannot improve one’s terms of trade; secure another country’s natural resources or gain economic advantage over a country by the use of force. Gone are the days when Great Britain could force opium down the mouth of the Chinese by force (the opium wars) or secure exclusive trading zones in China or destroy India’s handloom textile industry by the use of force. Military power is simply not fungible today. Yes, Great Britain’s naval supremacy in the 19th and part of the 20th centuries made possible unhindered movement of goods. No one dared close the Suez or the Parma Canals or the Malacca Street to Brit-

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ish shipping. But other countries too profited from the British policy, in the sense that they too benefitted from the free movement of goods. So, you need Shakti (force, military power) to protect Lakshmi (wealth), the British thought, then, and the American now. So, do the Chinese and Japanese today.

The question that is often asked in Washington, Tokyo, Delhi is whether China would use its growing military power to gain undue advantage in the world trading system that the United States constructed at the end of World war II: the Bretton Woods system. Of course, today there are many stake holders in this system, including China.

It owes its unprecedented rise in global power hierarchy to American led globalisation. Among the large countries – China, Japan, Russia, Brazil, India – it

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is China that profited the most from the globalised trade. It went for the market economy (though market workings were highly circumscribed at home) in 1980. Today, it has emerged as the second largest economy and a foremost manufacturing power.

Many academics, retired diplomats and – columnists on security affairs believe that the United States built up China economically as a counter weight, first to the Soviet Union, now Russia.

Late K Subrahmanyam was of this view, which he propagated through his massive outpourings in newspapers. Little knowledge of history would show that this reading of the rise of powers historically is plainly wrong. The United States became the world’s largest economy by 1880 and Imperial Germany the largest manufacturing power in the

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world in 1890. All this happened when Britain was the principal guardian of the world economy. Did Britain build up Germany industrially in the 1880s, to fight with it 30 years later? The United States and Imperial Germany profited from the British leadership of the world economy in the 19th century, as indeed now Japan, China and India profit from the American leadership. It depends on your knowledge and skills with which you play the world market.

It all depends on the kind of the economic system you have at home and how you orient it externally. India too had the choice in 1970 to go for a truly market economy at home and export led growth. Instead Indira Gandhi chose license permit raj which bred corruption and inefficiency. Similarly it is the United States and Imperial Germany that profited most from the tremendous expansion in world trade that took place under the economic hegemony of Britain. Large countries like Russia or Argentina too could have gone the way Germany did and thus acquire economic strength. They did not, or they had corrupt feudal set up and not a middle class democracy that Britain had.

Yet there are doubts and even fears among the Americans, Japanese, Indian, ASEAN leadership that a militarily and economically strong China would not play the game by rules. These doubts and fears come from the fact that China is not a democracy. It is an authoritarian and that too a communist regime. Is this just a posturing on the part of China?, ask decision makers in America, India, and Japan. They ask this question because they believe capitalism must ultimately go with liberal democracy, for only when they are together that they are stable.

This is not the place to probe deeper into this relationship between capitalism or market economy and democracy, but only to note here that scholars and decision makers, primarily from the UK and the US, believe that there cannot be democracy without the market economy. Economic planners at the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organisation (WTO) or decision makers at the White House or 10 Downing Street have repeatedly pointed to the inseparability of the market and democracy. The famous Washington Conesus, a statement endorsed by the developing and developing countries in Washington in 1992, said liberal democracy based on

India-US-Japan strategic cooperation is clearly a game designed to gain strategic advantage vis-a-vis China. But let us not forget that there is the other game, trade, tariffs, pollution counts, which also they, along with the US, play with China, because China is also their largest trading partner market economy was what countries must aspire for. A work by the noted thinker Francis Fukuyama, “End of History”, said there were no alternatives to liberal democracy.

China is certainly not a democracy and it is an economy which grants the market a limited autonomy. This is why China appears to the West an economic partner with suspicious credentials.

Does China economically develop for the welfare of its people or does it develop to dominate other countries, the West asks. No one can answer it definitively. But all must deal with China, for it is second largest economy and a formidable military power.

In the AP region one sees today both chessboards are being played by the actors in the region. There is the chessboard familiar to us since the days of Kurukshetra war, the diplomatic strategic chessboard. Here the actors intimidate each other for territory, commanding strategic position or resources.

There is the relatively new and greatly more complex game than the strategic chessboard, where players bargain over tariffs, interest rates, commodity prices, emission counts.

India-US-Japan strategic cooperation is clearly a game designed to gain strategic advantage vis-a-vis China. But

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March 2015

let us not forget that there is the other game, trade, tariffs, pollution counts, which also they, along with the US, play with China, because China is also their largest trading partner. Often the two games are played simultaneously, making calculations of gains and losses very difficult.

Americans certainly, Japanese less certainly, but Indians very fuzzily, realise that China is first their partner and secondly their adversary. When we first signed the 123 Nuclear Agreement, our strategic analysts talked of India as a “balancer” between America and China. Who asked us to be a balancer, when the two US and China were so deeply interdependent on one another?

During the recent economic downturn, the deepest since the great Depression of 1929, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said in Shanghai in the fall of 2008, “You (China) and I can swim together or sink together.” Here is a candid admission by the US Secretary of State of her country’s inextricable relationship of economic inter-dependence with China. None can extricate itself from it without seriously hurting itself. Infect we saw how close was the economic relationship between China on the one hand and the US and EU on the other during the recent steep downturn in the recent world economy. It was steepest since great depression of 1929.

Yet, our prominent columnists security affairs and officials of the Ministry of External Affairs and National Security secretariat talked of India as a “balancer” between China and the US. The July 2005 Nuclear Agreement 123 was described by this strategic community as a ushering in of a new paradigm of international politics. As K Subrahmanyam said, by the 123 Agreement the US has signaled to India that the former would make us a superpower as it did to Germany and Japan after the war.

Mercifully our strategic establishment this time was more realistic in assessing the importance of Obama’s recent visit to India. There was none of the nonsensical talk of US-India-China strategic triangle this time. Today we recognise that the US-China relations, with all its periodic ups and downs, are too strong and durable to break. So, play for Vikas game but don’t overlook the temptations of others to play the Vistar game. Pursue Lakshmi but keep a moderate amount of Shakti.

The author is associated with Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi

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THE HEART OF

DARKNESS The rise of the deadly Boko Haram in northern Nigeria has not only created regional security instability around the Lake Chad region, affecting Niger, Cameroon and Chad but also signifies a dangerous trend that the world cannot afford to be oblivious to, writes UDDIPAN MUKHERJEE

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hile most of the world mourned in the first two weeks of the new year over the ghastly attacks (on January 7) on the office of the French weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, located at Paris, equally horrible acts at another corner of the world, regrettably, went virtually unnoticed. Geographically located at the extreme north-east of Nigeria, a town called Baga – in the province of Borno, the town is less than 200 km away from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno. The town is close to Lake Chad.

Between January 3 and 7, 2015, a series of mass killings were committed in that town by the ‘truly barbaric’ Boko Haram. Amnesty International reported close to 2000 dead. “Hundreds of bodies – too many to count – remain strewn in the bush in Nigeria from the Islamist extremist attack”, wrote the Guardian.

However, kudos to Simon Allison as he articulated the massacre perpetrated by the African Islamist terror group through a touching title: “I am Charlie, but I am Baga too…” Even he was a bit late, as it was already five days past the gory saga. He could very well be exonerated when one reads more into his article. The nearest journalists are situated hundreds of kilometres away from Baga. Information that reaches them is naturally delayed. But that definitely does not acquit the entire media of not focusing more on the carnage by Boko Haram. Is this the Africa-Europe divide with the latter receiving the attention which the elite is supposed to?

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Interestingly, turning towards the militancy in question, this bloodbath happened just over a month before the national elections in Nigeria where current President Goodluck Jonathan will be running against Buhari, a candidate from the north. STRATFOR’s Vice President for Africa Analysis Mark Schroeder, tells clearly that the Jonathan government has really not emphasised a very strong or very efficient response to Boko Haram insurgency. It is southern Nigeria that possesses most of the oil and gas and has the commercial capital Lagos. “And so the absence of an efficient response to Boko Haram by the Jonathan administration will continue if Jonathan were to be re-elected,” surmises Schroeder. On the other ‘firm’ hand, Muhammadu Buhari is a northern Nigerian, a former general, and it would be expected that if he is elected as President of Nigeria, he could turn out to be the much required nemesis for Boko Haram.

The January attacks by Boko Haram on the Nigerian military base near Baga and the concomitant mass murders could be seen in that context.

And further credence is lent to such theorisation when it is coupled that the worsening insecurity in the northern parts of Nigeria would mean that few international observers would likely get clearance to oversee voting in an area that is traditionally been supporting anti-incumbency. Moreover, around 1.5 million people have been displaced by the violence, many of whom will not be

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THE AFRICAN KILLERS: Boko Haram, a military terrorist group in Africa, is responsible for various horrific attacks in Nigeria

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NATIONOFCHANGE.ORG

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able to vote in the polls under Nigeria’s current electoral laws. All of these suit Boko Haram insurgents the most. To the contrary, the ultras have orchestrated bomb attack on Abuja in 2014 which shows that they are eager to push into core Nigeria and such events ought to perturb even the Jonathan government.

Rise and ‘Another’ Rise of Boko Haram

It was in the 1990s, as the International Crisis Group [ICG] writes, that the Boko Haram grew out of a group of radical Islamist youth who worshipped at the Al-Haji Muhammadu Ndimi Mosque in Maiduguri. Its leader Mohammed Yusuf, began as a preacher and leader in the youth wing, Shababul Islam (Islamic Youth Vanguard), of Ahl-Sunnah – a Salafi group. Yusuf was a charismatic and popular Quranic scholar who spoke widely throughout north Nigeria.

His literal interpretation of the Quran led him to forbid aspects of Western education he considered in contradiction to the holy book – such as the big bang theory of the universe, and elements of chemistry and geography. However, as the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations [CFR] opines, the Boko Haram was formally created in 2002 in Maiduguri, by Mohammed Yusuf. The sect’s core beliefs are strict adherence to the Quran and the Hadith (sayings of the Prophet), and their interpretation as sanctioned by Ibn Taymiyyah, the preferred scholar of Mohammed Yusuf. Functionally, the group aims to establish a fully Islamic state in Nigeria, including the implementation of criminal Sharia courts across the country.

Importantly, it has concrete links with al-Qaeda and to an extent ISIS. The official name of the Boko Haram group is actually Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which in Arabic means “People of the Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad Group”.

But the Hausa-speaking residents of Maiduguri, named it Boko Haram, says BBC News. And the name translates from the local Hausa language to mean “Western education is a sin” – in fact, not very antagonistic to its actions and goals. Hardcore members of the group detest such a nomenclature though.

Yusuf didn’t have complete control of the group and after his alleged extrajudicial execution by the Nigerian police sometime in July 2009, his followers splintered into five to six factions. In fact, 2009-10 was the period of the second rise of the group, and in a far more deadly trajectory. Originally directed

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mainly at security forces and government officials, the insurgency-cum-terrorism has expanded to include attacks on Christians, Muslim clerics critical against their acts, suspected collaborators, UN agencies, and importantly schools.

It has turned more into terrorism, targeting the innocent students at state secular schools and even health workers involved in polio vaccination campaigns. Boko Haram was arguably at its apex in early 2013, when it took control of large areas of Borno province.

The military build-up of the Joint Task Force of the Nigerian government, the subsequent military offensive and use of vigilante groups have hurt the movement, but not quite impeded its rise.

Boko Haram reportedly has resorted to forced conscription and recruiting of criminals and thugs in order to expand its base.

One of Yusuf’s unruly lieutenants was Abubakar Shekau. Presently, he supposedly holds the reins of the most lethal and deadly faction of the original Boko Haram. Interestingly, Nigeria’s military claimed to have killed Shekau at least three times, yet videos of the leader threatening his enemies, congratulating his jihadi comrades in Iraq and Syria, and declaring an Islamic state continue to emerge. And as CFR argues in its backgrounder to the group, Nigerian officials and many experts are

The official name of the Boko Haram group is actually Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad, which in Arabic means “People of the Sunnah for Preaching and Jihad Group”.

But the Hausaspeaking residents of Maiduguri, named it Boko Haram March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

convinced that Shekau has become a brand adopted by leaders of different factions of Boko Haram and that the men in the videos are actually lookalikes. Nevertheless, Boko Haram aka Shekau has repeatedly ruled out talks with the government, despite claims by some purported sect members that these were ongoing. Members who proposed dialogue were killed on ‘Shekau’s orders’, silencing other pro-dialogue individuals.

Can the violence be curbed?

Boko Haram cannot be neatly characterised as an insurgency or terrorist organisation, posts CFR, and quite correctly so. Though Boko Haram qualifies as an insurgency as per the rigours of the definition of the term set by political scientist Bard E. O’Neill: “Insurgency may be defined as a struggle between a nonruling group and the ruling authorities in which the former consciously uses violence to destroy the ruling group and its legitimacy.” Moreover,

MASS KILLINGS: A scene from one of the Nigerian towns blown up by the Boko Haram

the origins of Boko Haram are rooted in grievances over poor governance and sharp inequality in the Nigerian society. And as Nigeria analyst Chris Ngwodo writes, “The emergence of Boko Haram signifies the maturation of longfestering extremist impulses that run deep in the social reality of northern Nigeria”. It’s also a fact that terrorism is a form of warfare through which the violent aspect of insurgency is manifested. However, one cardinal principle which separates insurgency from terrorism is that insurgents do not intend to harm innocent civilians at large, not at least deliberately. And that’s where Boko Haram appears more terror-like, from rebellion towards apocalypse. Out of 2000 odd killed during their attack on Baga, most were hapless children and women. And not to speak of the 250 plus schoolgirls kidnapped by the group at Chibok in North-eastern Nigeria in April 2014. Over 13,000 people have been reportedly killed in the fiveyear-long mayhem.

Analysts are sceptical about Nigeria’s current military strategy for defeating Boko Haram. Corruption inside the Nigerian army, unpaid wages, and mutinies among troops has all facilitated Boko Haram’s rise, specifically since 2009-10. However, of late, African Union [AU] leaders have agreed to send 7,500 troops to fight the Boko Haram as the international community, including the US and Iran, have agreed to cooperate. The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon also supported the deployment of AU troops to fight Boko Haram.

Again on January 25, 2015, Boko Haram launched a major offensive on Maiduguri and two other towns. The attack, which left more than 200 combatants dead, was repulsed by the Nigerian military, but it shook the security apparatus of the government and further gave a nightmare to the people of Borno. Moreover, Boko Haram dancing in the northern parts of Nigeria means that its neighbours hardly can sleep peacefully. It has created regional se-

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curity instability around the Lake Chad region, affecting Niger, Cameroon and Chad. Of late, on January 29, three soldiers and 123 Boko Haram militants were killed when the Islamist group attacked a Chadian army contingent in northern Cameroon.

Whether it is through conventional Nigerian military, along with the aid of international forces or through the ground level vigilante self-defence militias, or fundamentally through proper governance, the comprehensive defeat of Boko Haram is an imperative. Another epicentre of violence and butchery, more so in the name of Islam, needs to be trammelled. Ignoring the movement is not only ethically unjustified, but illadvised for the world community. The time is ripe when Baga and Maiduguri have to be equated in the same security plane with Kobani and yes, Paris.

Dr Uddipan Mukherjee is an IOFS officer. The views expressed are personal

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BOOK REVIEW

THE GENERAL WHO BASHED ON REGARDLESSLY

The book, Bash on Regardless, an autobiography of LIEUTENANT GENERAL W A G PINTO, PVSM (RETD) is laced with a good bit of wit and humour and will undoubtedly have its place in the memoirs of eminent Indian military men, writes AMRINDAR SINGH

BASH ON REGARDLESS Author: LIEUTENANT GENERAL WAG PINTO, PVSM (RETD) Publishers: NATRAJ PUBLISHERS Pages: 145 Price: `395

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hronicles of the lives of military men do follow a kind of set pattern, early days of training, the period as a young officer, the rise in the hierarchy (if the author has risen to a senior rank), and then the slow fading away in civvy street depending on whether the author has found a post-retirement assignment. This life story falls in roughly the same category

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though it must be said that the author has made it lively and eminently readable. Walter Anthony Gustavo Pinto began active service on this earth on July 1, 1924. Due to the termination of the recruitment during the war years of the Indian Civil Service, many young men from service families joined the Armed Forces. Pinto was one of them.

Having joined the 13th Frontier Force Rifles, WAG (as Pinto has always been known) was located in a place called Sultan’s Battery near the present day Madumalai game sanctuary in Tamil Nadu at the foothills of the Nilgiri mountains. It was here that he learned the basics of jungle warfare for the battalion was soon to move to Tamu on the Burma front. In Burma, his unit was responsible for keeping the surrendered INA prisoners in custody and was a witness to the fall of Rangoon. Soon thereafter they moved to Siam in Thailand with the task of repatriating the Japanese prisoners of war.

After the war, he was on a spot of annual leave in Goa where during the Carnival Ball he asked the Governor General’s wife for a dance — not very unsurprisingly the lady declined! PostPartition WAG was seconded to the newly-formed Brigade of the Guards Regiment which was the brainchild of General Cariappa, the Commanderin-Chief. One of his first assignments in the new regiment was to provide a ceremonial guard to the then Governor General C Rajagopalachari at the Viceregal Lodge in Shimla. During his stay,

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Rajaji as he was popularly called, would have Pinto dine with him every afternoon at lunch. This incident amplifies the calibre of our politicians in those days who had the time to deal with everybody on one to one level, unlike the pompous creed of present day leaders.

Pinto mentions some encounters with the late Field Marshal K M Cariappa who was a bit of a martinet and was nicknamed “Currypapa” Curry because of his dislike for Indian food as opposed to western cuisine and Papa, because he was the father and almighty father of the Brigade of the Guards which he had created. These anecdotes seem hilarious now, but probably did not have much hilarity when they occurred.

In 1954, Pinto attended the prestigious Defence Services Staff College at Wellington. It was here that he took note of a quote from the legendary Commandant General Joe Lentaigne, “Don’t use armour as a chastity belt – you won`t be penetrated.” Later in his career he used this dictum to profit during battle.

On completion of the Staff Course, he was posted as Brigade Major of an Infantry Brigade in Jaurian in Jammu and Kashmir. Thereafter, he attended the Senior Officers Course at the Infantry School in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh.

Upon reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel he took charge of the 4th Battalion of the Brigade of the Guards (formerly known as Queen Victoria’s Own Rajput Light Infantry). The Battalion had nicknames given to the Officers and Pinto’s was “Big Chief Screaming

BOOK REVIEW

Eagle Laughing Hyena”. That’s humour in uniform for you! Pinto believed in the theory “you are the mirror of the men you command” approachable and accessible he ran a happy team leading his Battalion well both in J&K and later in Sikkim where he had a bit of an informal encounter with the Chogyal who presented him copious quantities of Scotch Whisky which he found very welcome!

Middle rung but esteemed appointments followed like an instructorship at the Staff College and a stint at the Cabinet Secretariat at Delhi. In the latter appointment, high grade waffle from the Service High Command seemed to be his fare quite often! He was to go on to Command the 66 Mountain Brigade in the Binnaguri Cantonment. The Brigade had dual operational responsibilities; one was on the Hilli-GaibandaPalsbari axis in Bengal as well as going to the assistance of the Royal Bhutan Army in the event of an operation against China. Pinto christened his Brigade “66 Bash on Regardless” which he says is the closest he could get to “007 Licence To Kill”!

WAG Pinto then took charge of the 54th Infantry Division as General Officer Commanding and it was under his leadership that the Division was involved in what he mentions as the most fierce battle of the 1971 war on the Western Front known as the Battle of Basantar. His formation was deployed in the Samba area of Jammu and Kashmir State, and on the night of December 15-16, 1971, the attack commenced.

Two of his Battalions, 16 Madras and 3 Grenadiers, did exceedingly well in the attack on the Basantar and Karir Nalas (Canals). This attack resulted in one of the greatest tank battles of the Indian Army. Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal of 17 Poona Horse (Cavalry) and Major Hosihar Singh of 3 Grenadiers won the Param Veer Chakra, and a total of about 1000 kms of Pakistani territory was captured by the Indian forces in Basantar and the Shakarghar Bulge.

After finishing his Divisional Command, Pinto went on to become Director of Military Training at Army Headquarters, where he was also Chairman of the Joint Training Committee of all three services. During his tenure, two cadets in the National Defence Academy at Khadakvasla lost their lives in a ragging incident. He describes how a system of a very busy workload is often unproductive as happened in this case.

His committee which inquired into the

CAPTURING THE ENEMY: Lt. Gen WAG Pinto, GoC of 54 Infantry Division after capture of a location in Pakistan

case recommended a system with less pressure on the Cadets and withdrawing the power of punishment to senior cadets.

Pinto was Corps Commander of

In 1954, Pinto attended the prestigious Defence Services Staff College at Wellington. It was here that he took note of a quote from the legendary Commandant General Joe Lentaigne, “Don’t use armour as a chastity belt – you won‘t be penetrated.”

Later in his career he used this dictum to profit during battle www.geopolitics.in

March 2015

the Siliguri based 33 Corps which was of strategic importance in the context of the Indo-China border and also had bases in Sikkim and Bhutan as well as Binnaguri in North Bengal.

He describes it as a “fascinating and challenging command”. He was also Commandant of the National Defence College and culminated his career as Army Commander of the Central Army based in Lucknow. His Command included the states of Uttar Pradesh, Orrisa, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Pinto gives one a glimpse of all the functions of an Army Commander with special emphasis on the various intelligence inputs he receives as well as the Civil Military relationship at that level. He also made good use of the four-in-hand horse-drawn carriage on the roads of Lucknow which gave his bones a good shake-up!

WAG Pinto’s book is laced with a good bit of wit and humour. He could, however, have added a bit more of military theory based on his experiences which would have been of immense value to the military historian as well as the layman. Also some of the pictures printed are of poor quality which one does not expect from an autobiography of such a distinguished soldier. Even so, this volume will undoubtedly have its place in the memoirs of eminent Indian military men.

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RIGHT ANGLE

THE RAFALE SAGA

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ith each passing day, the case of India acquiring 126 Rafale fighter jets from France in the Medium MultiRole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) category is getting curiouser and curiouser. Supposed to have been bought in about 10 billion dollars in 2012, the cost of acquiring, for which the negotiations are on between the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and French manufacturer Dassault Aviation company, is understood to have gone up to 22 billion dollars. And this at a time, when in what could be described as a huge anticlimax, the supposedly nationalistic government led by Narendra Modi has given India, as our cover stories in this issue suggest, its worst defence budget in years. Considering the fact that the Modi government has not just Prakash cared to leave enough money for big-time defence procurements, the growing impression in military circles is that the civilian-controlled MoD is playing every trick to wriggle out of the understanding with Dassault.

And a systematic campaign has been promoted by a section of the MoD that the Indian Air Force can well manage the things without the MMRCA. Ever since India decided in 2012 to go for the Rafale, dirty campaigns have been made by many who had argued for other bidders that quality-wise Rafale was inferior to the Eurofighter Typhoon, or for that matter to Boeing’s F-18 and Lockheed’s F-16.

A Russian Ambassador to India has claimed that Chinese Sukhoi Flankers (sold by Russia) “will swat the Rafale like mosquitoes”. A senior member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has said that but for the kickbacks received by senior functionaries of the then Congress-led government under Manmohan Singh, Typhoon, not Rafale, would have been the choice.

These charges against Rafale may not hold water. All told, Rafale performed very well during the Western operations against Libya and Afghanistan. The Indian Air Force (IAF) was also deeply impressed with it during the trials for the bid. But the fact remains that Rafale has not been used so far by any country other than France itself. It so happens that many countries – Brazil, Algeria, Morocco, Greece, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Singapore – that had expressed keen interests to purchase Rafale backed out subsequently. Though Dassault is exploring opportunities in Kuwait, Bahrain and Malaysia, its deal with India is considered to be most significant. Of course, for the French company, Egypt came out last month as a country God-sent. French President François Hollande announced on February 12 the sale of nearly $6 billion worth of military hardware to Egypt, including two dozen Rafale fighter jets and a naval frigate.

Be that as it may, the India-deal for the Dassault, if materialised, will be its crowning glory. The deal will also do a lot of good to the French government and the French Air Force. For, the lack of exports is forcing extra French funding in order to keep the Rafale production line at its minimum sustaining rate. And that extra spending is delaying, it is said, the much-needed modernisation of France’s Mirage 2000 fleet, thereby posing an operational risk for France. That explains why the French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was in Delhi in February to hold talks with his Indian counterpart, Manohar Parrikar, to salvage the deal that has been apparently stalled on the issue of local assembly of the aircraft. Under the terms of the contract, 18 of the Rafale planes will be sold ready-to-fly while the rest will be assembled in India at Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautic Limited (HAL), a

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government controlled enterprise. India insists that Dassault must take full responsibility for the aircraft produced at HAL, whereas Dassault says that while it will stick to delivery schedules, it cannot give guarantees for production of the aircraft made at a facility over which it has no administrative or expert control.

Defence Minister Parrikar has said that the MoD will take a final call on the matter during this month (March) after the ministry’s contract negotiations committee submits its report in early March. But the IAF is very keen on the MMRCA deal being finalised as planned. IAF Chief Arup Raha says that a speedy decision on acquiring of 126 Rafale will go a long way to plug the gaps of MiG-27 fighter aircraft which have Nanda outlived their utility. According to him, as of today the IAF does not have a “Plan B” for the MMRCA and that he is “quite happy” with the Rafale, which has been shortlisted as L1 or lowest bidder. One understands Raha’s keenness for the Rafale, given the fact that of the sanctioned 42 squadrons for the IAF, he has only 32, many of whom – such as MiG-21 and MiG-27 – are facing inescapable retirement. The IAF is thus banking heavily on the MMRCA, along with the indigenous production of Tejas – both Mark 1 and Mark 2 – in the Light Combat Category (LAC) and the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA), to be co-developed with Russia.

While choosing Rafale over other five contenders in 2102, the then government had taken in to account not only the factors of technology transfer, prices and performance but also the importance of France as a strategic partner of India. It is true of every major country that geopolitical factors play an important role in big-ticket purchases. As it is, the IAF was a satisfied user of long standing of French fighters, going back to the 1950s. It was also particularly appreciative of the performance of the French Mirages during the 1999 Kargil campaign against Pakistan and of the support it then obtained from France. During that campaign, India, and this is extremely important to note, obtained French clearance – and possibly more – to urgently adapt Israeli and Russian-supplied laser-guided bombs to the Mirages, which were thus able to successfully engage high-altitude targets that Indian MiG-23s and MiG-27s had been unable to reach.

It is noteworthy that France’s steadfastness as a military ally contrasts strongly with that of the United States, which has never been a reliable supplier of military items and technologies not only to India but also to its traditional allies. It vetoed or slowed components for LCA that India is developing. It had imposed otherwise an arms embargo on India following its nuclear tests in 1998. Similar geopolitical reasons went against the Eurofighter, jointly made by Germany, Italy, Britain and Spain. Not only had these countries reservations on the technology transfer, the fact also remained that their reliability during a war was suspect. After all, if there is a war, German laws prohibit deliveries of weapons and spares. Italian and Spanish laws are not clear on the issue. France, on the other hand, is the only major Western nation (other than Russia) not to impose sanctions on India. Besides, it has been a constant votary for India becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

Viewed thus, the importance of France in Modi’s foreign policy will play a big role in the ultimate course of the Rafale saga.

March 2015 www.geopolitics.in

prakashnanda@newsline.in

Postal Reg No. DL(E) 01/5363/2014-16, RNI No. DELENG/2010/35319, Publication Date: 1st of every month, Posting Date: 8-9th every month

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