Geopolitics

IAF CHIEF: WE ARE PREPARED AT ALL TIMES

geopolitics Vol V, Issue V, OCTOBER 2014 n `100

DEFENCE n DIPLOMACY n SECURITY

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BLAZING A TRAIL From the slow Gnat to the scorching Su-30MKI, the Indian Air Force’s aerial arsenal built over the last 81 years is strong but to make it formidable, a lot needs to be done

G IN AT S R B AR LE CE 82 YE HE T OF

IAF

A PEACEFUL SKY THANKS TO THOSE WHO DEFEND IT.

Boeing is proud to salute the Indian Air Force as it celebrates its 82nd anniversary.

CONTENTS

COVER STORY (P16) To become truly world class, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has to overcome many challenges, the most important of which is learning to perform with indigenous technology. Since independence, the IAF has continually adapted to technological breakthroughs such as jet propulsion, supersonic flights, airborne radars, electronic warfare, Precision Guided Munition (PGM), thrust vectoring, phased array multifunction radars, AESA radars, Network-centric warfare, Optical Sensors, Stealth and UAVs.

(P8)

(P30)

IAF

DRONEWARS.NET

AIRPOWER

IAF

82 YEARS OF IAF

IAF IN RESCUE OPERATIONS Judiciousness in Airlift is key to efficient relief operations during natural calamities. In Jammu and Kashmir, 125 military aircraft and helicopters were deployed for rescue and relief operations and millions of people were rescued.

GOING UNMANNED

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are the weapons of the future and there is a pressing need for India to think seriously about their use and how to quickly acquire them in sufficient numbers to make a difference.

DEFBIZ (P40)

DEFBIZ (P38)

DEFBIZ (P34)

HELPING THE IAF

MASTERS OF THE SKY

IAF CHIEF INTERVIEW

The likes of Boeing, Textron, Safran, Lockheed Martin, Sikorsky, Rafael, Rolls-Royce, MBDA, Eurojet, Saab and Telephonics are all happy to deliver their state-of-the-art technology to the Indian Air Force.

As the Indian Air Force completes 82 years of existence, we take a look at its existing capabilities. The IAF has been losing its strength drastically, being reduced to 32 squadrons from 40.

Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, in an exclusive interview to the Geopolitics, talks about the operational capabilities of the IAF and its preparedness for the two -front war.

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October 2014 geopolitics

CONTENTS

BSF

CLAUDEARPI.BLOGSPOT.IN

VOL V, ISSUE V, October 2014

SECURING THE EAST (P60) The BSF has placed a demand for an additional 41,000 troops and a sum of `5,000 crore that it wants to use to increase its manpower that will be required for undertaking Surveillance and Security of the Indo-Myanmar Border.

Editor-in-Chief

K SRINIVASAN Editor

PRAKASH NANDA Managing Editor

CHINESE TRAIN TO SIKKIM (P70) More than promoting tourism and economic development in the areas bordering India, China is pursuing to consolidate its military gains. Its Ministry of Transport has affirmed that China will expand its road network to 110,000 km by 2020.

TIRTHANKAR GHOSH Consulting Editor

SAURAV JHA Senior Proof Reader

RAJESH VAID Correspondent

NAVEED ANJUM, CHARCHIT SINGH Designers

MOHIT KANSAL, NAGENDER DUBEY

(P56)

SPECIAL FEATURE

Photo Editor

H C TIWARI Staff Photographer

MOD

PLIGHT OF MILITARY MIGHT In the initiation of defence reforms, it would be prudent to start with revamping the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to weave military expertise in the policy-decision mechanism at all levels of defence, security and strategic planning and coordination.

DIPLOMACY (P66) INDIA AND VIETNAM India and Vietnam enjoy excellent political relations growing out of the former’s unflinching support for the latter in its fight, first against French colonialism and then against American intervention that had imposed enormous sufferings on the Vietnamese.

IAF CHIEF: WE ARE PREPARED AT ALL TIMES

geopolitics Vol V, Issue V, OCTOBER 2014 n `100

DEFENCE n DIPLOMACY n SECURITY

www.geopolitics.in

BLAZING A TRAIL

G IN AT BR ARS LE CE 82 YE E TH OF

IAF

From the slow Gnat to the scorching Su-30MKI, the Indian Air Force’s aerial arsenal built over the last 81 years is strong but to make it formidable, a lot needs to be done

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5

LETTERS



LETTERS TO EDITOR

COVER STORY

COVER STORY

CYBER WARFARE THE EVOLVING DIMENSIONS India needs to draw up a cohesive and comprehensive cyber security plan, which should outline how various components of India’s actions in cyberspace be coordinated to produce the most effective system of cyber deterrence possible. Here, the role of the private sector is equally vital. In fact, it is time for the Government to make mandatory provisions in company laws for all to invest in cyber security, argues MONISH GULATI

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hree Israeli contractors, Elisra Group, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems that architected the ‘Iron Dome’ anti-missile system, which is currently being deployed by Israel to protect itself from Hamas rocket strikes, had their systems hacked and a significant quantity of sensitive documents pertaining to the shield technology copied. Amongst the data stolen from IAI was a 900-page document that included schematics and specifications of the Arrow 3 missile. It is suspected that hackers, assumed to be based in China, who infiltrated the networks of the three companies, also copied details of US missile technology

2010), defines ’cyber warfare’ as "actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation's computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption”. Cyber warfare involves the “actions by a nation-state or international organisation to attack and attempt to damage another nation's computers or information networks through, for example, computer viruses or denial-ofservice attacks. Cyber weapons are cyber means of warfare that are by design, use, or intended use, capable of causing either injury to, or death of persons. The ‘Methods’ of cyber warfare are the cyber tactics, techniques and procedures, by which hostilities are conducted”.

Globally, actions, measures, procedures, safeguards against cyber attacks or broadly cyber security is seen as a critical element of the national security apparatus by nations. The reasons are proliferation of advance and sophisticated cyber attacks, cyber threats with political and social effects, increase in cyber espionages, developments of cyber weapons and its usage for military purposes, attacks against nations by nonstate actors, cyber terrorists, hackers, etc. The assets which are under attack are economic plans, defence plans, nuclear codes, energy resource information, political designs, law enforcement details and nation’s cyber space.

There is intense activity of governments in the cyberspace, which is considered the fifth domain of the warfare and according to some analysts the "future state-on-state conflict may be char-

shared with these Israeli defence firms.

IAI networks were initially breached by a series of specially crafted email phishing campaigns. The attacks reportedly bore the hallmarks of the ‘Comment Crew,’ a prolific and state-sponsored hacking group associated with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and credited with stealing terabytes of data from defence contractors and US corporations.

These breaches occurred between 2011 and 2012. In 2009, there was a forced electronic entry into the Joint Strike Fighter programme and large amounts of data were copied.

More recently, a cyber-warfare consultant to Israel’s Ministry of Defence went on record stating that Qatar had

September 2014 geopolitics

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September 2014

acterised by the use of so-called asymmetric techniques, prominent among these may be the use of cyber-warfare.

Cyberspace is being increasingly used in modern warfare at the operational level by combatants for communication and ISR, where a cyber attack will have a significant impact on operations being conducted. According to the New York Times, an American airbase was forced to shut off its network and stop takeoffs and landings for a time, due to a massive virus attack traced to China. At the strategic level, a state's weaknesses and strengths in cyberspace can be used to deter and affect the strategic balance of power.

The use of cyberspace for offensive acts is inherently influenced by its salient characteristics. Foremost amongst these is the problem faced by cyber space experts in identifying and tracking the attacker due to dynamic characteristics of cyber space i.e. attribution is difficult in cyber space; so it becomes difficult to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Second, as cyberspace attacks can be launched in milliseconds, a nation might not have enough time to detect an attack and mount a defence. In fact, according to experts, the last clear “window of opportunity” to counter a threat may be hours or days or months before it is launched.

Third, the dynamics of the cyberspace mean that it is easier to attack than to defend. According to the 2010 US Quadrennial Defence Review, "the speed of cyber attacks and the anonymity of cyberspace greatly favours the offence.

This advantage is growing as hacker tools become cheaper and easier to employ by adversaries whose skills are growing in sophistication.

Fourth, the strategy of deterrence is thus two-sided and, as such, contradictory – a balancing act is needed between hiding the maximum level of capability on the one hand and communicating and proving that the capability exists on a sufficiently high level to deter other states on the other. Finally, the absence of global accepted rules in the cyberspace, even as related to a cyber weapon is ambiguous, which in turn is influencing the defence strategies of every government.

According to Magnus Hjortdal at the CHINA-SEC, Centre for Military Studies, University of Copenhagen, there are four reasons for nation states to acquire, maintain and utilise cyber capability in an aggressive manner. First, to deter other states by infiltrating their critical

43

“N

avy’s Indigenisation Drive” (Geopolitics, SepN tember 2014) made interestNAVY’S ing reading. The Indian Navy is INDIGENISATION the service to watch out for. It DRIVE has gathered pace in acquisition and modernisation. Currently, it is in the middle of a planned expansion drive designed to cater to emerging maritime security challenges in the Indian Ocean region and beyond.

The Indian Navy has a clear vision and it has started depending on its own country now. To couneducative and very satisfying for the ter the problems of spiralling import Indian Navy and now it’s on a path of costs of equipment and spares, and harnessing Indigenous Development. embargoes/technology denial by forSocio-economic growth and a eign countries on a long term basis, credible defence capability achieved the Navy has aimed to achieve self-relithrough self-reliance are fundamenance in maintaining and supporting its tal for a nation to secure a globally revital assets through the Indigenous Despectable position. velopment Route within the ambit of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).The Ajay Bhardwaj, Karnal last three months have been exciting, FOCUS

FOCUS

With the commissioning of INS Kolkata, India has come of age in building aircraft carrier, ballistic missile submarine, destroyer, frigate, corvette and fast attack craft on its own. If the time factor is taken care of and the programmes are completed as scheduled, the day is not far off when India will be self-reliant in defence production, argues ABHIJIT BHATTACHARYYA GLITTERING CEREMONY: A view from the commissioning of the INS Kolkata at the Naval Dockyard Mumbai

INDIAN NAVY

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given Hamas sophisticated software, training, and financing for networking sensors throughout the terror group’s deadly tunnel system, allowing Hamas to monitor and swiftly respond to IDF attempts to demolish the tunnels. The source also noted that 70 per cent of recent cyber-attacks on Israeli critical infrastructure came from Qatari IP addresses.

Simply put, cyber warfare is the use of hacking to conduct attacks on a target’s strategic or tactical resources for the purposes of espionage or sabotage.

The above incidents exemplify what is generally regarded as the “Attack-Chain” (Attacker-Weapon-Target) in the cyber environment. The attacker could be a state or non-state actor with formidable technical support or simply a computer wizard with a laptop testing his hacking prowess; the purpose could be national security, commercial advantage or the thrill of breaching an organisation’s cyber defences. The weapon could be a few lines of stand-alone malicious code or an intricate combination of software and hardware controlled in near-real time.

Add to this the lax and ineffective cyber laws and regulations, unsupportive cyber forensics, a weak and incomplete cyber lexicon and we have our cyber environment or space.

US government security expert Richard A Clarke, in his book Cyber War (May

12

T

he Cover Story “Cyber Warfare: The Evolving Dimensions” (Geopolitics, September 2014) was written in the right perspective. Cyber crime is emerging as a serious threat.

Worldwide, governments, police departments and intelligence units have started to react. Initiatives to curb cross border cyber threats are taking shape.

The Indian police has initiated special cyber cells across the country and have started educating its personnel.

The popularity of the Internet and its services is growing fast so the number of targets and offenders has been increasing as well and it’s difficult to estimate how many people use the Internet for illegal activities. The most recent estimate of global corporate losses alone stands at approximately €$750 billion per year.

There is an urgent need to harness the intelligence of network and information security stakeholders, not only to provide a more accurate and comprehensive assessment of cyber criminality but also to ensure that responses are effective and timely. Active partnerships with ISPs, Internet security organisations and online financial services are the key. The private sector needs to be assured of a confidential relationship in which information can be exchanged for investigative and intelligence purposes.

There is a need for more centralised coordination at regional and interregional levels, to streamline the fight against cybercrime.

Krishna Singh, Chandigarh

6

RIGHT ANGLE

CHANGING EQUATIONS WITH PAKISTAN

T

he cancellation of the proposed foreign secretary level talks between India and Pakistan, following the meeting of the Pakistani envoy to India with separatist leaders of the Kashmir Valley, has predictably evoked sharp reactions – more in India than in Pakistan. Perhaps, the Pakistani commentators, busy as they are in following the impending threats to the future of democracy in their country from one Imran Khan, a much hyped cricketer-turned-politician and one religious leader – both allegedly backed by the Pakistani Army – have little time to ponder over the decision of the new Indian government. But in India itself, if you happen to read the lead writers and watch the news anchors, the unmistakable impression is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has committed blasphemy.

In my considered opinion, the Modi government has done well to stall the talks because it was high time that India needed a change in the terms of engagement with Pakistan. Let us discuss the sequence of events dispassionately. Since the 1990s, the two countries have been indulging in what is called “composite dialogue”, consisting of eight areas or items: peace and security concerns, including Confidence Building Measures (CBMs); Jammu and Kashmir; Siachen; Sir Creek; Tulbul Navigation Project/Wullar Barrage; terrorism and drug trafficking; economic and commercial cooperation; and promotion of friendly exchanges in various fields. However, talks have been periodically suspended whenever there were terrorPrakash ist attacks on Indian turf, allegedly with Pakistani complicity, not to talk of the hot-war involving armed forces in Kargil in 1999. In 2004, the process, which was stalled after attacks on the Indian Parliament, resumed after Pakistan gave a commitment that its territory would not be used for any terrorist training and attacks affecting India. Then came the attacks on Mumbai in November 2008. India-Pakistan negotiations halted again. The talks resumed in July 2011. But on July 13 that year, there were attacks on Mumbai again. But this time, India decided not to disturb the already scheduled talks with Pakistan.

The then Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna met his Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, in New Delhi on July 27.

The meeting implied two things that became important features of India’s policy towards Pakistan under the Manmohan Singh regime. One, in contrast to past practice, India “dehyphenated” terrorism from talks with Pakistan. Two, as “the joint statement” of the Krishna-Khar talks suggested, India also agreed with Pakistan that while the two countries should discuss all the matters under a composite dialogue, primacy must be accorded to Kashmir. Since nothing was achieved on seven other issues under the composite dialogue, a detailed road map was agreed on in this meeting of the two Foreign Ministers on how to bring the Kashmiri people, living in the respective territories controlled by India and Pakistan through trade and travel, closer.

That was not all. The then Pakistani Foreign Minister not only saw forward movement on the Kashmir issue; she also scored an emphatic point by openly meeting top separatist Kashmiri leaders in Delhi. I doubt whether Pakistan will ever allow a visiting Indian Foreign Minister to meet the disgruntled leaders of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) at Islamabad.

What all this did was that a strong perception was created; in fact, a perception that is still shared by the vocal strategic analysts of India, that “Kashmir is a disputed territory”, with

82

“separatist Kashmiri leaders being an important party (to this dispute)”. By cancelling the Foreign Secretary-level talks, the Modi government has done the most sensible thing by telling the outside world that the perceptions generated under the Manmohan regime were nothing but misperceptions. For India, Jammu and Kashmir is not a disputed territory; it is an integral part of India as highlighted under the constitutions of both the country and the state (province). If India is talking to Pakistan, it is mainly over how to deal with the parts and people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir that are under the control of Pakistan. Second, the separatist leaders of Kashmir have no role in these talks between India and Pakistan. If they are disgruntled, then they have the same rights as other Indian citizens have in talking to the Indian government to redress their grievances. They simply have no rights to go to Pakistan and dictate what that country should talk to India about. And this means that Pakistan has no right to involve the Kashmiri separatists, whether directly or otherwise, in its talks with India.

In other words, Modi has only changed the terms of engagement with Pakistan and set right the suicidal practices initiated under the previous Congress-led government. Those in India suffering from the suicidal-syndrome over Kashmir, or for that matter the outside world, should know that Kashmiri separatists are not interested in autonomy or liberation (“azadi”) as such. Their sole motto is to “Islamize” the Valley by planting Wahabi Islam in a land known for its reliNanda gious tolerance and coexistence (the great Kashmiriyat). They want to part with India because India is not Islamic. But then that is very dangerous logic.

When India was partitioned in 1947, the population figures were about 330, 27 and 30 million people in India, West Pakistan and Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), respectively. In terms of area, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh constituted roughly 1.3, 0.3 and 0.06 million square miles, respectively. Thus, population percentages were 85 per cent, 15 per cent and land percentages were 75 per cent and 25 per cent for India and United Pakistan (West and East Pakistan), respectively. But then, united Pakistan was meant for “all” the Muslims of the subcontinent just as Israel was for all Jews of the world. If all the Muslims of the pre-August 1947 India had decided to go to the then United Pakistan, Pakistani rulers could not have said or done anything to the contrary.

But that did not happen. Every Indian should be proud of the fact that because of the country’s pluralist and secular ethos, a majority of the Muslims preferred to stay back in India. And that being the case, the then Pakistan got a much better but extremely unfair land deal during the partition compared to India.

Now, when one challenges the status of Kashmir, he or she is precisely reopening the question of partition. Because if Kashmiri separatists and their liberal supporters argue that the Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims cannot coexist in Jammu and Kashmir and, therefore, the Muslims must either join Pakistan or form an independent country, then they should convince their Muslim brethren in the rest of India that they have done wrong by staying back in India and that they all should migrate either to Pakistan or Bangladesh, failing which these two countries should return excess territories to India. Are the Kashmiri separatists and Pakistan, let alone their “liberal supporters” in India, prepared for such an eventuality? prakashnanda@newsline.in

September 2014 geopolitics

ot too long ago, at the start of the post-Indira Gandhi era (1985), the Indian Navy’s inventory had virtually no indigenous or locally produced hardware to display except a few Mumbai-made frigates. The Indian naval fleet essentially was an extensive user of foreign ships.

Thus, all ten submarines were either (the then) Soviet (Foxtrot class) or German (Howaldtswerke) origin, made specifically for the Indian Navy.

The sole second-hand aircraft carrier Vikrant, laid down on October 10, 1943 by British Vickers-Armstrong Ltd had developed all the symptoms of an ageing machine with more time being spent in the dry dock than for “mission in the ocean” preparation to hone the maritime skills while in a peace station. Similarly, ‘the biggest and the heaviest’ of non-carrier surface combatants, cruiser INS Mysore, was also a 46-year-old British company Vickers-Armstrong Ltd, Tyne machine.

The builders of three new Kashin-class destroyers were the Soviet shipyard, Nikolayev North (61 Kommuna) and commissioned on May 4, 1980; February 19, 1982 and November 24, 1983, respectively.

The British also manufactured and supplied two of their ex-Whitby class frigates and three ex-Leopard class frigates renamed Brahmaputra, Beas and Betwa in 1960. In fact, “Brahmaputra originally ordered as Panther for the Royal Navy on June 28, 1951, was the first major warship to be built in the UK for the Indian Navy since India became independent”. All three were products of UK’s John Brown & Co Ltd, Clydebank and Vickers-Armstrong Ltd, Tyne. On August 23, 1943, was commissioned ex-British Black Swan frigate, renamed “Krishna” built by Yarrow & Co Ltd, Scotstown, Glasgow, formed part of the Indian Navy’s training squadron.

The Indian Navy continued to operate several Soviet produced and supplied smaller sized “Nanuchka II” and tiny (210 tonne full load) missile-fast attack craft (Karachi harbour attack famous) Osa II class and the Poland-produced small amphibious Polnochny class landing ships.

Even the sole Ugra class 9500 tonne full load submarine tender Amba was of Soviet make and the two replenishment tankers, Deepak and Shakti, were from European shipyards Bremer-Vulkan.

India virtually had nothing to show as indigenous military hardware. The only silver lining, however, was the Mazagon Dock Ltd produced and commissioned six Leander class (between 2962 and 3100

Today, the Indian Navy (IN) is the most powerful indigenous naval force from Hainan to Port Said and is growing

ton full load) from June 1972 to July 1981, and the two Godavari class (3600 tonne full load) frigates inducted into the Navy in 1983 and 1984, respectively.

Ironically, however, the Western world was far from convinced and happy at the moderate growth of the Indian Navy with its 95 per cent Western made naval platforms. A downright blunt question was raised about the motive and need of the Indian establishment as to whether India really required such “considerable force” at all or not? And if so, what could be its purpose and who could be the potential target of the growing Indian flotilla – the inability of the India of mid-1980s to build its ship-building capacity notwithstanding. Jane’s Fighting Ships 1985-1986, rightly or wrongly, had this to report: “The Indian Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi) avers that the Pakistani forces are a threat to his country. This is not the place to discuss the strengths of the armies and air forces of the two countries but to see if India’s naval forces have been designed to counter the threat from Pakistan and, if not, what tasks they are required to undertake. The best available figures for the Indian Navy suggest the following as a reasonable basis for discussion. The submarine fleet now contains eight Soviet Foxtrot class with a further four or more ‘Kilo’ class to follow.

At least eight HDW ‘209’ class submarines are building or planned. The carrier Vikrant will be kept in service for another ten years with possible augmentation by the British carrier Hermes”.

The review of the annual naval bible concluded: “This very considerable force could flatten the Pakistani Navy in very short order, so is this the target? The new sea and air base at Port Blair in the Andaman Islands is over 2500 miles from the Pakistan border, an unlikely adjunct for a defensive campaign against that country.

But the new Soviet bases in Vietnam are only two hours flying time from the Andamans. May be this is meant as an early warning area for any incursion by the Soviet Pacific fleet and its aircraft – but this

www.geopolitics.in

September 2014

seems absurd when, by the 1990s, well over half the Indian fleet will have been provided by the USSR”. That this conclusion of the Western experts was erroneous and contradictory emerged from the final comments: “Today, the Indian Navy is the most powerful indigenous naval force from Hainan to Port Said and is growing”.

The words “powerful” and “growing” can be understood, but was the Indian Navy an “indigenous” force owing to 90 per cent of its inventory being imported from the West in the 1980s? What sort of judgement and conclusion was that by those who are adored and admired by Indians for theirs being “wisdom of the Western sources”?

One, therefore, can very well understand what huge and inherent obstacles came in the way of successive Indian establishments to reduce imports and indigenise Indian naval assets as only a year earlier Western nations had openly opined the futility of an Indian Navy and its growth. “Indian ministers have spoken of the menace of Pakistani aggression, without identifying either the reason or the means behind such an action...Pakistani armed forces represent a smaller proportion of her population than most European countries while her navy is barely inadequate for the protection of her trade within coastal waters.

These facts, combined with the small annual bill of some $200 million for support of the refugees from Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, do not readily prove an aggressive intent. If Pakistan were to be the invader, possessing an army less than half the size of that of India and an air force with a third of the Indian line-up of aircraft, they would need incredible luck or some form of divine intervention to achieve success. With this background and in view of the extreme secretiveness of the Indian defence authorities, one is forced to speculate whether these protestations of danger are designed to deflect people’s attention from the astonishing (naval) build-up now in progress”.

Almost three decades have gone since the comments of the Western critics and Indian cynics as the Indian Navy today has done the best amongst its peers in producing indigenous combat ships of various types thereby setting a shining example for others to emulate, cost and time overrun of virtually all ship building yards of the country notwithstanding. Even the Western critics of the past admit that the naval arm of India is in a much better position to look after its future needs than the country’s air force

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Kashmir separatists on the eve of the dialogue. Also, Pakistan is continuing its attacks along the LoC. The Indian government policy with Pakistan is always to encourage Indo-Pak trade to improve relations of two countries. Will Pakistan ever stop terrorism against India? Its attitude and actions are not encouraging.

All the good words by Pakistan are only in theory to show the world that it supports peace in the region. The truth is otherwise. There is no hope that Pakistan will improve and wants to strengthen its relationship with India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi rightly said that Pakistan is engaged in proxy war with India.

Yours faithfully,

September 2014 geopolitics

Mahesh Kumar, New Delhi

R

efer to “Changing equations with Pakistan” (Geopolitics, September 2014). India rightly called off the scheduled foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan, objecting to its envoy meeting

October 2014 geopolitics

All correspondence may be addressed to: Editor, Geopolitics, 20, Nizamuddin West Market, Nizamuddin West, New Delhi-110013.

Or mail to: geopolitics@newsline.in

multiple choices for multirole missions lock on to mbda solutions

AIR DOMINANCE

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Photo: A. Paringaux

DUAL MODE BRIMSTONE

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IAF IN NONCOMBAT OPERATIONS Judiciousness in airlift is a key to efficient relief operations during natural calamities, writes ASHOK KUMAR CHORDIA

C

loudbursts, flash floods and landslides left death and destruction in their wake in Uttarakhand (July 2013). The devastating monsoon rains left 6,000 people dead and about 100,000 pilgrims and tourists stranded in the valleys for prolonged periods. The recent floods (September 2014) that have hit Jammu & Kashmir have been the worst in the last 60 years in terms of loss of lives and property in the region – an estimated 220 people died and over 4,00,000 were rendered homeless as on September 11, 2014. Nature’s fury has not singled out India; it has been impartial in its treatment of the earth’s geography. The floods that swept China earlier this year affected over 19 million people and caused an es-

8

timated damage of about $5 billion.

Fear of the next disaster lurks as the government struggles to mitigate the misery in J&K – one doesn’t know where and when it will strike. According to an International Development Ministry (UK) report, “The scale, frequency and severity of humanitarian disasters will continue to grow at an accelerated pace.”

The report predicts that by 2015, climaterelated disasters will affect roughly 375 million people every year. Thus, the recent disasters cannot be treated as exceptions; they are but the beginning of an era in which mega-disasters will be routine. Interspersed with manmade/ man-aggravated disasters like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Plant accident, disasters are

October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

likely to return with the regularity of the solstices and the equinoxes.

Armed forces (para-military forces included) were deployed in Uttarakhand to provide succour to the affected population. Within the first ten days, the Indian Air Force (Operation Rahat) airlifted over 13,000 people and dropped over 2,00,000 kgs of relief material in more than 1,500 airlift sorties. The rescue work continued unabated despite the crash of a Mi-17 V5 helicopter. The Indian Army (Operation Surya Hope) saved over 2,700 pilgrims in over 600 sorties. The armed forces collectively evacuated more than 1,10,000 people from the flood-ravaged areas.

In Jammu and Kashmir this year, 84 military aircraft were deployed for rescue and relief operations; as on September

12, 2014, nearly 96,000 people had been rescued by the joint efforts of the armed forces and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

Similarly, when an earthquake hit Sichuan province in April 2013, the Chinese military came to the rescue with nearly 1,46,000 troops. More than 4,700 airlift sorties were flown to provide succour to the affected population in China.

These are but three of the many disasters that have caused havoc in this region in recent times. A closer look at a larger number of some of the most devastating ones since the Tsunami of 2004 provides food for thought:  The disasters necessitate major relief operations success of which, depends on the ability of the relief organisations to move large numbers of men and tonnes of material expeditiously to (and fro) the affected locations.  Increasingly, military personnel are being deployed to mitigate the misery of the people; in some instances, they are being called in even before the designated disaster relief organisations.  The surface means of transportation are invariably disrupted. Airlift plays a predominant role in conveying rescue teams, doctors and supplies to the affected areas and evacuating the population to havens elsewhere.  In some cases the number of the dead and the missing vies with (and even exceeds), the number of survivors and evacuees. There is always a lot left to be desired.

A relook at these disasters throws up some questions for introspection: Can such crises be managed any better? Can more lives be saved? How? There is a need to distil and capture the lessons learnt from past experiences, not as brand new ideas but as a guide to organise and make sense of the resources and effort put into exercises of large magnitudes. There are areas, which can be worked upon and fine-tuned.

To begin with, India’s past is a repository of experience in airlift during disasters. A revisit can give valuable insights.

Besides our own experience, two historical airlifts that have a lot in common with our environment are: firstly, the Allied airlift of supplies to a beleaguered people in Berlin (1948-49) and secondly, the airlift over the hump in inclement weather over mountainous and jungle terrain (1942-45) – a study of these airlifts may be of immense value. Study of relatively recent airlifts by the US and the NATO forces in Iraq and Afghanistan with state of the art assets may be relevant in a dif-

ferent context.

Availability of a large fleet of transport aircraft is no guarantee against disasters of all magnitudes. Situations arise wherein the available strength falls short of the requirement. Civilian aircraft are often requisitioned during crisis situations. But the existing system is loosely organised; the airlines are not formally committed. The crew are not duty-bound to fly in hazardous conditions or through a hostile airspace. An incident cited by K P Fabian in the ORAL HISTORY section of the Indian Foreign Affairs Journal (Vol. 7, No. 1, January-March, 2011) highlights the point. According to him, the crew of Air India had threatened to ground their fleet when a set of their crew was stranded in Kuwait even as Indian expatriates awaited airlift out of the war-torn region (Gulf War, 1990).

The US too, despite its formidable airlift capacity, faces shortage of aircraft and resorts to augmentation. They have a formalised system of augmenting the national airlift capacity in times of crises.

The US Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) supports its Department of Defence (DOD) airlift requirements in emergencies when the need for airlift exceeds the capability of the military fleet. All CRAF participants are US carriers certified by the Federal Aviation Administration. The commercial airlines contractually pledge aircraft to the various segments of CRAF, ready for activation when needed. To provide incentives for civil carriers to commit aircraft to the CRAF programme and to assure the US of adequate airlift reserves, the government makes peacetime airlift business available to civilian airlines that obligate aircraft to the CRAF. It is a symbiotic relationship – CRAF presents benefits and opportunities for both DOD and US airlines. The CRAF system, with changes to suit our environment, could be emulated.

A large fleet of transport aircraft and helicopters is desirable to achieve megaairlifts. It is possible however, to offset the inadequacies of numbers (to an extent, though) by ensuring that all the available airworthy aircraft remain airborne as long as possible and the turnaround time on the ground is minimum. Mechanical/ powered means take much less time for loading/ offloading. Wherever possible, air bases could be equipped with facilities that reduce manual handling of loads to the minimum. At remote locations where heavy Material Handling Equipment (MHE) cannot be positioned, innovative means could be employed to minimise turnaround time. When faced with the paucity of MHE and manpower

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October 2014

“Such was the appeal of the Berlin Airlift that many VIPs visited to see the activity – so strongly did it capture the imagination of the free world, that we were being visited by national leaders, military men, and well-known journalists from many countries. They all had to put up with a degree of informality.

In the very first few days, a party of VIPs bound from Berlin in C-47 landed at Wisbaden for lunch.

When they came back to their plane they found it loaded with flour.”

Lieutenant General William H Tunner cited in Over the Hump in the China-Burma-India Sector (194245), the Allied Forces had used elephants for loading aircraft.

At different stages of the relief operations, media occasionally report VIP visits to the affected areas to oversee the action. Much of such reportage is with adverse connotations. Many of them view the use of resources for the security/administrative arrangements for such visits as a wanton waste of dedicated resources meant for relief operations.

While some visits are inevitable, most

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PROVIDING THE SUCCOUR: Glimpses of the rescue operation in J & K

others can be avoided. Technology has made it possible for a VIP sitting in Delhi, to witness the operations on a computer screen in real time. Therefore, such visits could be deferred till relief operations stabilise and may only be undertaken provided they do not impede relief work.

Further, a deliberate degree of informality can make a big difference – a dignitary could go through a visit unobtrusively in routine sorties. The following anecdote highlights the spirit in which such visits need to be taken: (see quote on page 9) The variety, the quantity, and the quality, of supplies airlifted is of grave concern. Every kilogram of material that is airlifted must result in some form of succour to the deserving at the receiving end. Nearly 65 per cent of the Berlin Airlift (1948-49) was devoted to carrying charcoal needed critically for cooking and heating the houses in the bitter winter. To reduce the consumption of charcoal, practical foodstuff that required less cooking was given preference over others that required more heating.

During the Uttarakhand relief operations, some sorties were devoted to airlifting firewood for cremation of the dead, at a time when there were many survivors still awaiting relief supplies

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pending evacuation. The choice between airlifting ‘firewood for cremation of the dead’ and supplying ‘water, food and medicines to those on the verge of dying’ poses a dilemma, particularly when one action is at the cost of the other. If the people struggling for survival deserve critical supplies, the dead too deserve a respectable cremation/ burial.

This is a sensitive issue and deserves a carefully balanced study with the heart and the mind being in the right places and at a time when no disaster relief operation is in progress.

Conventionally, fixed/rotary wing

During the Uttarakhand relief operations, sorties were devoted to airlifting firewood for cremation of the dead, at a time when there were many survivors still awaiting relief supplies pending evacuation October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

aircraft have been used as airlifters during disasters. Could airships be effective in this role? Sky lifter, an Australian firm, claims to be developing an airship that will carry up to 150 tonnes over 1000 kms.

Once developed, the airship is expected to carry rural hospitals and disaster relief centres to remote areas.

Now consider this: Airlift platforms (airships included) are mere means to an end; their effectiveness depends on their intelligent exploitation. Helicopters were deployed to douse the meltdown in the reactors when an earthquake and tsunami struck Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station (2011). Radioactive contamination from the plant necessitated the evacuation of people up to 30 kms away and affected up to 100,000 residents. Helicopters used in the operation could carry a small payload, about 2.5 tonnes, which had very little effect on the blaze. Their bellies were coated with lead to lessen the effect of nuclear radiation. This lowered their capacity to carry water. Pilots who flew those sorties did so at the peril of their lives. A pilotless airship (which may be a possibility in the not-too-distant future) with a capacity of 60 to 70 tonnes, would have achieved more tangible results – no risk to lives; much larger quantity of water delivered Continued on page 14

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The fateful night of September 6, 2014, saw Jhelum’s water rising unexpectedly. By the next morning, the whole city of Srinagar was flooded. The water, however, kept on rising. With the state administration floundering to save the people from the natural disaster, it was left to the Indian armed forces to take up the rescue operation. The Indian Air Force, known for their heroic services during the Uttarakhand disaster in 2013, went ahead to once again prove to the world that they could be relied upon in times of distress.

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October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

IAF TO THE RESCUE • Indian Air Force deployed over 125 helicopters and aircraft in the flood-affected regions of Jammu and Kashmir to evacuate stranded people. Operation Rahat-II, launched by the Air Force, became one of the biggest rescue operations in the history of the nation.

• 61 helicopters and 65 transport aircraft were pressed into the service. Heavylift aircraft involving C-17s, C-130Js, IL-76s and AN-32s were used for the rescue and relief operations. Among the helicopters were the newly-inducted Russianmade MI-17 V5 choppers and the world’s biggestlift MI-26 helicopters.

FORCES INVOLVED • The Indian Air Force (IAF), along with Indian Army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Marine Commandos (MARCOS) were seen in the rescue operation. Around 30,000 Army, IAF and NDRF personnel were involved in this massive round-the-clock rescue and relief measures.

• A total of 224 boats of Army and 148 NDRF’s inflatable boats were actively involved in the rescue operation. In addition, the Armed Forces also established 19 relief camps in Srinagar and Jammu region.

DRDO IN RESCUE OPERATIONS

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PHOTOGRAPHS MOD/IAF

• Defence Research and Development Organistation (DRDO) also joined the Indian Army in the rescue and relief operation by sending a team equipped with medicines and other medical aid and readyto-eat packaged foods. A Mobile Satellite Services terminal ‘SATCOM’ was airlifted to Srinagar and a link between a CRPF location near Srinagar Airport and the MHA control room at New Delhi was made operational.

October 2014

COMPILED BY NAVEED ANJUM DESIGNED BY MOHIT KANSAL

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Continued from page 10

in every lift. Besides, airships could have effected evacuation of larger numbers of people. Similarly, an airship could have carried hundreds of residents upwind and saved them from the poisonous gases emanating from the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal (1984).

Today, pizzas are being delivered to the doorsteps of the customers by quad-copters. Using the same technology, it should be easily possible to deliver some really meaningful things to people stranded on rooftops during floods. Just imagine: matchboxes, mosquito repellents, life-saving medicines, baby-food, water bottles, mobile phones, batteries and the like being delivered by quadcopters to people marooned during floods. Such application and exploitation of technology does not require knowledge of rocket science – just a little out of the box thinking. Some call it Jugaad.

Considering that the armed forces are invariably involved in providing relief when disaster strikes, it would be worthwhile to include serving and retired service personnel in various disaster relief bodies at all levels. Their presence in those organisations will ensure more effective two-way communication and speedier action.

AN-32s and the IL-76s, which were inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the ‘80s, are being replaced with the C130J Super Hercules and the Boeing C-17

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Globemaster III; deliveries of which are in progress. These well timed inductions will boost the IAF’s airlift capability to a higher level – moving more men and material, faster and more efficiently; meeting more aspirations; projecting greater capability and power. In fact, the first C-130Js that landed in India in 2011 were pressed into service within days of their arrival: to airlift relief material for the victims of the earthquake in Sikkim (2011).

And since then they have been deployed on numerous relief missions all over the world. These are versatile aircraft that can land on short unprepared airstrips in difficult weather and visibility conditions – a cherished capability much sought in today’s transport aircraft. Induction of

AN-32s and the IL-76s, which were inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the ‘80s, are being replaced with the C-130J Super Hercules and the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

ALL PHOTOS: MOD/IAF

OPERATION RAHAT-II: IAF chopper in rescue of the stranded tourists from the Kashmir region

more helicopters too is in progress. Media reports suggest that India is close to taking decisions on procurement of another state of the art helicopter and an amphibious aircraft to give a boost to its airlift capability. If and when inducted, an amphibious aircraft will bolster both national security and preparedness for disaster relief in a significant way. Capacity and capabilities are but one face of the coin; a lot depends on how they are exploited when the chips are down.

According to the UN, the frequency of natural disasters has increased globally but the sharpest increase has been in the Asia-Pacific Region. The recent disasters have only underscored the vulnerability of the region to nature’s fury.

While we take measures to prevent further deterioration of the environment, being prepared is the need of the hour.

Experience, and the derived wisdom, prompts at the dire need to bolster airlift capability and capacity while augmenting and judiciously exploiting the available resources. Work-studies could be undertaken to fine-tune the working so that airlifts devoted to disaster relief become more effective. Learning from the past and investment in R&D is sure to pay dividends.

Group Captain Ashok K Chordia [Retd] is former Assistant Director of Operations [Para] at Air Headquarters, New Delhi and is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi

EQUIPPING FOR To become truly world class, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has to overcome many challenges, the most important of which is learning to perform with indigenous technology, writes VIJAINDER THAKUR

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PRAVEEN SUNDARAM

A

ir Force is a technology-driven service, more than the Navy or the Army. The last century saw rapid advances in military aviation technology, and the current century is seeing a continuation of the trend. Since independence, the IAF has continually adapted to technological breakthroughs such as jet propulsion, supersonic flight, airborne radars, electronic warfare, Precision Guided Munition (PGM), thrust vectoring, phased array multifunction radars, AESA radars, Network-centric warfare, Optical Sensors, Stealth and UAVs. Not only did the IAF absorb and embrace these technologies, it re-oriented its tactics to use them effectively. Opinion is divided on how effectively and rapidly the IAF coped with past technological changes. Be that as it may, India today is in a unique position – A country that could source its weapons from the best arms manufacturers in the world – from Russia, a time tested friend; from the US, a natural ally; and from Israel, a friend with bonds deeply rooted in history. The IAF took full advantage of India's unique positioning, perhaps more so than the Army and the Navy, blending Russian engineering with western electronics to come up with cost effective and potent marvels such as the Su-30MKI. The service started exercising with friendly countries across the spectrum – USA, UK, France, South Africa and Singapore to imbibe best practices and improve interoperability. The IAF’s recent exercise with the Russian Air Force –

AviaIndra-2014 – illustrates how far the IAF has come.

Over the past 15 years, large scale induction of Su-30MKIs, upgrades to the IAF’s MiG-21, MiG-27 and MiG-29 fleets; introduction of net-centric warfare through AFNET and data links; induction of force multipliers like tankers and Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft; and regular exercise with foreign air forces have added considerably to the IAF’s punch. Acquisition of the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) (Rafale), planned upgrades to the IAF’s Mirage 2000 and Jaguar fleets and modernisation of airfield infrastructure (MAFI) would continue the trend. The IAF’s re-equipping plans

October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

over the next 20 years seems impressive – with Rafale, Tejas LCA, LCA Mk-2, Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) and Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) fighters; Phalcon AWACS, EMB145 AEW&C and Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) force multipliers; and additional C-17s and C-130J transports in the pipeline.

This does not mean that there are no challenges. The IAF still has a long way to go in areas such as ISR, UAS and UCAVs. Also, more challenging technological advances in military aviation are around the corner: Cooperative engagements, optionally manned fighters, and hypersonic flight, to name a few. Resting on the oars is not an option for the artistes of the sky!

THE FUTURE

The IAF needs to press on with its new found nimbleness in adapting to changes.

All told, the force is still some way from becoming world class. The future remains replete with challenges, known, predictable and unpredictable; posed by our adversaries, procurement plans and existing shortcomings.

We will dwell on some of the known and predictable challenges, the focus being on the challenge of indigenous development.

The Tejas LCA Mk-1 is believed to be months away from Final Operational Clearance (FOC) and induction into the IAF. In November 2001, while sanctioning Full Scale Engineering Development (FSED) of the aircraft, MoD stipulated De-

cember 2008 as project completion date.

The date has since been revised to March 2015. An eight-year long delay in a sevenyear long project is difficult to condone, but it must be kept in mind that the LCA was initially sanctioned as a technology demonstrator project and its two prototypes were not built to production standards. They were built to be serviced by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) engineers; as a result, many components were not fitted to be line replaceable.

Post Full Scale Engineering Development (FSED) sanction, the aircraft needed much internal re-engineering to facilitate flight line servicing by IAF personnel. HAL was to progressively bring the Tejas to production standards while building the

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October 2014

eight Limited Service Production aircraft, but senior IAF officers connected with the project told Geopolitics that early Limited Series production (LSP) aircraft were no different from the prototype.

The IAF has now placed orders with HAL for 40 Series Production (SP) aircraft to equip two squadrons. The first SP aircraft is close to delivery as we go to print; another two are scheduled to be delivered before the year-end. Priced around $30 million, the Tejas is a very cost-effective solution to the IAF's need for a lightweight air defence fighter with a credible strike capability. It will be much easier to fly and far more lethal than the MiG-21 Bis/MiG-21 Bison aircraft that it is set to replace in the IAF. HAL plans to initially produce eight aircraft per year and later ramp up production to 16. It has signed Long Time Business Agreements (LTBAs) of 3-5 years with its sub-vendors to keep prices low, assuring vendors of production orders for up to 40-50 aircraft at a time. If HAL production of Tejas SP aircraft meets IAF's quality expectations, and the aircraft lives up to its promise in squadron service, the IAF would likely place additional orders for Tejas, especially in view of the delay in the LCA Mk-2 project.

HAL has plans to meet a requirement of 200 aircraft in the next decade!

It may be noted that despite being a useful platform, LCA Tejas, which is powered by the GE-F404-IN20 engine, doesn't measure up to IAF Qualitative Requirements. During its development lifecycle, the aircraft ended up being nearly 1.5 ton heavier than its designed weight. It was initially hoped that the weight gain would be compensated by fitting the more powerful GTRE developed Kaveri engine.

However, in September 2008, it was accepted that the Kaveri wouldn't be ready in time.

The decision to develop the LCA Mk-2 was taken when it became evident to the IAF while testing LSP Tejas LCAs that the aircraft performance was short on certain key Air Staff Requirements including:  Power to Weight Ratio  Sustained Turn Rate  Maximum speeds at low altitudes

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MOD

 

AOA range Weapon delivery profiles Performance shortfall like sustained turn rate and maximum low level speed could only be remedied through the use of a more powerful engine; so it was decided to develop a new variant of the aircraft powered by the more powerful GEF414-INS6 engine.

Minor modifications are being made to the LCA Tejas Mk-1 airframe to accommodate the slightly lengthier engine. The fuselage is being extended by 500mm.

(The stretching of fuselage would eliminate the need for the dead weight lead plates fitted on the LCA Mk-1 in order to ensure stability of the aircraft.)

In a sense, the LCA Mk-2 is the aircraft that the IAF really wanted, not the Tejas LCA. Preliminary design of the LCA Mk-2

by HAL and ADA was to be completed

by March 2014; detailed designing was to start immediately thereafter. There is no confirmation that this has happened.

ADA-HAL are designing LCA Mk-2 using DFMA (Design for Manufacturing and

18

Assembly) methodology, which ensures that aircraft components are designed for easy manufacture, without adversely impacting the ease with which they can be fitted on the aircraft. The first time use of DFMA methodology in designing an

LCA MK-2 FEATURE  Structural Weight Reduction  Aerodynamic Improvements  Upgraded Flight Control

Computer  Electronic Warfare Suite  Upgraded Avionics  Retractable probe for inflight refueling  On board oxygen generation system  Increased fuel capacity

October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

aircraft would ensure better quality and quick ramp up of serial production after IOC. LCA Mk-2 was to make its first flight in 2014, with full-rate production to follow two years later. However, it is now evident that first flight is more than two years away.

Despite the delay, if the LCA Mk-2 project delivers on its promise, it would prove to be a turning point in the evolution of the IAF. With air-to-air refueling, it would add significantly to the IAF's strike punch, besides boosting the IAF's air defence capability.

India and Russia plan to jointly develop a version of the Russian T-50 aircraft customised for IAF requirements.

The Indian version would use the T-50's airframe, engines and main systems, but differ in its avionics and weapon suite.

The FGFA would use more composite and electronics developed in collaboration with Israel.

Russia is planning to use the jointlydeveloped 5G fighter as an export variant of the T-50. The fighter is expected

MOD

MIGHTY AIRCRAFT: (left) C-130J Super Hercules making a historic landing in the Daulat Beg Oldie in Ladakh; (above) C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft

to enter IAF service by 2020. India’s HAL and Russia’s Rosoboronexport and Sukhoi signed a contract worth $295 million for Preliminary Design (PD) of the FGFA in December 2010.

Under the PD contract, Indian engineers underwent 20 courses to familiarise themselves with the aircraft. The training was completed in July, 2011. The Russians provided Indian professionals with the original data and the software to create a single working environment. A group of Indian experts worked in Russia in January-October 2012, and a group of Russian specialists in India.

By April 2013, HAL and Sukhoi had finalised the design and technical specs of the aircraft and agreed on a work share for the research and development (R&D) phase.

A contract for the aircraft’s full-scale development, worth $11 billion, is expected to be signed during President Putin's scheduled visit to India in December 2014.

The IAF was to evaluate the T-50 before signing a full scale development con-

tract with Russia. At the time of going to the press, it’s not clear if this evaluation has taken place. In September 2014, it was reported that the IAF isn’t satisfied with the AL-41F1 (Product 117) engines that currently power the T-50, as also the aircraft's stealth features and weapons carriage system.

Moscow-based Salut and NPO Saturn are building a brand new stealthy power plant for the T-50, which is not a derivative of the AL-41F1 (Product 117) engine currently fitted on the aircraft. Called Product 30, the new engine will be 30 per cent lighter and feature 30 per cent lower life-cycle cost. Apparently, the R&D contract drawn up the Russian partners doesn’t cover fitting of the Product 30 engine. Additionally, there are differences between the two partners over the operational capability of the Tikhomirov-NIIP N036 Byelka AESA radar of the aircraft and the IAF is concerned about the overall development cost, maintainability and safety features of the aircraft.

Difference between India and Russia at this stage of the programme is not sur-

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October 2014

prising, and certainly not alarming. The in-fashion ‘joint production’ labelling in reality clothes what is essentially a buyer seller relationship and buyers-sellers squabbles over the price and usefulness of a new product are only to be expected!

Meanwhile in Russia, state testing of the T-50 started in May 2014 and deliveries of the aircraft to the Russian Air Force are scheduled to start in 2016.

In other words, once the FGFA development contract is inked, its success would be assured with timely deliveries, as was the case with the Su-30MKI programme. During Aero India 2013, it was officially stated that the first prototype of the aircraft would arrive in India in 2015, the second in 2017, and the third in 2018.

India plans to acquire 214 aircraft by the end of 2030, but could well end up buying over 400.

It may be noted here that China is developing two stealth fighters – J-20 and J-31. Like the US F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightening-2, the J-20 and J-31 are designed to evade detection by ground based radars. China also has VHF AESA

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ground based radars that can detect Low Observable (LO) aircraft like the US Raptor and Lightening-2.

Unlike the US and Chinese LO aircraft, the T-50 isn’t designed and equipped as much to evade detection by ground based radar, as to detect the Raptor earlier and engage it in close combat to assert its superior manoeuvrability. The T-50/FGFA would have a similar advantage over the two Chinese stealth fighters. In fact, experts say that the IAF has done well in choosing the T-50/FGFA over the F-35 Lightening-2. The FGFA would make a worthy successor to the venerable Su30MKI and secure the future of our country till the middle of this century.

The Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) is conceived to be a 20 ton category fifth generation LO (stealth) fighter featuring super manoeuvrability, super cruise, and sensor fusion. The project is currently in the design phase.

Feasibility study was completed by end of FY 2011.

The AMCA is being designed as an affordable fighter with swing role capability to meet the requirements of the IAF post 2020. It would carry 5 tons of weapons and be able to release them at supersonic speeds. As a 20 ton fighter with a 1,000 km range, the AMCA will cover the gap between the 10 ton, 500km range Tejas LCA, and the 30 ton, 1,500km range FGFA. A single seat fighter, the AMCA would replace IAF’s MiG-29 and Mirage-2000 aircraft. A two seat version would be developed, but primarily as a trainer, since an additional cockpit compromises LO of a stealth fighter. (The Radar Cross Section of a fighter can be optimised for either single or twin seat configuration, with a single seater likely to be the stealthier design).

ADA is hopeful that it will be able to incorporate some sixth generation fighter features. Some of the new technologies that ADA wishes to incorporate in the AMCA include a FBW control system with photonic interface to reduce the length of wires (fly-by-light).

Sixth Generation features include improved range, persistence, situational awareness, human-system integration and weapon fit to counter enemy antiaccess/area-denial measures such as electronic attack, passive detection, cyber attack and directed energy weapons.

The AMCA design is optimised for reduced signature, not maximised stealth.

The aircraft is not shaped for all aspect stealth, like the US Raptor (F-22) or the

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Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA)

The AMCA is being designed as an affordable fighter with swing role capability to meet the requirements of the IAF post 2020 Chinese Chengdu J-20. Instead, shaping is optimised to minimise frontal Radar Cross Section (RCS), as is the case with the T-50/FGFA. The AMCA will feature “serpentine-shaped” air intakes, internal weapons bays, and advanced radar and dome (radomes) to increase stealth. Radar-absorbing composites and paints will supplement the design.

AMCA blends stealth with manoeuvrability, while keeping costs affordable.

The aircraft will be powered by a new engine that the GTRE plans to develop with the help of one or more foreign consultants, Snecma being one of them. Like the Lightening-2, Rafale and Eurofighter, AMCA will achieve super manoeuvrability by using a powerful engine. However, if the IAF prefers thrust vectoring based super manoeuvrability, ADA will tweak the aircraft design accordingly.

All these new projects notwithstanding, it is time to have some words of caution. The LCA Tejas is at least a year away from entering squadron service and, given HAL’s past record with the Marut, there can be no betting on the aircraft's performance in squadron service. LCA Mk-2 remains on the drawing board and is unlikely to enter squadron service before 2020.

Going by the glacial progress on the FGFA project (After signing a preliminary agreement in October 2007, India and Russia have still not signed a final contract.) and reports of serious differences

October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

between the IAF and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) factoring in the FGFA would be premature.

Similarly, the AMCA project hasn’t moved much beyond feasibility study stage. Once ADA acquires the capability to develop the aircraft, it will seek government approval to build two technology demonstrators and seven prototypes. The approval itself would likely take a year. In the best case scenario, the AMCA would start flight trials by 2022 and enter squadron service by 2030.

With such unsure procurement plan, the IAF understandably has double worries over other shortcomings in ISR, EW, sensor shooter networking and drone capabilities. And it is equally understandable why the IAF mandarins are so keen on the Rafael procurement, even though the “Babus” in MoD is not sure if the deal with France will finally come through. For the IAF Rafale is the bird in hand, and the other projects, birds in a bush. Other than the Rafale, the IAF is currently placing its bets on upgrades to the MiG-29, Mirage-2000 and Jaguar fleets – all projects that are ongoing. In the more distant future, there would likely be upgrades to the Su-30MKI fleet.

All told, the truth is that the IAF faces a perpetual dilemma – it must dream the indigenous dreams that the DRDO sells to the MoD, but it must defend the nation with weapons more real, usually foreign and very expensive, and that's when the MoF scream!

It's been a tightrope walk for the IAF leadership since decades and the leadership has become skilled in it, just as DRDO and HAL have become skilled in over-projecting their capabilities and justifying failures and schedule slippages. In other words, if the IAF’s aircraft procurements from abroad move at a glacial pace, the indigenous procurements move at a pace that make a glacier look like a fast

SU-30 MKI

HEMANT RAWAT

flowing stream!

What then is the way out? While it’s true that HAL's manufacturing and DRDO's research have repeatedly let down the IAF, there is no denying the need for the IAF to embrace indigenous technology, even if it's not world class. Then, there is that eternal maxim that the man behind the machine is as important as the machine. China has risen to become a global power using indigenously built weapon that has never been as good as American or Russian weapons.

In this issue of the magazine we have pointed out the need for the IAF to take ownership of its projects, monitor them closely, resist any bureaucratic obfuscation at MoD, and proactively seek political intervention when such obfuscation happens.

The Tejas LCA project is going to pose a big challenge to IAF leadership, which must push HAL to achieve high quality as well as high production rates. It’s a challenge that the IAF would only be able to meet through deep involvement with HAL at all management levels.

HAL has a record of slipping badly on schedules, as it did with the license production of Su-30MKI and Hawk AJT. In the case of Tejas, since ADA is the design and development agency, HAL may be inclined to shrug of responsibility for slippages, more so than when working with a foreign vendor! The IAF would like to see ADA disengage substantially and quickly from the Tejas project so as to focus on LCA Mk-2 and AMCA projects. That can happen only if HAL takes complete responsibility of Tejas production.

Nothing succeeds like success, goes the adage. If the Tejas project succeeds

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through close cooperation between the IAF and HAL, the likelihood of the LCA Mk-2 and AMCA projects succeeding would increase dramatically.

Read any book or article on the IAF’s Operational History and you will be presented impressive figures on the number of sorties that the IAF pilots flew during past operations; at day, and at night; for defence, and for strike. But, the truth is that in a war the number of sorties you fly doesn't matter. What matters is how many bombs strike their targets. Or, how many missiles bring down enemy aircraft.

In the past, the IAF didn’t focus on precision attack because Precision Guided Munitions (PGMs) is expensive. It acquired PGMs in limited quantity for just its top line fighters. The MiG fleet largely relied on unguided rockets to hit ground targets, and the Jaguar fleet on unguided bombs. In any teams effort, the performance of the weakest matters most, because the strong are few and the weak, many. The Mirage-2000 fleet is few and the MiG-21 fleet many!

The IAF needs to equip all its strike aircraft with PGM, but that can only happen if PGM costs are lowered through indigenous production. The good news is that DRDO has made PGM a thrust area with Research Centre Imarat (RCI) Hyderabad focused on developing such weapons.

The IAF needs to acquire better SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) capability, possibly through the acquisition of EA-18G “Growler” aircraft from the US. The ability to disrupt enemy radar and communications from stand-off ranges using jammers would allow IAF

HAL has a record of slipping badly on schedules, as it did with the license production of Su-30MKI and Hawk AJT October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

strike aircraft to do their jobs more effectively. Typically, the EW Growlers would also be armed with high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARM). A SEAD capability would give the IAF a credible punitive strike capability against Pakistan to dissuade more state sponsored terror strikes. SEAD capability would also increase China’s vulnerability to Indian airborne special operations in Tibet.

Standoff jamming support for stealth aircraft is now conceded as being essential by the US Air Force and Navy. Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC), wherein a combination of technologies is adopted to penetrate enemy defences is the new mantra. Without accompanying EA aircraft, our FGFAs would be tracked

by Chinese AESA VHF radars and engaged at short ranges by Chinese missile batteries. With EA attack aircraft disrupting radar from stand-off ranges, the FGFAs would not only penetrate enemy defences safely its sensors would be able to provide targeting information for HARM attacks on enemy radars by Growlers.

DRDO is developing a new generation anti-radiation missile (NGARM), which would suggest that the IAF already has plans to acquire a serious SEAD capability.

Unmanned strike aircraft have many advantages over manned strike aircraft, including greater stealth and better manoeuvrability. But UCAV flight through controlled airspace poses challenges.

Without a decision maker in the cockpit, their use of shared airspace can disrupt manned flight operations – civil and military.

UCAVs are good for striking pre-identified targets, but with existing technology they cannot attack targets of opportunity.

Future combat aircraft are likely to be optionally manned or unmanned. While it is true that human presence in an aircraft simply to fly the aircraft is redundant, the presence of a decision maker is essential with many mission profiles. Optional manning gives mission planners the flexibility for optimum utilisation of very expensive Very Low Observable (VLO) aircraft.

UCAVs are not yet a reality. They are under development in the US (X-47B, UCLASS), UK (Taranis) and France (Neuron). Though DRDO is reported to be developing a X-47B like UCAV powered by the Kaveri engine, named Aura, first flight isn’t likely before 2020. In the meantime, the IAF needs to increase its use of unmanned platforms so that it has the infrastructure and tactics to put Aura to good use when it finally becomes available around 2030.

The writer is former fighter pilot

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

LINING FOR OPERATION: Indian Air Force (IAF) Su-MKI and French Air Force (FAF) Rafale Aircraft lined up during the Exercise Garuda-V held in June 2014

I

ndian Air Warriors, serving and veterans are fiercely proud of the Indian Air Force (IAF), and the nation is proud and indebted to the IAF for the selfless service of its personnel.

Operationally, the IAF has an unblemished record, having successfully defended Indian airspace through five post-independence wars. Hundreds of IAF personnel have laid down their lives over the years, during operations and while training for operations.

Yet, as many senior IAF officers would readily admit in private, the IAF's operational record hasn't been outstanding.

The record has been profusely criticised and questioned in internet debates, though it is rare to see a critical discourse in the mainline press. Institutions like the

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IAF – much like our parents, teachers, and leaders – rise in our esteem even as they fumble and falter in their endeavours because their cause is noble.

Was the IAF well equipped and trained for the wars in 1965, 1971 and 1999? Was the IAF's performance exemplary during these conflicts? An honest answer to both the questions would have to be: No. Based on 20 years service in the IAF as a fighter pilot, close tracking of IAF affairs since then and discussions with IAF veterans, I am inclined to believe that the IAF's operational record was non-stellar on account of:  A defensive tactical mindset that led to force imbalance.  Lack of long term vision  Aversion to steering its projects with

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HAL and DRDO Past governments and IAF leaders must collectively share the blame for what went wrong.

Like any other air force, the IAF is equipped for both offence and defence.

Ideally, the IAF should be able to prevent enemy aircraft from intruding into our airspace, while being able to strike targets within enemy territory at will. Currently, the IAF's MiG-21 variants, MiG-29, Mirage 2000 and Su-30MKI fighters protect our skies, while MiG-27, Jaguar, Su-30MKI and Mirage strike fighters give us the ability to strike the enemy. (Note that aircraft such as Su-30MKI or Mirage-2000 are capable of both Air Defence (AD) as well as strike.) The right mix of AD and strike aircraft (force balance) is dictated by threat

OPERATIONAL FAILURES IN RETROSPECT A defensive mindset, coupled with the disinterest to think long term and complete projects in time, has inhibited the IAF to realise its true potential in the past. Mercifully, things are now changing, writes VIJAINDER THAKUR MOD

perceptions and war aims.

Post-independence, the IAF did very well in acquiring a balanced force with a mix of bombers, fighter bombers and fighters. The IAF acquired B-24 Liberator heavy bombers by refurbishing US WW-2 aircraft abandoned in India. It bought Vampire fighters and fighter bombers from England. The later acquisition made the IAF the only Asian Air Force equipped with jet fighters at that time. The IAF was then a small force but with a good strike potential. A decade later, in 1957, the IAF started inducting Dassault Mystere IVA, Hawker Hunter and English Electric Canberra, more or less maintaining its force balance. The Canberra, which could carry 10,000-lb bomb load in internal bay, provided the IAF the ability to hit the enemy

hard.

However, IAF acquisitions started to become disorientated and aircraft-centric, instead of mission-centric, in the early 60s. Pure interceptors, like the Folland Gnat and MiG-21 were acquired in large numbers, adding greatly to the inventory but not to the IAF's punch. The 1965 war caught the IAF in the midst of rapid expansion triggered by the mauling of the Indian Army at the hands of the PLA in 1962. New aircraft were in the process of being inducted and pilot training was being rushed. The IAF was ill-prepared for the war and suffered heavy aircraft losses in the east and didn't do too well in the west.

The late Sixties saw the IAF's strike capability diminish as Mystere squad-

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rons started to be phased out. The Marut HF-24 fighter bomber project made fitful progress. An attempt to fill the gap with the Su-7 fighter bombers acquired from Russia proved misguided because the aircraft had a limited bomb load, and even more limited range! In the autumn of 1968, the IAF comprised 23 fighter squadrons and three tactical bomber squadrons. Eleven of the 23 fighter squadrons were equipped with MiG-21s and Gnats, both pure interceptors with very limited ranges that made them incapable of performing escort roles. The remaining fighter squadrons were equipped with Hunter, Mystere and Marut strike aircraft with limited weapon loads and ranges.

Lacking long range interceptors or aerial refuelling capability, the IAF could not

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FIRING FROM AIR: ASTRA BVR-Air-to-Air Missiles being successfully fired from Su-30MKI by Indian Air Force from a naval range off Goa MOD

provide escort cover to its Canberra tactical bombers to enable them to strike high value targets inside enemy territory.

As a result, despite possessing an impressive number of combat fighter and bomber squadrons, the IAF failed to deter the PAF's pre-emptive strike on Indian air bases on December 3, 1971. And when the war did break out, the IAF couldn't go out and hit the enemy hard. It confined its operations largely to supporting the Indian Army. True, the focus of the 1971 war was on liberating Bangladesh, but the IAF's defensive posture following the PAF's pre-emptive strike stemmed more from limitations of its force balance than policy dictated restraint. The Navy, in contrast, went out and boldly struck Karachi harbour with missile boats in a fine display of purpose and innovation.

From the late Sixties to the late Eighties, the IAF's force structure got increasingly skewed with more and more MiG21 variants being inducted. Four Jaguar squadrons acquired in the early Eighties were inadequate replacement for the Canberras and Hunters that bowed out of service.

In the early Eighties, the number of MiG-21 variant squadrons in the IAF exceeded 20. Some MiG-21 squadrons were assigned strike role despite the very limited punch of the aircraft.

The IAF's enfeeblement was dramatic, yet no one in the IAF leadership seemed to notice. There emerged a complete disconnect between the threat faced by the

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nation and the IAF's force structure. The IAF equipped and trained itself to fight in the west even though it was clear that any hostilities would take place along the Line of Control (LoC) or Line of Actual Control (LaC). IAF Jaguars were too underpowered to operate effectively in the mountain valleys along the LaC and LoC. MiG-21 variants lacked the range, weapon load and precision attack capability to effectively engage targets in the harsh mountainous terrain.

The dangerous drift in the IAF's force structure was checked with the induction of Mirage-2000s, and to a lesser extent, the MiG-29s. The inductions proved fortuitous when Kargil happened in 1999.

The IAF was shockingly unprepared

In the early Eighties, the number of MiG-21 variant squadrons in the IAF exceeded 20. Some MiG-21 squadrons were assigned strike role despite the very limited punch of the aircraft October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

for the war, much more so than in the earlier wars! There was no reason why that should have been the case! The Mirage-2000 was the only IAF aircraft that gave a good account of itself during Kargil, and that too after hurried and very expensive acquisition of Precision Guided Munitions (PGMs) from abroad.

What if Kargil hadn't happened and instead the PLA made a deep incursion into Arunachal Pradesh? The incursion would have caught the IAF as helpless as it was in 1962, and it is conceivable that by now China would have been inaugurating a rail link between Lhasa and Tawang!

Post-Kargil, with the steady accretion of the Su-30MKI fleet, the IAF started to acquire a more offensive posture that could deter determined adversaries like Pakistan and China. It will take another decade for the transformation to be complete; in terms of equipment and in terms of mindset. But, why did the IAF not stick with the balanced posture that it started with? Why did it assume such a defensive posture?

There was never a sourcing issue. The country was under no political compulsion to procure its weapons from the Soviet Union, now Russia. Despite periodic strains in Indo-US relations, India always had access to French and British weapons. The IAF could have sourced MirageIII and Mirage-V fighters from France; Tornados from the UK. It could even have procured Su-24 Fencer or Tu-22 Blinder from Russia. Both aircraft have impres-

FLOWN TO HISTORY: MiG-21 FL that introduced supersonic jets to Indian Air Force , roared off the runway in 2013 for the last time

VIJAY SETH

sive weapon loads and the ability to carry stand-off missiles.

I think the answer lies in limited budgets and a quest for numbers over quality.

Ironically, one of the lessons that the IAF had drawn from an analysis of its subpar performance in the 1965 war was the need for quality over quantity. It totally forgot the lesson.

Post-independence, the IAF fought four wars in quick success – Kashmir 1947, China 1962, Pakistan 1965, Pakistan 1971 – with no breather to formulate a long-term vision. In the years that followed, successive governments tightly embraced a defensive posture, focused on head butting defence of India's territorial integrity in Kashmir, Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh. The posture defied the lessons of military history – that there is no perfect defence. After all, Bar Lev line, Maginot line and Chittorgarh Fort were all breached by enemy grit and determination.

A defensive posture doesn't deter an enemy as much as it tempts him. An adversary is better dissuaded by a military posture laden with unpredictable consequences for any breach of peace! In terms of air power, such a posture would have to be based on a formidable strike force combined with long range and endurance AD fighters. Fighters that can defend our skies by remaining airborne for hours, not minutes; and escort our hard hitting strike aircraft deep into enemy territory!

As a result of its defensive posture, IAF aircraft procurements in the decades that followed the 1971 war led to an enfeeblement of its strike capability. The IAF regressed into a tactical air force equipped for just homeland defence and Close Air Support (CAS) of Army operations. Inevitably, the Army and the Navy started to encroach on IAF turf using the logic that the Army would be better able to support ground operations if it controlled CAS assets. The Indian Navy eased the IAF out of

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the maritime reconnaissance (MR) role (in the 1960s, the IAF operated a squadron of ex-Air India L-1049G Super Constellations for maritime reconnaissance) and even suggested that it was better equipped than the IAF for AD of its ports!

Most glaringly, the IAF equipped and trained in total disregard of its responsibility to support Army operations along the LoC and LaC. As a result, Kargil happened.

Since its inception, the IAF has remained an aircraft-centric force, while the West has moved on to a weapon and sensor-centric planning. The US Navy isn't worried that its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft would get clobbered by a Su-30M in With Visual Range (WVR) combat. It looks upon the Super Hornet as a system, not just as an aircraft. It is a system with the range, sensors and weapons to –  Penetrate heavily defended airspace by jamming and spoofing enemy ra-

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dars using its powerful AESA radar.  Identify and attack a Su-30M well before the Su-30M can see it.  Perform a precision attacks against ground target, even moving, from stand-off ranges.

(The Super Hornet is optimised for transonic operations, not WVR combat. It can hit a Su-30M and make a safe getaway staying well out of harm's way throughout the engagement). The US Navy considers the Super Hornet the finest long range precision attack platform that is capable of defending itself against any ground or aerial threat. It's a simple, clear and effective vision. The IAF, which is largely trained for WVR combat and equipped with unguided bombs and unguided rocket, is horrified by the Super Hornet's high wing loading and limited reserve of power. The aircraft's sensors and AESA are of little use without Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles and stand-off Precision-guided Missiles (PGM). The limitations of IAF's aircraft centric approach were evident during the Kargil war in 1999. IAF Mirages were capable of operating at high altitudes and delivering laser guided bombs, but the service had not invested in the bombs or the supporting equipment.

A serious shortcoming of the IAF in the past has been the failure to take ownership of its projects with HAL and DRDO. The IAF did involve itself with both the organisations during their early years. It deputed senior officers to head projects and sit on management boards. Four IAF Chiefs – Aspy Merwan Engineer (19601964), Pratap Chandra Lal (1969-1973), Om Prakash Mehra (1973-1976) and Lakshman Mohan Katre (1984-1985) – served

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with the HAL on deputation before reaching the top. Many senior IAF officers took up senior management assignment in these organisation post- retirement.

However, the IAF's involvement failed to yield results. HAL and DRDO performance remained as good or bad under IAF leadership as under civil leadership; IAF officers' attempts to push Air Force projects were frustrated by the laid back work culture in these organisations, unionism, and proclivity to inflate claims

LOOKING AHEAD An institution like the Indian Air Force is akin to a citadel that can remain strong despite decades of neglect. However, despite standing strong, a neglected citadel does lose its sheen and glory over the years; a loss that can be very difficult to reverse. However, what is encouraging is that the IAF has left its past behind with recent changes in its operational posture, credit for which must go to IAF leaders post the 1999 Kargil war. Recent acquisitions – Su-30MKIs, Aerial Refuelers, AWACS – and planned procurements – MMRCA, Tejas LCA, LCA Mk-1, FGFA – will correct the force imbalance. And the IAF is acquiring a long term vision and starting to take ownership of its projects with HAL and DRDO.

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and fudge figures. Air warriors across the spectrum were dismayed by HAL/DRDO product shortcomings and poor quality Shoddy HAL workmanship resulted in many accidents and heart-wrenching loss of lives.

The IAF's involvement steadily waned to an extent where the service was only deputing junior level pilots and engineers, to test fly aircraft and provide operational inputs for systems under development.

The feedback provided by the junior level officer at the end of their deputations to HAL and DRDO was ignored by the IAF as being inconsequential. The indifference didn't come from any policy change, it was just something that happened.

MoD's apathy allowed the estrangement to grow to an extent where IAF leadership started to look upon HAL as an evil that it had to live with.

It is a moot point whether the IAF could have handled its relationship with HAL and DROD differently. The bottom line is: The estrangement hurt the IAF and so the IAF shouldn't have let it happen.

One wonders what a vigorous HAL-IAF and DRDO-IAF partnerships could have yielded? Perhaps  Laser guided kits for bombs well before the Kargil war?  A landing assist system for MiG-21 variants that could have saved hundreds of aircraft and scores of lives lost during landing accidents? (Remember the auto throttle on the SAAB Viggen, an aircraft of similar vintage.)  A super-stall prevention system for MiG-21 variant that could have further reduced accidents?  Terrain avoidance radar for Jaguar?  Modifications of Canberra as tanker?

WIKIMEDIA

AIR DOMINANCE: The MiG-29K is a true swing role aircraft which carries enough punch to undertake Air Dominance and Power Projection missions simultaneously

IM15_ExhibitorAd_whaleReg_Geopolitics 210mmWx274mmH-r2.pdf 1 29/9/2014 9:10:51 AM

DRONEWARS.NET

WHY UAVS MATTER

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are the weapons of the future and there is a pressing need for India to think seriously about their use and how to quickly acquire them in sufficient numbers to make a difference to the threat environment that the country faces, writes AMIT GUPTA

T

he Indian military has always been obsessed with acquiring big ticket items like tanks, fighter aircraft and warships, but in a modern combat environment it is the lesser and unglamorous systems that may make the difference in war or security operations. Further, the nature of conflict itself has changed with unconventional conflict – insurgencies and terrorism – getting increasing attention from militaries around the world. It is, therefore, important that the country moves away from big ticket systems that were important to enhance military capability in the Cold War to ones that are needed to face today’s complex and changing threat environment. One such system that reflects both these trends is the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), the weapons system

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that more and more nations are seeking to bring into their arsenals.

While remotely piloted aircraft have been around for decades, the demand for UAVs came about in the early 1980s when the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Pentagon started experimenting with reconnaissance drones. In the early 1990s, the CIA approached Abraham Karem, an Israeli aircraft designer, to quickly build a UAV for them and the “Predator” was born. Initially used for reconnaissance and surveillance, after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the UAV was modified to carry Hellfire missiles and used to destroy targets. Since then the US has moved to make the more versatile “Reaper” (with the Predator scheduled to retire from service by 2017). In a purely surveillance role, the US has had the impressive Glob-

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al Hawk UAV as well as the Sentinel that crash-landed in Iran. Over 75 countries now have UAVs to use in both domestic and international missions.

Drones have essentially changed the way modern day warfare is conducted because they have permitted precision strikes over hostile areas without the danger of losing military personnel. This has been particularly effective in the war on terror because it has allowed the real time surveillance of terror suspects and the ability to rapidly take them out if actionable evidence is made available. One of the reasons that Osama bin Laden was eliminated lay in the American ability to place a surveillance drone over his compound in Abbotabad to try and confirm whether it was indeed the notorious terrorist who was hiding there – Pakistani air

SAAB

HELL FIRE: A Reaper drone firing missile in Afghanistan; (above) UAV system developed by Saab for reconnaissance, identification, target acquisition and electronic warfare

defences were unable to track the drones.

Drone strikes have the additional advantage that being less politically-charged than assaults by manned fighter aircraft, host governments find it easier to approve them. Thus, in Pakistan, the government of Pervez Musharraf was willing to sanction drone strikes because they were less intrusive and it helped Pakistan with its own domestic security issues. If the US drone strikes aroused the anger of the population in that country, it is because of collateral damage, faulty intelligence, and due to the efforts of a politician like Imran Khan to stir up public passions and use them for his own political gains.

What make drones particularly attractive is their low cost (compared to manned aircraft) and the facts that most of the technology used for them is commercially available and off-the-shelf and that they provide multiple advantages to both the armed forces and law enforcement authorities. The move around the Western world, therefore, has been to use drones not only for strikes but also for border surveillance. It is increasingly likely that domestic police forces will be allowed to use UAVs to carry out monitoring and surveillance of urban areas which would provide a 24 hour eye in the sky to these law enforcement authorities.

India has procured UAVs from Israel

and developed a series of indigenous ones like the Nishant and Lakshya for use by the armed forces (the indigenously developed ones have not lived up to expectations and thus there has been the need to continue imports). There has also been talk over the years of collaborating with the United States or the European nations to build a new generation of drones that would permit a qualitative jump in technology from that acquired from Israel. Both the Indian Air Force and the Navy have a set of drones but they are too few to make the kind of revolution in air power that is being created elsewhere with the induction of UAVs. However, there remains a pressing requirement for bringing a new group of UAVs into the arsenal and for making greater use of them in operations. More importantly, the Indian government has to, for once, think in terms of the big picture and buy a collection of UAVs for both the armed forces and law enforcement agencies and then bring these into a coordinated network of operations.

Further, the number of nations with UAVs has proliferated in the last five years, with countries like Iran and China now fielding their own indigenously developed systems – and seeking export markets for them. China has recently sold Saudi Arabia the Wing Loong armed drone and further such sales are likely to follow. These systems will potentially, therefore, be available to India’s adversaries and New Delhi may then face the regrettable situation where its glacial decision making process and haggling over defence contracts will allow another regional country to gain the advantage in this realm of modern weaponry.

National security in India can no longer be thought of in the discrete categories of domestic and international security. Now, an attack within India has international repercussions, for if another Mumbai style terror attack takes place it will require the coordination of the mili-

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tary with domestic security forces. In this context, UAVs have an important role to play in several key areas.

First, there is the need for a dedicated group of surveillance UAVs to patrol India’s land and maritime boundaries.

Given problems of infiltration in Kashmir and the threat posed by sea-based terror attacks (most notably the 2008 Mumbai attacks), the country requires a 24 hour aerial surveillance around its borders – something that can only be provided in a cost effective way by UAVs. At present, the Israeli arms industry does not have the type of UAVs – like the American Global Hawk UAV – that can carry out such functions over long distances and, therefore, India will have to seek the help of the west in attaining this capability (the Israeli Searcher and Heron are limited to a flight radius of less than 300 kilometres because of the Missile Technology Control Regime). India has earlier expressed interest in the Global Hawk and has been, for some time, attempting to get an agreement to purchase another type of long distance UAV from the United States. The problem lies in part with India’s arcane arms acquisition process and partly with various western nations that are reluctant to permit such technologies to be given to India.

India’s best alternative may lie in working with a European supplier that needs the sales to the Indian market and two likely candidates are Dassault of France and Saab of Sweden. Dassault has developed a combat drone and, if provided with sufficient funding, could build long endurance surveillance UAVs for India. Saab has developed the Skeldar line of UAVs that can be used for reconnaissance, identification, target acquisition and electronic warfare. These are medium range systems that can be used again in military and domestic security operations.

Working with either aircraft company would give India a grateful partner that was willing to tailor the UAV to fit India’s requirements (especially since contradictory Indian and American concerns about technology transfers and Communications and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA) concerns are going to make the acquisition of American systems a long and arduous process). One note of caution remains regarding technology transfers. India’s expectations about technology transfers have been met with scepticism in western capitals since there is the belief that some technologies cannot be transferred and in some cases India does not have the capacity to absorb these technologies. The government needs to move away from its

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DRDO

GOING UNMANNED: India’s indigenous UAV system Lakshya used by the armed forces

polemical position on this issue and, instead, first focus on getting systems that enhance the country’s security and second work to get technologies and tenders that are actually feasible for domestic industry to work with and produce.

Second, there is the use of UAVs for military operations like reconnaissance and enhanced combat capability. The United States has effectively used drone strikes around the world to decapitate terrorist groups and for they could play a similar role for India in future conflicts. One is not only looking at combat drones of the size and capability of the Predator and the Reaper drones that the United States has used so successfully in Afghanistan and in Pakistan but at smaller versions, including hand held UAVs, that could be used both for intelligence gathering in a tactical situation and for anti-personnel missions. In anti-terrorist missions the ability to send miniature and micro UAVs to gather real time intelligence and to get an accurate fix on the location of terrorists who are holding out with hostages would be invaluable. A miniature UAV with a small warhead could be used to take out terrorist in a room or to attack a small unit of soldiers in an entrenched position. A great deal of work is being done by private companies around the world with these miniature systems and it again boils down to finding the right company to invest in and work with.

As far as full sized combat UAVs like the Predator, India has a number of coun-

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tries with ongoing projects that it can work with. Dassault has developed an armed UAV called the nEUROn but there is pressure in NATO to acquire American systems. Then, there is also competition from the EADS Barracuda. That means Dassault could be persuaded to develop the nEUROn with an Indian market in mind especially if the larger Rafale combat aircraft deal was to come through.

The EADS Barracuda is the other option, though again the hurdle of transferring technologies would have to be cleared.

Another possibility is to do what the US Air Force is doing with some of its ageing F-16s i.e. converting them into UAVs which will have the advantage of combining the speed and manoeuvrability of fast jets with the capabilities that UAVs bring to the modern battlefield. The Indian Air Force and Navy could seek partners to adapt some of their ageing aircraft – especially all those MiG platforms – to such a capability. The third area where UAVs become relevant is in the realm of internal security and policing. India faces terror attacks as well as communal rioting and in both cases UAVs would be useful for surveillance, a rapid assessment of the situation, and for the quick and accurate deployment of response teams. During the Mumbai terror attacks, for example, UAV patrols of Mumbai harbour may have helped identify the suspicious ship and thus led to a quicker response to the attack. Later, as the terrorists cruised around Mumbai in a taxi shooting everyone in

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sight, an aerial coverage of the city could have helped track the terrorists and to set up roadblocks to ambush them. None of this, of course, happened. And a UAV that was gathering intelligence could have helped pinpoint the terrorists in the two luxury hotels and the Jewish Cultural Centre. An equally good case could be made for the use of UAVs when urban communal tensions flare up, for it would provide the Indian police and paramilitary with real time information on the occurrence of trouble, its location, its magnitude, and the best possible ways to control it.

All of these measures, however, are nothing more than a fancy wish list if they are not matched by a genuine determination on part of the government to quickly carry out such procurements. What is more important, it requires an integration at some level of external and internal security capabilities so that information can be seamlessly handed to domestic security forces. In the case of UAVs, one cannot realistically expect the Indian police to be trained and brought up to standards to handle the weapons systems but the task can be given in the major metro areas to either the air force or the navy and use them to pass on the data and the intelligence to the city police forces.

Amit Gupta is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Security at the USAF Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama.

Views expressed are personal

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

“OUR AIM IS TO RETAIN THE CAPABILITY EDGE THROUGH THE MODERNISATION PLANS“ A fighter pilot with over 3,400 hours of flying experience, Air Chief Marshal ARUP RAHA highlights the importance of the IAF's operational preparedness with optimal utilisation of available resources. At the same time, he tells the Geopolitics the importance of keeping abreast with the ever growing technologies so as to upgrade the IAF’s operational capabilities and infrastructures.

Excerpts from an exclusive interview: HOW WILL YOU MANAGE THE HUGE GAP BETWEEN THE REQUIRED AND EXISTING STRENGTH OF SQUADRONS WITH THE AIR FORCE, GIVEN THE FACTS THAT THE IAF AT PRESENT HAS 35 FIGHTER SQUADRONS AGAINST THE SANCTIONED STRENGTH OF 42 SQUADRONS, THAT NUMBER OF FIGHTER SQUADRONS IS LIKELY TO REDUCE FURTHER TO 31 DURING THE 12TH PLAN PERIOD AND THAT THE IAF’S FIGHTER AIRCRAFT FLEET IS QUITE OLD AND IS ON THE VERGE OF PHASING OUT?

IAF today has 35 ‘active’ fighter squadrons against Government authorised strength of 42 squadrons.

Seven fighter squadrons are numberplated due to the non-availability of aircraft to equip them. The squadrons equipped with legacy aircraft like the MiG-21 and MiG-27 will retire by 2024 on completion of their life. The early conclusion of the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contract negotiations and speedy production of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) by HAL are critical for arresting further drawdown in the strength of combat squadrons.

Achieving a strength of 42 squadrons is dependent on a large number of intangibles, and is likely to materialise only by the end of the 15th Plan period. The depletion of fighter squadrons can only be made good through new inductions.

The IAF has plans to induct fighter aircraft as replacements, which are at various stages of procurement or development. Therefore, early conclusion of MMRCA project and expediting production of LCA are very important for IAF.

THE IAF IS SUPPOSED TO SEE THE INDUCTION OF SU-30 MKI, MULTI ROLE COMBAT AIRCRAFT (MMRCA), LIGHT COMBAT AIR-

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October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

CRAFT (LCA) AND FIFTH GENERATION FIGHTERS AS REPLACEMENT. IT ALSO NEEDS MORE TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT, TRAINERS AND MULTIROLE TANKER TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT FOR MIDAIR REFUELLING. BUT THE INDUCTION PROCESS HAS NOT BEEN COMMENSURATE WITH THE NEEDS OF THE IAF. WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ON THIS?

The IAF is in the process of inducting Su-30 MKI, C-17, C-130J, Mi-17 V5 and the Pilatus PC-7 Mk II aircraft and they are being operationally exploited. Although delayed, with the serial production of LCA being expedited, it would form the first operational squadron very soon and we are awaiting finalisation of the contracts for the MMRCA and the Flight Refuelling Aircraft.

As far as trainer aircraft are concerned the performance and serviceability of the Pilatus PC-7 MK II Basic Trainer Aircraft has been exceptional and the process has been initiated for additional aircraft. However, there are certain delays in the HAL manufactured Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT) project which requires early resolution. The Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) is a design and development project and will take considerable time to fructify. However, we are engaged with all stakeholders to ensure steady progress of these acquisitions. I do not deny that there have been certain delays in the induction of aircraft and weapon systems required by the IAF. However, the Government has consistently amended the Defence Procurement Procedures and associated policies to ensure timely induction of military equipment. I am confident that early fructification of our ongoing acquisitions along with various upgrades will greatly enhance our operational capabilities.

THERE ARE QUESTIONS RAISED FROM TIME TO TIME ON THE RECORD OF THE IAF’S MAINTENANCE OF ITS ASSETS SINCE CHALLENGES INVOLVED HERE DETERMINE HOW LONG THEY LAST AND THEIR COST-EFFECTIVENESS. YOUR COMMENT ON THIS.

Every Air Force is faced with the challenges of obsolescence with rapid improvement in technology and prohibitive cost of new acquisition. Due to the aging fleet of IAF, the dependence on OEM support has increased. To reduce the dependence on OEM, Air Force has started its own indigenisation programme, whereby the thrust has been on indigenisation of spares and consumables. Though the process is long

and time consuming, the results would be increasingly visible in near future.

LIKE ALL AIR FORCES, THE IAF IS HIGHLY TECHNOLOGY DEPENDENT. AEROSPACE POWER ALSO REQUIRES HIGHLY-SKILLED AND IMPECCABLY TRAINED PERSONNEL. ALSO, IN AVIATION, OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE USUALLY LIES CLOSE TO SAFETY MARGINS, WHICH BRINGS IN THE CONCERN OF COSTS – BOTH IN HUMAN AND MATERIAL TERMS. ATTRACTING QUALITY YOUTH, TRAINING AND RETAINING THEM IS THEREFORE A KEY CHALLENGE OF THE IAF. HOW HAS THE IAF FARED ON THIS SCORE? HOW WOULD YOU LOOK AT BOTH THE LEVEL OF YOUR TECHNOLOGICAL PROWESS AND THE CALIBER OF THE RESOURCES AT YOUR COMMAND? Well, the IAF is looking for the best talent from amongst our youth. In the last few years, an invigorated publicity campaign has generated an overwhelming response and has attracted spirited men and women to choose Air Force as their profession. In fact, we have introduced the Air Force Common Admission Test (AFCAT) with online registrations and it has been hugely oversubscribed. The number of applicants have steadily increased from 57,141 in the January 2012 cycle to 1,78,393 in the January 2015 cycle. The AFCAT acts as a screening test for selecting capable candidates for further selection by AFSBs (Air Force Selection Boards). Further, an engineering knowledge test is conducted for the Technical branch aspirants along with AFCAT to meet the required high stan-

I do not deny that there have been certain delays in the induction of aircraft and weapon systems required by the IAF. However, the Government has consistently amended the Defence Procurement Procedures and associated policies to ensure timely induction of military equipment www.geopolitics.in

October 2014

dards. Refinements in the selection process and techniques adopted to assess the calibre of aspirants are being pursued in a big way in collaboration with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR). In order to meet branch-specific shortfalls in induction, if any, the IAF also conducts Fast Track Selection (FTS) drives at geographically dispersed locations within the country from time to time. These drives are conducted on pan-India basis to shortlist the candidates for induction into different branches. Adequate publicity measures are undertaken through print and electronic media to disseminate career related information on the IAF across the length and breadth of the country. We have also introduced a categorisation scheme for all the technical and logistics officers and our in-service training has been reviewed to synchronize it with the requirements of a tech-savvy IAF. In ensuring that the Armed Forces become an attractive career option for the youth, a suitable pay emolument structure needs to be recommended by the VIIth CPC (Central Pay Commission). I am certain that with the high calibre of entrants joining the Air Force for flying modern combat platforms and manning advanced weapon systems, the IAF will continue to maintain its hallmark professionalism and excel in all its future missions.

Recruitment in Indian Air Force in airmen cadre is on ‘All India Merit’ basis through Scheduled Selection Tests. It is open to all eligible citizens of the country without any discrimination of caste, creed, religion, region or community. In addition to Scheduled Tests, Recruitment Rallies are conducted in remote/low response/border/insurgency affected/ naxal affected/tribal areas or hilly districts and island territories of the country to provide opportunities to youth from these regions to join the national mainstream, which is in line with the national agenda of inclusive growth.

The response of candidates for recruitment in the cadre of airmen is always positive. About 4-5 lakh applications are received and around 80,000 candidates are tested every year against an annual intake requirement of 5,000-6,000.

THE IAF STILL HAS ONE OF THE HIGHEST ACCIDENT RATES IN THE WORLD. THIS TRANSLATES INTO A LOSS OF BETWEEN HALF TO ONE COMPLETE SQUADRON OF

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Various measures have been taken by IAF to reduce aircraft accidents. In the last five years the accident rate has improved substantially when compared to previous decade, as a result of determined efforts at all levels. There is a need to understand that the IAF operates in the most unique operational conditions in the world. There is a hardly any Air Force which faces challenging terrain and climate conditions like in India, be it the highest snow-clad Himalayas, the deserts of Rajasthan, the Tropical forests of the North East (NE) and vast seas of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and coastal areas of peninsular India.

The tropical weather pattern of India exposes the flying operations to violent weather phenomenon. All these factors combine to make aircraft maintenance and flying operations very challenging.

Some of the distinctive measures initiated to reduce accidents are:Invigoration of Aerospace Safety Organisation. An Aircraft Accident and Investigation Board (AAIB) has been constituted with professional expertise to carry out investigation of all major accidents. This would ensure that inquiries into the accidents are thorough, concluded at the earliest and recommendations are instituted speedily.

Streamlining of Accident/Incident Reporting Procedure. Analytical Studies and Quality Audits of aircraft fleets to identify vulnerable areas and institute remedial measures are being carried out regularly.

The Integrated Aerospace Safety Management System (IASMS) maintained by IAF has streamlined the reporting procedure of accidents and enhanced the accident data management in terms of trend analysis and generation. The information and history of all accidents/incidents reported on IASMS are available to all units of IAF and corrective measures after analysis of trends have been instituted by field units to enhance the aerospace safety at their respective bases.

Establishment of Ornithology Cell.

This cell carries out bird surveys at flying bases and suggests bird prevention modules. The Solid Waste Management Scheme ordered by the Central Government around important airbases to reduce bird activity has been successful.

Avian Radars. These radars are under procurement and shall provide real time data on birds like height, number,

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IAF

AIRCRAFT PER YEAR APART FROM AIRCREW LOSSES DUE TO INJURIES OR FATALITIES. HOW DOES ONE REVERSE THIS NEGATIVE TREND?

collision course etc. to aircraft for taking necessary evasive action.

Aerospace Safety Audit. Regular visits of all flying bases by Aerospace Safety Team is being undertaken. Measures like Operational Risk Management (ORM), Crew Resource Management (CRM) and Air Force System of Error Management (AFSEM) have been implemented to generate a safe flying culture.

Accident Prevention Programmes.

Programmes such as Accident Probability Factors (APF) have been given an added thrust to identify risk prone/ hazardous areas specific to the aircraft fleet and operational environment to ensure safe practices/procedures.

IT IS CLEAR THAT TRAINING OR A GOOD TRAINER IS NOT THE ISSUE CONSIDERING THAT THE AJT HAS BEEN IN USE FOR A WHILE. WHERE LIES THE PROBLEM?

The number of accidents in the IAF has steadily reduced over the past few years. From a figure of approximate 13-14 accidents a year in the last decade, five accidents took place in Financial Year 2012-13 and six in Financial Year 2013-14. In the current Financial Year, three accidents have taken place.

October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

The reducing trend in aircraft accidents is indicative of the effectiveness of the measures adopted by the IAF. Introduction of the HAWK AJT was one such measure, which has ensured smooth transition from training aircraft to high performance fighter aircraft. Additionally, simulators are now available for many aircraft fleets, which are being extensively used to enhance training.

Aviation, especially military aviation, carries inherent risk of accidents. The demands on the aircraft and aircrew is extremely high and requires a very high level of man-machine interface. Most of the accidents in aviation are caused due to Technical Defects and Human Error.

Technical Defects are shortcomings in the design, production, overhaul of the aircraft, engines and the numerous components of the aircraft. Human Error includes not only errors committed by the aircrew but also by servicing personnel.

A few accidents are also caused due to environmental factors and natural operational risks such as bird strikes.

The IAF was forced to stop flying the HPT-32 aircraft for Basic Training, following a spate of accidents, including fatal accidents. In order to meet the mandatory training requirements, basic

JOINT EXERCISE: Air Chief Marshal, Arup Raha during the Indo-French Air Exercise 'GARUDA-V' in Jodhpur Air Force Station

MOD

MAKING OF THE WARRIORS: Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha reviewing the Graduation Parade, at Air Force Academy, Dundigal, in Hyderabad

training had to be undertaken on Kiran Jet trainers, which was an unavoidable interim solution. With the induction of the Pilatus PC-7 trainer, the aspect of basic training has been addressed.

ALL WARS ON THE GROUND OR IN THE AIR ARE FOUGHT IN THE DIGITAL MATRIX WITH REAL TIME COORDINATION BETWEEN DIFFERENT THEATRES. HOW IS THE IAF EVOLVING IN THIS NEW PARADIGM?

IAF has operationalised Air Force Network (AFNET) to provide seamless communication across all IAF units at various levels. IAF’s focus on net centricity for improved battle space awareness has led to conceptualisation of an Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS). Riding on AFNET, this system is designed to integrate all the sensors with the shooters in a comprehensive command and control system and the system is fully functional. The IAF has also factored in the requirement of existing and future platforms and systems to be compatible for operations in a network centric environment.

Hence, we are upgrading our existing platforms and systems while procuring state-of-the-art platforms and systems which include aircraft, surface-to

-air missile systems, software defined radios etc., which would enable us to plug into IACCS. Coupled with the Operational Data Link (ODL) between air borne platforms and space enabled communication network, IAF would migrate to complete net-centric operations in the domains of land, air and space. At the same time, we are conscious of the threats associated with the networks from cyberspace and have placed the requisite safeguards at all levels.

THE INDIAN NAVY BRINGS OUT FROM

“The reducing trend in aircraft accidents is indicative of the effectiveness of the measures adopted by the IAF. Introduction of the HAWK AJT was one such measure, which has ensured smooth transition from training aircraft to high performance fighter aircraft.” www.geopolitics.in

October 2014

TIME TO TIME ITS MARITIME DOCTRINE. IS THE IAF, UNDER YOUR LEADERSHIP, BRINGING OUT A DOCTRINE FOR THE IAF?

Doctrinal evaluation is an ongoing process which is reflective of the changing environment around us and adopts a holistic approach towards the emerging security paradigms. The first air power doctrine of the IAF was published in October 1995. Taking into account the considerable changes in technology and the evolving global security environment, the doctrine was revised and an updated version entitled IAP 2000-07 (Part 1 & 2) was issued in 2007. In keeping with the evolutionary nature of air power and the need to stay relevant across the spectrum of conflict in an interconnected environment, IAF felt the need to share our thoughts with the diverse stakeholders on national security. These included not only the armed forces and government, but also think-tanks, universities, media and all those interested in knowing more about how the IAF operates.

On October 12, we released the declassified basic doctrine of the IAF.

IS THE IAF PREPARED FOR TWO-FRONT ATTACK FROM CHINA AND PAKISTAN SIMULTANEOUSLY? We are progressively building up our capability to meet all our future security requirements. Our endeavour is to retain the ‘Capability Edge’ through the long term modernisation plans. I assure the nation that IAF is prepared at all times to ensure the safety and sovereignty of the Indian skies and safeguard the interests of the country.

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MASTERS

OF THE SKY As the Indian Air Force completes its 82 years of existence, we take a look at its existing capabilities. The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the worst affected in the go-slow work ethic that has gripped the defence establishment for the past few years. The IAF has been losing its strength drastically: today, it has 35 squadrons from the earlier 42. The force needs some immediate acquisitions that have been pending over the years.

AIR POWER • Total Aircraft

PENDING DEALS 1,785

• Fighters/Interceptors

535

• Attack Aircraft

468

• Transport Aircraft

706

• Trainer Aircraft

237

• Helicopters

504

• Attack Helicopters

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• Dassault Rafale MMRCA deal

• 22 Apache Attack Helicopters

20 • 15 Chinook Heavy Lift Helicopters

The military could not afford any more hold ups of the 2012 deal to supply 126 French-made Rafale fighters. The current government has set the pace of work and things are moving fast enough on the fighter deal.”

Arup Raha IAF Chief

LUH FATE • India cancelled a $991.65 million tender to buy 197 LightUtility Helicopters (LUH) from foreign vendors and asked local manufacturers to produce them at home.

• It has also been decided that Indian industry would be given the responsibility to produce nearly 400 Light Utility Helicopters (LUH) as per the requirement of the Indian Army and Air Force.

The IAF’s force level would go down rapidly if the delays in purchases continued. If the MMRCA does not come to us by the end of the 12th Plan (2017), then our force levels will go down rapidly.”

NAK Browne Former IAF chief COMPILED BY NAVEED ANJUM DESIGNED BY MOHIT KANSAL

EYEING FOR EUROFIGHTERS

STRENGTH

India may acquire 126 Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft from Germany, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported on September 8. Indian and German officials are once again negotiating a multibillion dollar deal for the delivery of 126 German-made fighter jets to India, the agency reported, citing German Foreign Minister FrankWalter Steinmeier.

SU-30 MKI

Mirage-2000

MiG-29

MiG-27

MiG-21 BISON

Jaguar

C-130J

C-17

IL-76

AN-32

EMBRAER

AVRO

Dornier

Boeing 737-200

MI-25/MI-35

MI-26

MI-17 V5

Chetak

Cheetah

LANDMARKS IN INDIAN AVIATION • The indigenously developed LCAs will replace the Indian Air Force’s Soviet-era workhorses, the MiG-21s. The smallest and the lightest combat jet in the world is being dubbed as a fourth-generation-plus class of aircraft because of its various stealth features.

MODERNISATION OF AIRFIELD INFRASTRUCTURE (MAFI) • This pilot project is a part of the Indian Air Force’s ambitious `2,500 crore initiative to modernise all airfields of the IAF, Indian Navy and Coast Guard in a phased manner.

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LEVERAGING PARTNERSHIPS

T

he Indian aerospace industry has mendous opportunity for suppliers in significant potential not only to emerging aerospace manufacturing resupport the government’s gions like India to step in and objectives of defence indigeniprovide greater capacity. On sation but also to provide value the defence side, government to foreign companies by becombudgets around the world are ing part of their supply chain shrinking and governments are and exporting state-of-the-art, aggressively exploring expendihigh quality products. During ture reductions without limiting the last decade, the dynamics their capabilities. The shrinking Ankur Kanaglekar of the Indian aerospace indusdomestic business is also forctry have changed significantly. ing defence contractors to conSince 2001, when the sector was opened sider investments in other markets such to the Indian private participation, the as India. industry has witnessed entry of Indian 2. Focus on “Make in India” and associprivate companies and enterprises, large ated policies: The government’s plans to and micro, small, and medium-sized. use the “Make and Buy Indian” category This was driven by the need of global of procurement to drive indigenisation aerospace original equipment manufacis a welcome step provided the ecoturers (OEMs) and tier-1 companies to nomics of building defence platforms procure products at competitive prices are taken into account. If implemented by leveraging India’s low-cost manufacsuccessfully and targeted for select type turing base, as well as by the governof purchases, this initiative can help dement’s policies related to offsets and velop an indigenous supply chain. procurement. Initiatives from defence 3. Government policies: More than $10 public sector units (DPSUs) to outsource billion of offset-related business is exactivities to Indian sub-tier companies pected to flow in the Indian aerospace also helped the industry to become industry during next 15 years, mainly more inclusive in terms of participation due to large procurement contracts such by private companies in different subas Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft sectors such as avionics, maintenance, (MMRCA), C-17 and other such prorepair and overhaul (MRO) and support grammes. These Offsets can act as a catand manufacturing. alyst to grow the defence industrial base.

That said, the best for the Indian Offsets commit foreign original equipment manufacturer (OEMs) to generate aerospace and defence industry is yet to economic returns to countries making come, as there is significant untapped defence equipment purchases. The Inpotential that can be harnessed by the dian offset policy – especially after the implementation of policies that foster recent revisions – has increased the apinnovation, growth and competitiveerture in terms of eligible products and ness.

In the future, three key drivers are expected to play a major role in shaping the Indian aerospace and defence industry.

1. The aerospace and defence market outside of India: The market for commercial aircraft continues to show significant growth potential. As of July 2014, Boeing has a backlog for 5,500 commercial aircraft. This figure is only expected to grow in the near future. Aircraft production rates have gone up significantly since airlines want new fuel-efficient planes sooner rather than later. This has resulted in the OEMs’ aerospace supplychain scaling up to unprecedented levels with a sharp focus on quality, cost and schedule. This represents a tre-

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services and is expected to bring OEMs’, tier-1 partners and Indian companies together to explore new opportunities.

The first driver is ‘supply’ centric – one that may open several opportunities for India’s industrial base. However, an Indian organisation’s ability to convert these opportunities into revenue will depend on developing excellence in aerospace manufacturing and support from government policies. More significantly, the policies associated with partnerships Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Offsets will also determine the nature of India’s defence industrial base in the future. If one were to outline a future scenario for aerospace and defence industrialisation in India based on the current policies associated with FDI and Offsets, India may get a fragmented defence industrial base, mainly focused on low-complexity, low-value items, supporting the global tier-2 and tier-3 companies mainly though ‘build to print’ activities. Clearly, such a scenario will not be in the best interest of the country.

To grow the industrial base in scale and capability, an FDI policy and a pragmatic, growth-focused offset policy will be crucial.

Foreign Direct Investment

The increase in FDI limit up to 49 per cent is a step in right direction, however, changing the FDI limit by itself will not help grow the defence industrial base.

For example, the control for a minority shareholder does not change from 26 per cent to 49 per cent. It is to be seen if foreign OEMs will be open to sharing C-17 Globemaster III

P-8I

sensitive technologies when they do not have complete control over the business operations. Though the technology transfer is controlled by several technology control regimes, a higher FDI limit with greater control provides more incentives for OEMs to work the process to get the technology export licenses.

While equity partnerships though joint ventures are important to create long-term, sustained economic value, let’s keep in mind that non-equity partnerships can also help grow the defence industrial base. Non-equity partnerships are relatively easy to initiate; considered less complex to execute; and work well when scope of the joint activity is well defined and expected to undergo minimum change over the course of the partnerships. Boeing has invested in supplier development, training, tooling, and quality- systems for Indian suppliers without taking an equity stake.

Non-equity partnerships may be seen as the preferred way by foreign OEMs to engage with Indian suppliers in the absence of an FDI regime that provides complete control to the foreign OEM. Again, India’s decision to liberalize FDI in defence to 49 per cent is a welcome first step. We understand that the government may allow a higher stake on a case-by-case basis if found to be in India’s interest – for cutting-edge technologies, manufacturing know-how and employment generation. Given the complex approval process for exceptions, it may be in India’s interest to cross the two per cent barrier and allow up to a 51 per cent stake sooner than later.

Growth-focused offset policy

A ‘growth-oriented’ offset policy can act as a catalyst as it encourages foreign OEMs to place more complex work with Indian companies for the value that the supply base provides. Below are five key suggestions that could help in achieving that objective.

1. The period of discharge of offset commitment should exceed the period of the main procurement contract beyond the current two-year maximum.

In order for Indian aerospace and defence industry to support India’s indigenisation initiatives, it needs capabili-

ties to design, develop and manufacture complex aircraft parts and sub-systems by getting embedded in the global supply chains of aircraft OEMs. Successful execution of complex work packages requires foreign OEMs to invest in enhancing the capabilities of their Indian partners. A short period of performance (60 to 84 months) is not sufficient to execute complex work packages given significant time is needed to get the relevant aerospace certifications and OEM-specific qualifications, as well as the need to deliver the end product within quality and cost requirements. Extension of the offset period of performance will result in foreign vendors placing more advanced defence work packages with Indian suppliers without being constrained by the period of the main procurement contract.

2. Give foreign OEMs the flexibility to define offset amounts for each Indian Offset Partner (IOP) over the course of the programme rather than having to commit to fixed dollar/percentage amount at the time of offset proposal submission.

To develop a vibrant defence industrial base, it is essential that Indian companies are embedded in the global supply chain and develop competencies to meet stringent requirements of cost, quality and on-schedule delivery. Only the most competent Indian organisations will be able to develop a vibrant Indian aerospace and defence industrial base.

As per India’s procurement process, it takes three-to-five years from offset proposal to contract signature. Once signed, the contract typically awards the OEM six-to-seven years for execution of the offset commitment. Within this duration, business dynamics may change significantly. For example, OEMs may decide to place different types of work than what was envisioned earlier, requiring a different offset partner. An Indian company identified in the offset proposal may not be able to take orders due to capacity constraints, or identified offset partners may be out of business by

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October 2014

the time the contract is signed and executed. Forcing an OEM to identify offset partners, components to be sourced and their value several years in advance, combined with a consuming and cumbersome process for revising the offset plan, only slows the pace of new business and impedes development of the industry. A better approach would be to remove all ‘upstream barriers’ by allowing flexibility in terms of selection of Indian partners, type of work, and value of work – but also creating a ‘downstream’ mechanism to perform a thorough evaluation of the offset claim submission to ensure that the IOPs and work placed are compliant with the offset policy.

3. Industry should be given flexibility to make changes to the offset offerings by changing offset partners and projects during the period of performance.

The Indian aerospace industrial base is nascent but evolving rapidly. Like any other evolving industry, new organisations are entering the marketplace and existing organisations are rapidly expanding their capabilities and breadth of offerings. The flexibility in defining offset amounts and partners will help develop more opportunities for Indian organisations, which currently lose out on new opportunities since they cannot be included in existing offset programmes in a timely manner. Flexibility in terms of addition of new partners and their work scope will also allow OEMs to identify a wide range of work opportunities for Indian industry as these opportunities are developed during the course of the offset contract execution. Flexibility in changing offset partners also becomes critical in instances where existing partners are unable to meet aerospace quality requirements. Allowing OEMs to remove offset partners that are not meeting the quality requirements and replacing them with new organisations will help build a competent industrial base and will take away a sense of entitlements.

4. Tier-1 suppliers should be allowed to discharge offset obligations on behalf of Continued on page 42

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Continued from page 41

the foreign OEM for all offset contracts currently under execution, and they should be permitted to discharge offset beyond the extent of their work share.

Tier-1 suppliers play an important part in the aerospace and defence industry, supplying anywhere from 50 to 80 per cent of the cost of the final product.

They also own the intellectual property rights for technology in areas such as aircraft engines, avionics, landing gear,

hydraulic actuators, machining and sheet metal components. In order for India to develop an ecosystem of aerospace capabilities, it is crucial for Indian companies to get opportunities in areas in which tier-1s are active. Limiting use of tier-1s to discharge offset commitments equivalent to their work share will only discourage these suppliers from exploring additional sourcing from India, thereby restricting potential opportunities for Indian industry.

5. Reinstate services as eligible defence

offset transactions.

Services, as defined by the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), include engineering services, MRO/support services, and research and development services; and they represent 80 to 90 per cent of the value of the product life cycle for an aerospace platform. A platform cannot be built, tested and maintained without services. If the Indian industrial base aspires to manufacture indigenous defence platforms, it needs experience in delivering services at par with the global

‘COPTER TECH ADVANCES TO AUGMENT AIR DEFENCE

“I

mpossible dreams” is what nology, christened Matrix Technology, aims to give both rotary and fixed wing Sikorsky has been pursuing since aircraft an architecture and introducing vertical flight system intelligence algorithms to the world in 1939. From beto complete complex missions ing the world’s first helicopters with minimal human overin combat during World War II, sight. The pilot thus becomes a to performing the world’s first mission manager, either on the Search & Rescue (SAR) operation aircraft or when monitoring in 1944, to being the first helifrom the ground via a datalink, copter to fly across the AtlanArvind Walia letting the aircraft fly itself. tic Ocean in 1955, to setting the “Autonomy” in helicopters world helicopter speed record of is more challenging to achieve than in 210 mph in 1962 to developing the S-92 fixed-wing aircraft like the current UAVs platform in 1998 and receiving the Rob(Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), as fixedert J. Collier Trophy for it in 2010 as the wing aircraft tend to fly in open air, thougreatest achievement in aeronautics & sands of feet from the ground, while heastronautics, Sikorsky has encouraged licopters’ flying conditions entail lower creative thinkers to prove that what is flight, over obstacles like vegetation and considered impossible is often proven to hills, habitat and in inclement weather. be possible.

A key requirement for autonomous In keeping with the tradition of pushflight is “flexible intelligence” so that if ing the limits of engineering, design and a helicopter is flying a pre-programmed performance to enhance an aircraft’s route and runs into turbulence, the syscapabilities and lowering the operattem can adapt to the changing condiing costs at the same time, several new tions. Such systems will be useful for technologies are being developed that tasks such as patrolling a border, shutwill improve significantly the capability, tling personnel to and from offshore oil reliability and safety of “autonomous,” rigs, for SAR operations and any misoptionally piloted and piloted vertical take-off and landing aircraft. sions that would endanger a pilot or crew members.

“Autonomous” Helicopter Sikorsky has been testing its autonoSikorsky is developing a suite of hardmous technology on an S-76 helicopter ware & software technologies to support since July 2013. The technology has been autonomous flight of “unmanned” or further tested on a Black Hawk helicop“optionally piloted” aircraft. The techter, demonstrating autonomous cargo

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October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

pickup and delivery capabilities.

A typical loss rate for unpiloted aircraft is one in 1,000 flight hours, which are acceptable for small, inexpensively built drones, but will become expensive in the case of larger, more expensive systems like a military helicopter. Hence, Sikorsky is looking at loss rate of one in 100,000 hours.

The Matrix programme objective is to enable porting of the hardware and software on an existing aircraft and introducing it on a new aircraft. An example of the programme’s application is the automated “approach-to-rig” capability Sikorsky is providing in the S-92 helicopters for the offshore oil industry. The automated rig approach system incorporates inputs from the flight management system, the GPS and the radar altimeter, and it factors in wind conditions at the rig, to fly the helicopter to a target offset point 0.5 nautical miles from the oil rig while reducing pilot workload to seven pilot-initiated items from 17. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has certified the new functionality on the Sikorsky S-92; however, since an automated rig approach system had never been designed before, the FAA had no basis on which to compare it and had to establish all new criteria!

Another goal of Matrix Technology is to increase onboard system intelligence and raise the aircraft’s capability. Fur-

standards. The Indian industrial base has excellent capabilities related to developing software, embedded systems, support infrastructure, and engineering design for various industries. These capabilities need to be enhanced to design and support an entire platform. This can only happen if global OEMs continue to procure more and more services and partner with Indian companies to design sub-systems and platforms. By holding the services in abeyance, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has taken away the op-

portunity which could one day help Indian companies design an entire aircraft or sub-system. The MoD’s offset policy objectives would be better served by increasing vigilance over IOPs and implementing recommendations from Indian industry bodies such as NASSCOM to assess and monitor transactions.

In summary, a significant up-side will be realised by the Indian aerospace and defence industrial base through a liberal foreign direct investment policy and a growth-focused offset policy. Just

like India, several other countries are aspiring to grow their aerospace and defence industries. These countries, through their business-friendly investment and offset policies, are ‘leaning forward’ to partner with global OEMs. It is in India’s interest to liberalise the defence aerospace environment so that the opportunities are not lost forever.

– The writer is Director, International Strategic Partnerships Boeing Defence, Space & Security, India

thermore, it is an autonomous architecture that is platform agnostic and can be installed in the existing fleet or on new aircraft of Sikorsky or of any other OEM.

X 2 technology

Sikorsky set out to accomplish a key performance objective in the next generation of helicopters: a high-cruise speed without compromising vertical take-off capability. Historically vertical flight has required a compromise between hover performance and forward speed.

To overcome this challenge, Sikorsky developed the X 2 technology that allows a helicopter to cruise comfortably at 250 knots (460 km/hr), twice the speed of conventional helicopters, while retaining capabilities such as low-speed handling, efficient hovering, and a seamless and simple transition to high speed.

The X 2 technology involves a counter-rotating coaxial rotor, in place of one main rotor and a tail rotor, and a suite of integrated technologies. The helicopter being developed on this platform is the

Sikorsky S-97 Raider fuselage

S-97 Raider. The S-97 will have a composite structure with seamlessly inte-

Sikorsky X2 technology demonstrator

grated cockpit, cabin and tail cone. The S-97 will be 36 feet in length and weigh 11,000 lbs and will feature fly-by-wire control and counter-rotating rigid main rotor blades for lift and forward flight and a pusher propeller for high speed acceleration and deceleration.

The S-97 will afford precision manoeuvres in low flight speed, high G turning manoeuvres at over 200 knots, hot day hover performance at altitudes up to 10,000 feet and significant improvements in payload and flight endurance compared with conventional light tactical helicopters. This translates to a 100-knot improvement in speed a 60 per cent improvement in combat radius and 50 per cent better high-hot hover performance over conventional helicopters.

– The writer is Regional Executive, India & South Asia, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.

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“WE OFFER INDIA THE I 4TH GEN ENGINE” E

UROJET and its stakeholders bethe IAF but also with Indian Industry. lieve that the EJ200, the remarkable EUROJET is a proven partnership conengine powering Eurosortium and our long-standing fighter Typhoon, one of the partnership practices will bring most modern fighter aircraft in several advantages to India in the world today, would offer the creating and sustaining a viable Indian Air Force (IAF) and the defence solution. EUROJET has industry unrivalled technology a strong record in delivering along with levels of reliability in customer solutions working in a collaboration of defence departnership not only within the Linden Clemens velopment. It is simply the ideal four core nations (UK, Germany, engine for an indigenous Indian Spain and Italy) but also with our programme, such as the Advanced Mediexport customers, Austria, the Kingdom um Combat Aircraft (AMCA) and EUROof Saudi Arabia and the newest addition, JET is enthusiastic about proposing the Oman, the 7 nations involved in the curEJ200 engine for India. rent programme for the Typhoon. Joint EUROJET views the initiatives by the enhancements developed with these Indian Government to modernise the IAF customers to comply fully with their naand to reap the advantages of localisation tional demands provided the framework as a positive step that opens doors to us. for efficient and sound collaboration. EJ We welcome the opportunity to build a wishes to conclude that the consortium long-lasting relationship with not only has, over many years, demonstrated

their professionalism in efficient programme management and offers a most mature setup for both the IAF and Indian industry.

One of the challenges facing the Indian Government from our point of view is the need for investment in increased technology across all of India’s defence forces and the necessity of balancing the budget over several concerns. In order to make funds available for a number of projects consecutively, the Indian Air Force is undoubtedly best served by a mature proven product that is ready to operate, effective and trusted but still has full capability for future growth. With over 500,000 Engine Flying Hours achieved over ten years and

Eurojet Engine

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srael and Rafael consider our relationship and cooperation with India as strategic. We are constantly looking for new ways to expand our cooperation and joint ventures with the local Indian industry, as well as with the DRDO. Such cooperation will ensure our mutual success in the development and production of leading technologies that will best serve both countries well into the future. Currently, there are over 100 such partnerships, and they are part of our broad international offset activities around the world, which we hope will similarly come into play in India as well.

We understand the growing need for increased cooperation and partnership with global clients, and for maintaining knowledge transfer and adaptation of existing solutions to the specific needs of the user. As such, Rafael is constantly seeking new partnership and joint ventures with Indian companies for cooperation that will help drive forward our mutual ability to address local needs and operational requirements. We are engaged in joint ventures and partnerships with local Indian industries and are in constant search to expand our activities in the country, in cooperation with the DRDO, in order to better address local needs and requirements.

Rafael is also continuously engaged in R&D activities with our Indian partners, through our cooperation with local companies and the DRDO. This includes systems for all branches of the military – navy, air, and land.

Rafael offers a full range of multi-layered protection to meet

October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

“WE ARE SEEKING PARTNERSHIP, JVS WITH INDIAN COMPANIES” Iron Dome

the imperative demand for air superiority and effective defence. Our multilayered, mixed weapon systems ensure decisive, efficient responses against all types of airborne threats including aircraft, helicopters, short to long-range missiles, and rockets.

Rafael’s multi-layered protection systems provide comprehensive protection for armed forces and population centres by delivering victory in the air and full protection on the ground. Systems benefits include:

IRON DOME

Iron Dome is the only dual mission counter rocket, artillery and mortar (CRAM) and Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) system. Iron Dome is an affordable, effective and innovative defence solution (CR&AM Class) to the asymmetric threats of short-range rockets (up to and over 70-km), & mortars as well as VSHORAD Missiles System (up to 10 km) against traditional Air Defence targets.

Iron Dome system is fully operational by the Israeli Air Force. Since its initial deployment, it has intercepted over 1,200 rockets and mortars fired at Israel.

over 1,000 Production Engines delivered the EJ200 still offers opportunity for maximum growth as, having outperformed the specifications from day one, it has remained relatively unchanged. Thus, offering the opportunity to modify and adapt the EJ200 to the IAF’s particular needs, it can benefit from an engine that is ready today while achieving a solution that fully supports the unique defence requirements for India.

The EJ200 offers a level of technology that is second to none. The engine’s average time on wing is 1,120 engine flying hours with the lead engine achieving in excess of 1,700 engine flying hours on wing which demonstrates its unbeatable

and proven reliability. The unique modular construction allows for a quick engine repair by modular exchange, with a low engine turn around time and high level of weapon system availability. It offers a low maintenance burden at O-Level, easy access boroscope, LRU change and Maintenance Data Panel check. The Executive Lifing approach measures the actual usage rather than planned mission profiles which can achieve considerable Life Cycle Cost savings compared to other engines without this advantage. Put simply, the EJ200 offers India the most advanced technology currently available on the market in a fourth generation engine.

The expertise of the four partner com-

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October 2014

Iron Dome uses a unique interceptor with a special warhead that detonates the targets in the air within seconds. The system can handle multiple threats simultaneously and efficiently.

David’s Sling

Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, in partnership with Raytheon USA, has designed David’s Sling, an affordable and lethal solution against Long-Range Artillery Rockets (LRAR), Short-Range Ballistic Missiles (SRBM), Cruise Missiles (CM) and traditional air defence threats. The system provides optimum protection for the homeland as well as forward deployed forces.

The David’s Sling Weapon System is composed of a Battle management & Command Array, as well as an Interceptor Array. The Multi-Mission Radar is used for the detection and tracking of threats. The Weapon Control System is a battle management & weapon control system that enables optimal, real-time mission planning against a large number of simultaneous threats. The WCS Continued on page 46

panies (Rolls-Royce, MTU Aero Engines, ITP and Avio Aero) behind the EJ200 can assist India to increase its level of technology knowledge in the most effective way possible. EUROJET would like to see a simple time bound contracting route established to ease the contractual process and to allow the initiative to progress quickly and smoothly. With a committed focus on collaboration in development, production and exchange of technology in a results-oriented environment, the Indian Government can ease the path to a speedier resolution of India’s defence needs.

– The writer is CEO, EUROJET

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Continued from page 45

is also the system’s interface to senior command levels, Air Control Units, as well as to other sensors and defence systems. It is scheduled for IOC in 2015.

SPYDER ADS

The SPYDER system is a Short and Medium Range Air Defence Missile System designed to engage and destroy a wide spectrum of threats, such as attack aircraft bombers, curise missiles, UAVs, UCAVs and stand-off weapons.

The SPYDER ADS Air Defence System ensures protection of high value assets as well as manoeuvring combat forces. The system is an all-weather, network-centric, self-propelled, multilaunch, quick-reaction ADS. SPYDER incorporates RAFAEL’s most advanced missiles – the Derby, an active radar Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile and the Python-5, a sophisticated dual band Imaging Infra Red (IIR) missile. Both missiles are equipped with a booster.

Rafael’s air warfare systems are among the best in the world. Its airborne missile systems include activeradar as well as full-sphere IIR air-toair missiles for short-to-beyond visual range threats (Python-5 & Derby). Its array of air-to-surface missiles (SPICE 250, 1000 & 2000) includes stand-off weapons and precision-guided ammunition kits for use against high-value ground targets.

Rafael’s Spike Missile Family consists of precise tactical missiles (MR, LR, ER and NLOS) for ranges of 2.5–25 km.

The Spike Family missiles are multipurpose, multi-platform electro-optic systems featuring real-time data links.

The Spike missiles can be used by infantry units as well as mounted on combat vehicles, attack helicopters (ER and NLOS) and naval vessels.

Rafael’s electro-optic targeting and navigation pod (Litening) is the most widely used pod in the world and its unique airborne reconnaissance pod (Reccelite) is known for its ability to shorten the sensor-to-shooter cycle.

Rafael’s airborne communication systems include ROIP voice communication solutions, data links and wireless networks for full connectivity on all levels. Rafael also offers advanced airborne electronic warfare products including support jammers, RWR, ESM, ELINT and ECM systems.

– A Rafael Spokesperson

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MBDA, DRDO, SRSAM:

examples of Buy and Make in India

O

ver recent months it has ing to be well placed to benefit from become clear that Indian the expected boost in defence spendDefence Minister ing that India deems necessary Arun Jaitley will be looking to confront the traditional security challenges posed by its more and more towards the neighbours. This involvement Indian defence industry is crucial to the Modi governrather than foreign suppliment’s plans as a strong, dyers to meet India’s grownamic private sector will need ing demands for modern to be brought into play as well as defence equipment. This is Loic Piedevache in line with Prime Minister the large public sector, the DeNarendra Modi’s commitfence Public Sector Undertakment to carry out the much needed ings (DPSUs) which have been the traupgrades to the Indian armed forces ditional source of defence equipment. using domestic industrial facilities.

However, the question has been raised concerning the current capability of Some commentators have been the private sector to offer the advanced implying that these decisions and technology solutions called for by new the Indian government’s future generation defence equipment such as defence procurement policy spell complex missile systems. troubled times ahead for foreign SRSAM, for which the negotiations suppliers. However, if one considwere concluded between India and ers the Short Range Surface-to-Air France in January 2013, offers much missile (SRSAM) (also referred to as MAITRI) project which has been unmore than just the needed operational der discussion by the governments capability long awaited for by the IAF of both India and France since 2007, (not to mention the same need expressed by both the Indian Navy and this is clearly not the case. In fact, Army). Most importantly it offers Indian the opposite is true. From the beindustry access to the world class techginning, MBDA has been at pains nologies and solutions that the country to point out that this crucial short range air defence addition to the does not currently possess but that are absolutely vital to bring its armed forcIAF’s equipment inventory (SRSAM es well and truly into the 21st century. will also include a ship-borne variShould this project advance, Indian ant for the Indian Navy), while beindustry will obtain modern technoloing a fully made in India product, gies such as Vertical Launch, solid fuel ties in perfectly with the company’s own business strategy for India. This motors, automated defence equipment production lines as well as radar and strategy revolves around two main IR seeker technologies including the focal points – technology transfer associated algorithms. Indeed, it has at the highest level and an in-depth been reported recently that Jean-Yves partnership with the Indian defence Drian, the French Defence Minister, has industry sector. So, MBDA views written to Arun Jaitley, underlining the Modi’s plans, including the increase fact that within a few years the SRSAM in FDI, very positively indeed. project would enable India to get “the Large Indian companies have strategic missile autonomy” it has been begun investing heavily in preparation for the new procurement policy calling for. to come into effect. They are aimWhile 50 per cent of contract value

October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

MBDA’s MILAN ADT-ER

has been stipulated as the benchmark to qualify for national production status, SRSAM actually involves 75 per cent that will go directly to Indian industry.

In addition, significantly more that the upfront contract value should be accrued in export sales as the weapon corresponds to the needs of many potential global customers (to which MBDA’s international commercial team would provide access).

Of course operational capability has to be considered as well as India’s national industrial benefits. SRSAM is a highly capable system featuring a missile with a fully autonomous interoperable active radar/passive imagery seeker.

The SRSAM firing unit’s single multifunctional radar can handle 32 missiles (four launchers each equipped with eight missiles) and thereby 32 separate targets. This multiple close range high fire power offered by SRSAM, currently not available to India’s forces, will be indispensable to defend against the modern saturating attack threat which could come from a variety of sources such as aircraft, cruise missiles, UAVs and the like (in comparison, a typical Akash system firing unit will only be able to handle four targets simultaneously and

risks being easily overwhelmed).

It is clear that the new government is intent on asserting India’s military prowess and that it recognizes the necessity of a firm industrial base to achieve this. Upping FDI from its previous 26 per cent to the current level of 49 per cent is a step in the right direction as it will serve to build confidence for international companies to invest in India’s industrial infrastructure. It is also necessary for India to find the partners it can trust as defence calls for a long term commitment.

MBDA has been a close partner to India for several decades and has a lot of experience in working with Indian industry as evidenced by the licensing agreement covering the indigenous production of the MILAN anti-tank weapon. The partnership with MBDA will also be recognized by the IAF which has long been equipped with the company’s Magic short range and Super 530D medium range air- to-air missiles.

Of course recent contracts will see these replaced by ASRAAM (for Jaguar) and MICA (for the Mirage upgrade). The relationship will grow even stronger when the much-awaited MMRCA aircraft, the Rafale, is armed with a range of MBDA

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October 2014

weapons such as MICA, Meteor, the Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missile and Exocet (MBDA is currently discussing a full suite of weapons for the Rafale but decisions have yet to be made).

Despite these exciting times for MBDA as far as supplying the IAF is concerned, Loïc Piedevache, Country Head for MBDA in India points out: “I am delighted by the close relationship we have established with the IAF over the years and I look forward to the work we will be doing together in the years to come.

However, the importance of the work we have been doing with the DRDO on SRSAM cannot be overstressed. Both India and France have invested a significant amount of time and effort at the very highest level in driving this project forward to a conclusion. SRSAM will not only offer a much needed, latest generation short range air defence solution to meet requirements clearly expressed by the IAF, the Indian Navy and the Indian Army, I am also firmly convinced that it will provide India with a quantum leap in its defence industry capability to help it meet the challenges that lie ahead”.

– The writer is Country Head, India, MBDA

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‘MAHINDRA TELEPHONICS TO SUPPORT CRUCIAL PROGRAMME’ T

he need to ensure the safety and tems, Telephonics is widely recognised as security of civilian, economic, borpossessing the expertise, ability and agilder and military interests ity to deliver the most advanced has never been greater. Threats technologies demanded by the and the technology behind them world’s Air Forces. are evolving daily and the need Telephonics’ specific efto develop and sustain a tactical forts in India, focused through advantage is ever present. our joint venture, Mahindra Telephonics’ team of nearly Telephonics Integrated Systems 1,200 professionals is comprised (Mahindra Telephonics), offer Mel French of highly skilled and experienced unique and proprietary soluengineers, technicians and scitions to the Nation’s most chalentists whose main daily focus is to delenging defence requirements today and velop advanced integrated surveillance form a significant foundation for a private and communications technologies for defence industry that works in harmony a wide range of aerospace, defence and with the Defence Public Sector Undercommercial customers around the globe. takings’ (DPSUs) capabilities. In short, Gaining an ever-increasing share of the Mahindra Telephonics will lead the deIdentification Friend or Foe (IFF) market velopment of a vibrant, sustainable and space with our all-mode, fully-certified effective private aerospace and defence IFF Interrogator equipment and unique electronics ecosystem, serving all branchsecure, digital intercommunications syses of India’s defence and border security

forces.

Telephonics does not have a “wish list” per se, but we have been in discussions with the Indian Air Force (IAF) and DPSUs for over three years regarding the National IFF Upgrade effort. This is a significant challenge that will require the collaboration of all branches of the armed forces as well as the most advanced systems that the industry can offer. Mahindra Telephonics will play a central role in this initiative. Programmes such as precision approach and airfield surveillance radar will highlight the unique capabilities of Mahindra Telephonics as well as begin to lay the groundwork for deployment of global IFF upgrades. Recognising that India will, for the foreseeable future, operate the most diverse fleet of military platforms on the planet, you can see what a herculean effort this upgrade will be.

Mahindra Telephonics looks forward to

“LOCKHEED MARTIN COMMITTED FOR LONG-TERM PARTNERSHIP” L

ockheed Martin has been present in Hercules aircraft bearing testament to the India for over 20 years and in 2008 excellent performance of the existing Copened its India subsidiary, 130J aircraft at the hands of the Lockheed Martin India Pvt. Ltd., Indian Air Force. emphasising the long-term comThe C-130J’s unique combimitment of the company towards nation of flexibility, affordability, the Indian market and industry. availability and reliability has Lockheed Martin approaches customers (there are 16 — inthe Indian market with a solid cluding India — operating or commitment and a dedicated inon contract to receive C-130Js) Phil Shaw country presence. seeking additional mission caThe Indian Air Force received pabilities for the Super Hercules. its first C-130J on February 5, 2011, part Lockheed Martin recently introduced of six aircraft contracted in 2008, which the SC-130J Sea Hercules, a maritime pamarked a watershed moment in Indo-US trol and long-range search and rescue airrelations. This was the first US military craft. This J-model can be equipped with purchase by India after four decades. All a range of equipment to allow crews to six aircraft were delivered to the IAF uncarry out such relatively straightforward der budget and ahead of schedule. The missions as monitoring a coastline to firIAF has ordered six more C-130J Super ing standoff missiles or launching torpe-

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does. Available in three configurations, the SC-130J aligns with mission requirements similar to those of the Indian Coast Guard and Navy. Like Hercs before it, the SC-130J leverages the proven airframe of the C-130J and its flexible capabilities to not only successfully complete missions, but redefine them as well.

Lockheed Martin has submitted a Programme Notification Letter to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for a type design update for the Lockheed Martin Model L-382J airplane, a civil-certified variant of the proven C-130J Super Hercules to be marketed as the LM-100J. Through select design changes, the LM100J will perform as a civil multi-purpose air freighter capable of rapid and efficient transport of cargo. The LM-100J is expected to be an efficient and ideal airlift

supporting the IAF and this crucial programme.

The IAF will continue to modernise their fleet in the coming years with new fighter and transport aircraft as well as helicopters. Telephonics has been an essential part of defence aviation for decades, providing the intercommunication systems aboard the IAF’s new C-17s and weather avoidance radar for HAL, servicing their Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and Mi-17 helicopters. Boeing Chinooks have been contracted and are set to arrive in India with Telephonics’ secure digital intercommunication capabilities installed. Telephonics’ TruLink, with secure wireless communication capabilities, may also become an essential part of IAF cargo aircraft operations in the coming months and its versatility will provide an unmatched level of operational flexibility and safety to diverse military missions.

Looking ahead, the IAF will need to leverage the capabilities of companies like Mahindra Telephonics for more than equipment manufacture and delivery, but also to improve their support concepts.

Mahindra Telephonics is well-positioned to deliver modern, performance-based

logistics programmes to minimise the total cost of ownership for our products while enhancing availability for the fleet.

The dynamic flexibility of the private defence industry in India will enable a much more vibrant and responsive support team, delivering greater capabilities to the IAF at the lowest possible cost. Mahindra Telephonics is uniquely postured to move forward in partnership with DPSUs to best satisfy the growing and changing needs of the IAF. What is most valued by defence companies, regardless of the market, is a degree of predictability in the government’s procurements plans. With a dependable, transparent procurement plan, industry can better prepare to meet the needs of

solution when delivering bulk and oversize cargo particularly to austere locations worldwide.

Lockheed Martin is committed to a long-term partnership in technology development, manufacturing and strategic collaboration in third markets with Indian companies from both the public and private sectors. Lockheed Martin is committed to working with our industrial partners and Indian defence industry to develop long-term, high-value projects that bring technology and sustainable business to India.

In India, Lockheed Martin has a joint venture facility with Tata Advanced Systems Limited near Hyderabad. This facility is producing major structural components for the C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft for the global supply chain. The Joint Venture between LM and Tata was established in 2010. The entire facility was put together in 11 months and in that time a greenfield a factory was built and producing aircraft parts.The first production component rolled out in July 2012 and was shipped to the US in August 2012. It is important to note that the JV

the services. This is true in India as well, and it is clear that the new government under Prime Minister Modi has taken on the challenge of reinvigorating defence procurements. This helps all companies plan their R&D investments to proactively work towards addressing each requirement. Mahindra Telephonics has consistently invested “in advance of need” to ensure that certain capabilities are available when required, not just in IFF, but in intercommunications, airborne radar and border security technologies as well.

Continued improvements in defence procurement predictability and transparency will serve to further ensure that DPSUs and private industry are ready to meet the needs of India’s defence forces, in a timely and efficient manner, today and tomorrow. A steady hand at the helm of defence procurement, offset and localisation will deliver the required investments needed to reduce reliance on foreign defence technologies while greatly improving the operational availability of India’s armed forces.

– The writer is VP, Business Development, India, Asia & Australia, Telephonics

was established by LM not directly as an offset requirement, but in anticipation of coming business opportunities in the air mobility area and to build on the growing capability of the Indian Aerospace industry. LM is pleased with the performance of the manufacturing plant and the quality of the product being produced. LM and Tata continue to look at other opportunities for expanding the business and forming similar partnerships in other mutual areas of interest. Tata Lockheed Martin Aerostructures Limited (TLMAL) was honoured as the 2013 Aerospace & Defence “Best Joint Venture of the Year” award at Aero India.

Lockheed Martin welcomes moves by the new Indian government to increase Foreign Direct Investment in the defence sector and look forward to working with Indian customers to help meet their requirements. The company reviews partnerships and joint ventures based on the business case. The Corporation will continue to review potential partnerships in the same manner and agreements regarding investment will be made accordingly.

– The writer is Chief Executive Lockheed Martin India Pvt Ltd

C-130J Super Hercules

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INDIAN AIR FORCE AND ITS GROWTH OVER THE YEARS A

fter eight decades of existence, Indian Air Force (IAF) has become one of the best fighting forces in the world. From its inception on October 08, 1932, the IAF has now grown into as the fourth largest air arm in world with a strategic reach that is truly intercontinental, surrounding (planned) induction of the state-of-the-art aerial platforms, weapons, sensors and radars; upgrading of necessary infrastructure; and training at par with the best in the world.

The IAF currently is in the middle of a major revitalisation. This process involves the induction of several advanced weapon and combat support systems that are likely to transform the force over the next couple of decades. The IAF is additionally expected to address other organisational challenges in innovative

ways to further transform itself into a potent and “able-to-deliver” force.

The ongoing transformation is aimed at developing the IAF’s capabilities; this is not necessarily aimed at any other country, but rather to make it capable of delivering what is required of it – maintain India’s peace and protect the country’s interests. Given the very nature of air power and India’s security requirements, the IAF is expected to go through major transformations, particularly in terms of modernisation, over the next five to ten years.

The 21st century has witnessed a new pattern of international relationships in which nations enter into freewheeling partnerships with other nations based on complementarity of interests in specific but vital areas.

They pertain to core areas of national

interest like supply of defence equipment and technology, military exercises, cooperation in the field of nuclear energy, trade and investments, diplomatic support on critical issues, cooperation in science and technology, education, agriculture, information and communication technology, banking, insurance, and various other sectors.

For an emerging super power like India, self-reliance in defence is an important prerequisite to strategic autonomy, which by itself is a basic attribute of sovereignty. India is attempting to enhance its defence capability through ‘modernisation’ of armed forces by importing equipment from leading arms manufacturers and establishing joint ventures with them to receive the latest technology. The level of satisfaction vis-à-vis each supplier country varies according to the political imperatives of the country concerned, national regulatory laws of each

SCORPION FOR THE IAF T extron Inc. USA is a multi-induscountries. try conglomerate spread across The aviation products of Textron 25 countries employing namely Bell Helicopter, Beecharound 32,000 people. It is Forcraft, Cessna and Hawker have tune 225 Company with annual been operating in India very sucrevenue for 2013 at $12.2 billion. cessfully for last several decades.

Textron is known around the However, the focus so far has world for its powerful brands like been in the commercial segment Bell Helicopter, Beechcraft, Cessonly. With the development of na Aircraft and Textron Defence highly capable innovative soluInderjit Sial in the aerospace and defence tions in both fixed and rotary segment, besides several leadwing aircraft, Textron is now ing industrial brands. All the above menready to offer excellent military products like V-22 tilt rotor, Bell 407 GX Light Utiltioned aviation brands have significant ity Helicopter (LUH) and Scorpion Trainer presence in India in the general aviation and Counter Insurgency Aircraft to the space and Textron Defence System is the IAF. In addition to providing these highly supplier of Sensor Fuzed Weapons (SFW) efficient flying machines, Textron is enfor Indian Air Force Jaguar fleet. Textron thusiastic to supply and integrate Sensor Systems is a major supplier of precision Fuzed Weapons (SFW) on multiple platmunitions, armoured vehicles and UAVs forms of Indian Air Force. to the US military and friendly foreign

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V-22 tilt rotor aircraft can introduce a distinctly enhanced capability for special heli-borne operations likely to be undertaken by IAF. in future conflicts. V-22 Osprey will redefine both battle field logistics and tactical helicopter operations vastly beyond the present capabilities, wherein much larger force will be transported across large distances at high speed. This will enable IAF to deliver appropriate responses to the emerging requirements of the tactical area with much greater speed.

Bell 407 GX the Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) is an outstanding machine for high altitude operations and IAF is looking for such solutions. The Army however, has much larger requirement of such LUH to replace aged Chetak and Cheetah fleets.

Bell Helicopter will be happy to collaborate with Indian industry towards such LUH programme which would be a long

country and the interests of the private sector wherever it is relevant on the supplier side.

There has been a rapid increase in the global linkages of the Indian economy over the last two decades. This is evident not only in the increase in India’s trade and investment flows but also in the increasing number of foreign business delegations visiting India to explore business opportunities. Indian entrepreneurs have also been actively developing their markets abroad, often acquiring foreign companies in their quest for a global footprint.

Investment in an emerging markets by global Aerospace and defence companies has witnessed an increase, driven mainly by the search of low cost manufacturing options, research and development capabilities and acquisition of engineering and related critical talent.

The nature of the relationship between Indian Air force and the industry and their investment into emerging markets has also undergone a transformation with these companies attempting to establish stronger presence locally.

With the new government and budget that focuses on need for significant investment in the defence sector and investment, including from the Indian private sector, deserves encouragement. The

12 per cent boost in the budget spending has opened the defence industry to foreign investment in a way like never before. Despite the uncertainty as to whether the permissible FDI levels is justified or not, many foreign investors are already setting up joint ventures.

Safran has been working closely with India to ensure the protection of both people and infrastructures, by providing ultra-modern, foolproof security solutions, especially for air travel, defence, law enforcement and commercial establishments.

With its India footprint dating back to 1950s with the sale of equipment for planes and helicopters, Safran group has forged partnerships with the Indian industry, based on joint developments. It has been a supplier to the Indian armed forces since the 1950s, providing engines or equipment for over 1300 planes and choppers, including fighter jets like Jaguar, Mirage 2000, Su-30, Hawk, MiG-29K and choppers like Cheetah, Chetak and Dhruv.

With its focus on the sector and true mission of Advantage India, Safran joins the nation to celebrate the 82nd Indian Air Force Day!

term mutually beneficial partnership between Bell, Indian industry and also IAF. Textron AIRLAND – a joint venture between Textron Inc and AirLand Enterprises, LLC, has responded to Request for Information (RFI) floated by IAF for Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT) by providing information on Scorpion aircraft. Scorpion sets a new performance standard for

training and tactical aviation – an unparalleled solution when compared to traditional aircraft development programmes.

Employing the finest of commercial aviation best practices in structures, flight controls, propulsion and avionics and other aircraft systems, Scorpion introduces innovative machine capabilities for intermediate training as well as tactical

– A Safran Spokesperson

scorpion

training besides extensive Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities at very low acquisition as well as operational costs. Textron has presented the distinctly attractive features of Scorpion to IAF and will be happy to provide this highly cost effective modern training and ISR aircraft to the IAF. We are engaged with IAF to develop integration solutions for SFW in other IAF aircraft besides the Jaguar aircraft which is currently undergoing integration at HAL, Bengaluru. Due to the variety of threats which may influence the land battle in different theatres or terrain, we strongly believe that the operational capability and the combat punch of IAF will significantly increase when SFWs are integrated on multiple platforms. Textron will be happy to help IAF to develop appropriate integration solutions for nominated platforms.

ESL Defence – a niche electronic warfare test and training equipment manufacturing company of Textron, has offered several state-of-the-art test and training solutions for IAF to counter host of threats in the tactical area. ESL products can stimulate realistic threat across UV, IR, Laser and directed energy. ESL is working closely with Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) and also with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) to offer various solutions for IAF and Army Aviation. Textron is keen to offer ManPortable Aircraft Survivability Trainer (MAST) to IAF. The MAST systems accurately replicate the visual effects of an IR threat-based weapon to stimulate aircraft survivability equipment systems for more realistic training events. MAST consistently delivers precise stimulation of various missiles warning systems and provides comprehensive after- action video for pilot skill development.

Textron is excited about the potential in India wherein long term trustworthy partnership can be developed with Indian industries through win-win model. Textron will also be happy to co-develop and co-produce systems where the volume of the programme supports such initiatives.

Textron is committed in India on long term basis vide its significant presence in the form of technology centre at Bengaluru and also a joint venture in automobile sector in Gujarat. The objective of Textron is to develop partnership across military and civil domains and to be integral part of India’s growth story.

– The writer is President and Managing Director, Textron India Private Limited

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GRIPEN WAY TO “MAKE IN INDIA” T

here has been much written about can not only be procured in large numthe Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) curbers due to its affordability, it has a huge rent acquisition and development multiplier effect on the battlefield given programmes with little consensus or conits advanced data linking technologies and Beyond-Visual-Range (BVR) prowess. clusion. However, what everyone agrees In our analysis we can see a shortfall upon are two broad compulsions: First, of 200 aircraft. We believe that even after the Medium Multithe IAF will be looking immediRole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) are added to the fleet and two ately for single engine aircraft ordered squadrons of Light Comthat can be deployed quickly and bat Aircraft (LCA) come into opin large numbers, with high operation, the IAF would be short erational ability and with matchof between 200 to 250 aircraft ing capability. Saab, in partnerbetween 2017 and 2032. ship with Indian companies and The mathematics of that cal- Lars-Olof Lindgren through true transfer of technology, could provide IAF with Gripculation may change from comen – the smart fighter. mentator to commentator but The real understanding of the Gripen the overall thrust is inescapable: A miniE from a military strategy, air power and mum of ten squadrons have to be made air force perspective is that the Gripen E up for. Second, there is no way in which is in a class of its own due to the overall the IAF can continue to buy aircraft withpackage. It can not only match and outout translating its purchases into a robust gun aircraft in a much heavier class, it is in Indian fighter aircraft programme. While a sense a complete aircraft due to its sheer the LCA has taken India to the doorsteps versatility – so much so that independent of a modern aircraft, technology has writers have christened it as the world’s moved rapidly ahead and the eco-system first sixth generation aircraft. Gripen has of creating and continuously developing been designed to be a true multi-role aircrafts is yet to set in. and swing-role fighter – meaning it can Therefore, as India signs off on the perform air-to-air, air-to-surface and reMMRCA and looks ahead, it is clear that connaissance missions. It can change the IAF will be looking hard at finding a role while airborne, and it can even act in capable fighter that quickly makes up the several capacities simultaneously. Gripen numbers, is technologically into the next NG can perform a wide range of missions, generation and can be the basis for takfrom offensive/defensive Counter Air ing forward the lessons of the LCA promissions to long range offensive strikes, gramme. air policing, CAP, CAS and air reconnaisGiven India’s now fairly long exposure sance. These missions can be performed to the Gripen programme at all levels, it 24/7 in all types of weather. is but natural for us to be ambitious. But The reason why the Gripen finds fawe fully respect the MMRCA decision by vour with more air forces in current comIndia. As interested observers, we truly petitions that any other is because it inbelieve that there is a need for an aircraft troduces a completely new paradigm in like the Gripen E in India and for most air fighter aircraft capability, availability and forces around the world. This is due to the operational cost. fact that Gripen combines excellent opThe Gripen is a erational performance with a low through unique fighter conlife cost. Gripen is a unique fighter concept, bringing a perfect cept, bringing a perfect balance between balance between excellent excellent operational performance, highoperational performance, hightech solutions, cost-efficiency and industech solutions, cost-efficiency and industrial partnership into one smart fighter trial partnership into one, smart fighter system. system. That’s why we call it “The smart Where does the Gripen E fit into the fighter”.

IAF? There are some obvious answers and The Gripen E has emerged as a unique some that are not so obvious and yet even and unmatched aircraft which can promore important. The more obvious anvide all the key requirements of the IAF: swer is that there is no equivalent single  Advanced Multi Role; engine, multi-role aircraft available any Deployment in large numbers; where in the world. It is an aircraft that

 High Availability;  Low operational cost;  Unmatched Lifecycle Cost and  Unbeatable performance.

Gripen is a true multi-role fighter aircraft, capable of performing an extensive range of air-to-air, air-to-surface and reconnaissance missions employing the latest weapons. Using the latest technology, it is designed to meet the demands of existing and future threats, while simultaneously meeting strict requirements for flight safety, reliability, training efficiency and low operating cost.

To come to the second compulsion, Saab is the only defence company that has a readymade, tested blueprint for development of domestic industry. “Make in India” needs to move from an aspiration to a global brand and the road for the defence industry is fairly complex. Over the years, India has been dependent on its overstretched public sector companies to deliver the goods. The move to expand acquisition domestically can be successful only if the private sector is able to quickly ramp up its capacity by acquiring knowledge and technology. Otherwise, “Make In India” may well become a labelling exercise rather than true capability.

In that context, Saab has been highly successful in enabling domestic industries to acquire capability in the aerospace domain by transferring knowledge, technology and processes. Saab and Embraer have signed a MoU to partner in joint programme in regard of Brazil´s next generation fighter jet. Embraer will coordinate all development and production activities on behalf of Saab for system development,

GRIPEN

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integration, flight tests, final assembly and deliveries.

A fighter acquisition is not just about the fighter itself. Major contracts in the defence sector usually require extensive industrial cooperation programmes as compensation for the large investments made by the customer nations.

With the backing of a powerful network of global business partners and the full support of the Swedish government, Saab is committed to working together with its customers to offer and deliver industrial cooperation programmes and social value that reaches far beyond the aircraft contract. This way, we create sustainable business and real economic growth together with competitive companies.

Industrial cooperation can be achieved through the direct participation of the customer nation’s industry in the production and development of the contracted system or by Saab generating investments within areas of national priority. These areas can cover highlevel objectives ranging from purely military strategic goals all the way up to overall contribution to the Gross Domestic Product.

In South Africa and the Czech Republic, there were requirements for defence related or direct programmes.

In both cases, these were to cover at least 20 per cent of the total obligation.

In South Africa some of the remaining parts focused on tourism and Black Empowerment schemes, while in the Czech Republic, many projects were identified within the automotive and electro-mechanical sectors. In Hungary the establishment of a green-field production facility for Electrolux was a major contributor to the programme.

Aircraft are no longer built under one roof and there is a large opportunity for India to not only acquire manufacturing capability for the entire Gripen platform but also be a contributor to the global Gripen E manufacturing given the 30 per cent cost advantage. In addition, the format of technology transfer is such that it spans the width of knowledge sharing starting with equipping of engineering students all the way to codevelopment of the continuously evolving platform.

Gripen is the best avenue for India to acquire a complete “Make in India” capability which the government has set the highest priority on.

– The writer is Chairman of Saab India Technologies Private Limited

“FOCUS ON MAKING INDIA A GLOBAL HUB” T

he Indian Air Force (IAF) is underWe want Rolls-Royce defence products, designed and manufactured in India, to going an extensive modernisation be exported around the world; programme. It is also facwhy? Because it makes business ing greater demands than ever sense for us and it helps India before. Rolls-Royce has been a achieve strategic self-reliance. partner of the Indian Air Force To realise this vision, there is since 1933, as a company we are a need for ensuring greater passionate about continuing transfer of technology and a this relationship long into the business-friendly environment. future.

There are three areas where Kishore Jayaraman Rolls-Royce is ready to meet this challenge. We have unique we can support the Indian Air experience in creating the capability to Force to achieve its objectives. Firstly, we design and manufacture engines outside need to deliver the best possible support of our home markets, establishing global to today’s fleets, including those that centres of excellence in Germany and Sinhave been in service for many years. Evgapore. We are passionate about making ery day the team is looking for new ways India a global hub for Rolls-Royce defence to improve what we do. Rolls-Royce is a engineering, manufacturing and export. global leader in services innovation. We The latest initiatives on defence are keen to work with the Air Force to modernisation and indigenisation are share our global experience. To realise welcome. These initiatives should not be the potential benefits of this experience, seen in isolation; they are part of the procurement environment should a long encourage new thinking and innovations in commercial practices.

We would like to work towards achieving these in partnership with the Indian Air Force.

Secondly, we need to provide world-leading solutions as per today’s needs. As the Indian Air force undergoes its modernisation programmes, Rolls-Royce is offering its market leading products in support of India’s needs, such as the Adour Mk 871 Adour Mk 871 powering the Hawk Trainjourney that India has been on for the er. We are committed to providing the last sixty years and throughout this time Indian Air Force with the best value and Rolls-Royce has continually invested in highest quality products possible. improving the capabilities of Indian inThirdly, we need to offer Indian soludustry. tions for India’s future needs; this is the Quite rightly, much of the recent deonly way to deliver self-reliance and to bate has focused on defence procurement provide broader benefits to the Indian procedures and questions around FDI. economy. Beyond the current wave of Both of these are important elements in procurements, it is clear that India wishhelping India to harness the dynamism es to become a global centre for aeroof the private sector and to encourage the space design, development and manuinflow of capability from abroad. On the facturing. Rolls-Royce is committed to FDI point, Rolls-Royce has demonstrated, delivering this vision. We already have with HAL, how it is possible to deliver 1000 Indian engineers working in India world-class aerospace manufacturing in and have world-class manufacturing faIndia with the appropriate management cilities in India, exporting products for structures in place. Our 50:50 Internaservice around the world. We now need tional Aerospace Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd. to extend this experience into defence, beyond today’s licensed production.

Continued on page 54

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Continued from page 53

(IAMPL) Joint Venture manufactures parts for our civil engines worldwide delivering long term benefits to India and Rolls-Royce’s global customers. The establishment of IAMPL wasn’t required by an offset commitment, it was the result of recognition of the value that both parties could add to each other. We believe that the same is true in defence where India can add value to Rolls-Royce’s global customer base and Rolls-Royce can deliver in-country capability to India. Continuing to make India an easier place to do business will only strengthen this case.

Outside of processes and FDI, there needs to be a focus on cultural change which can be just as powerful as changing procedures in terms of improving the support Indian warfighters receive. The government has already underlined the urgent need to reform India’s defence procurement policy. As the twenty-first century progresses, the demands on India’s armed forces, including the Indian Air Force, are increasing. A cultural shift that allows industry to be viewed as a partner could help the Armed Forces to meet these demands by maintaining higher levels of availability with the current number of assets.

A classic example of this is in the support of in-service aircraft. In the US and the UK, Rolls-Royce is now viewed as a long term partner of the armed forces, through our Mission Care services where the military and Rolls-Royce work as one team, with a shared goal of increasing engine availability. Our employees are embedded with the Armed Forces, both at the home base, and in the case of some of our customers deployed in operational theatres. The armed forces benefit from having increased numbers of aircraft ready at any one time for operations, as well as reduced costs of ownership and Rolls-Royce is commercially incentivised to deliver this.

Rolls-Royce has a unique breadth of customers; we support 160 armed forces in 103 countries. This gives us a range of commercial and technical best practices that we are able to draw upon in order to better support the Indian Armed Forces.

Harnessing the full potential of this experience will require a partnership approach to our relationship; this is why I say changing procurement culture is so important.

“HAL IS ON THE RIGHT PATH” HAL Chairman, Dr R K TYAGI talks about the various future projects of HAL and its thrust on Research and Development (R&D). Excerpts from an interview The new Government has taken a few initiatives in Defence sector. How do you see them?

We welcome the initiatives taken by the Government in the aerospace sector.

For example, enhancement of FDI in Defence sector to 49 per cent and re-allocation of civil aircraft manufacturing to the Department of Defence Production will result in more opportunities to private defence players in the country.

The Government has also created the Defence Technology Fund to encourage innovation. Considering that our R&D needs money and man-power, this initiative augurs well for the defence industry.

What are the challenges before the defence industry?

– The writer is President, Rolls-Royce, India & South Asia

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I feel we need to focus more on technologies in aerospace sector, design and development of aerospace systems, indigenisation and developing partnership with industry both public and private sector. It is important to nurture small and medium scale industries involved in aerospace sector, look into the offsets clause in relation to the Indian aerospace industry, and over all procurement policies with an aim to further refine them. I am also advocating for creation of Indian Aeronautics Commission to bring various organisations and institutes currently functioning under different Ministries under one umbrella.

According to me, such a step will ensure greater cohesion, synergy, understanding and speeding-up of decision making in aerospace related activities.

LCA TEJAS

HAL has been speaking about its proactive steps in Human Resources Development in recent months. Can you share details with us?

India needs skills at various levels and I strongly believe that HR professionals have a big role to play in meeting the hope and promise of India tomorrow. I feel that the strategies and tactics Indian companies adopt must centre around employee skills, their development and leadership ability.

HAL has taken several HR initiatives in the recent past and they include relaunching of the assessment centres (for employee evaluation), after a gap of three years. We have established IIT Chairs, launched new Leadership Development Programmes and conducted HR audits. One of our goals is to build leadership capability at different levels within the organisation and ensure that the leadership mantle is passed on successfully to the next in line without difficulty.

Some of the other important measures taken by HAL are induction of management trainees in specialised disciplines, constitution of “Think Tank” to maximise the contribution of employees through participation in various projects and programmes, introduction of enabled systems for quicker and effective decision making. We have embarked on a scheme for engaging superannuated employees as consultants and advisors and take advantage of their rich experience and expertise. I believe all these steps should boost employee morale and productivity.

Can you elaborate on your Research and Development activities?

HAL believes that the key differentiator in today’s warfare is going to be the home-grown platforms. In-line with this

belief, we continue to focus on R&D by making increased funds allocation. We have filed over 300 patents till date to protect intellectual property developed at a large investment and efforts.

We have constituted the Committee of Institutions Network (COIN) to bring in synergy among the R&D centres of HAL spread across the country.

The company has created R&D corpus, earmarking 10 per cent of Operational Profit after Tax, to promote Technology Development in HAL. We have identified 111 technologies where we can concentrate and funding will be taken care of by us. HAL has gone ahead with harnessing the expertise available with leading academic institutions such as IITs by way of establishing Chairs at these institutions of repute, so as to facilitate well structured framework for research and development.

What about LCA production activities?

LCA-Tejas received Initial Operational

HAL believes that the key differentiator in today’s warfare is going to be the homegrown platforms. In line with this belief, we continue to focus on R&D by making increased funds allocation” www.geopolitics.in

October 2014

Clearance (IOC-2) on December 20, 2013 and HAL has committed itself to producing these aircraft. I am happy to inform you that full performance ground runs have been completed and flight trials would commence shortly for the first series production aircraft. As far as production of LCA is concerned, HAL is on the right path.

Considering that IOC for LCA (Tejas) was accorded in December 2013, in a few months time, HAL’s LCA Project Group has been upgraded as full-fledged division to look after production in a systematic way with more investments.

The new initiative will help in enhanced rate of production, reduced production cycle-times by incorporating several advanced defence aerospace technologies. We have drawn up ambitious plans to revamp our capabilities and capacity and are confident about meeting all the challenges on the production front. The company has already processed for approvals of government to ramp up production capacity to 16 LCAs every year from the initial target of eight per year.

What are your future projects?

HAL has chalked out effective action plans for its projects such as HTT40, FGFA, MTA, MMRCA, UAVs and 25 KN aero-engines.

We have taken a slew of measures to diversify into new business segments.

We have started a new Strategic Business Unit (SBU) for Unmanned Aerial vehicles to cater to national and international UAV requirements.

Another interesting area in which our company is diversifying is Civil Aerospace. We have made significant progress towards formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV ) along with National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) for the design development and manufacture of 70 to 100- seater regional civil aircraft. Regarding Fifth Generation Fighter (FGFA) and Multi-Role Transport Aircraft (MTA), they being codevelopment projects HAL is involved with the Russian agencies.

A few years from now, HAL will have ALH, Light Combat Helicopter (LCH), Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT), Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) and the Basic Trainer fully certified in its product profile. HAL would be in a position to deliver home grown products to the Indian Armed forces as well as export these products in significant numbers against competition from the global OEMs.

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PLIGHT OF THE MILITARY MIGHT P

owerful nations radiate powerful influence far across their geographical borders over countries and continents. And this influence is mostly coercive – often disregarding opinions of a majority of sovereign nations. President Bush was brazenly explicit in conveying his threat even to friendly countries when he said, “If you are not with us, you are against us.” The world has watched in the recent decades how a couple of powerful nations have not felt deterred from launching punitive operations against unfriendly regimes.

Ongoing conflicts in West Asia and Central Asia are glaring examples of this reality.

Much as the weaker nations might

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despise such arrogance of mighty nations, the latter have been succeeding in enforcing their plans, even if partially, in different parts of the world. In the realm of geopolitics, it is clear that the powerful nations use a combination of soft power and coercive power to achieve compliance, cooperation and, wherever possible, even submission of targeted regimes.

Effect of soft power is enhanced manifold if it is backed by credible hard power, that is, military power that gives meaning to diplomacy, strategy, trade and economy.

If wealth alone were power, West Asia would be ruling the world. If geographical size were power, Russia would be Power Number One and the Soviet Union would not have disintegrated. Irrefutably,

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BSF

In the initiation of defence reforms, it would be prudent to start from revamping the Ministry of Defence (MoD) so as to weave military expertise in the policydecision mechanism at all levels of defence, security and strategic planning and coordination, argues KARAN KHARB

it is the Military Might that adds awe and aura to a nation’s standing in the regional and international equations. Israel would simply not exist today if it were not so. Today its utterance and posturing shakes up the neighbourhood and makes the world sit up and listen to it – their consent or dissent just don’t seem to matter.

Even so, in the reckoning of military might, an array of high technology, sophisticated fighting machines and equipment – an area where critical deficiencies have seriously hampered the Indian Army’s modernisation programme – is but one factor, significantly weighty though.

The man behind the gun, however, shall always be the decisive factor in projecting and executing this military might.

SPECIAL FEATURE

High-tech protective gear, high precision weaponry, satellite communication systems, computerisation and nano-tech breakthroughs will deliver little until the user is motivated to dare adversity and danger

PHOTOS:MOD

SHOWCASING STRENGTH: A snapshot from Indo-Russia joint military training exercise (Exercise-Indra)

No amount of modern technology and wherewithal can substitute human – the soldier whose wellness makes the ultimate difference between victory and defeat in war. Modern world’s high-tech protective gear, high precision weaponry, satellite communication systems, computerisation and nano-tech breakthroughs will deliver little until the user is motivated to dare adversity and danger. Napoleon accorded three times more value to the soldier’s morale vis-à-vis material. In 1993 when the Government expressed inability to finance raising of the Rashtriya Rifles, Gen B P Joshi relied on military morale and raised the Force equipping and manning it from the existing manpower and equipment of the Indian Army. Again, at

the outset of Kargil War, it was this intangible but enormous asset of military morale that prompted the Army Chief, Gen V P Malik to say, “we will fight with whatever is available….,” despite critical deficiencies of arms and equipment.

Traditionally, military personnel are not expected to demand favours nor admit weakness. Enquire about his ‘morale’ and even a dying soldier would spring up and scramble to fight. The same is true of his commanders too. No unit or formation commander would ever confess a decline in morale or erosion of espirit de corps in the Forces no matter how pathetic their state might be. On an expedition – war or adventure – Indian soldiers have never sought rest, comfort or even food until it is all over! Little wonder, Kautilya whom the world knows more popularly as Chanakya, had cautioned King Chandragupta, “The day the soldier has to demand his dues will be a sad day for Magadha for then, on that day, you will have lost all moral sanction to be King!” Edicts in Atharvaveda (Kaand 4/ Anuvakah 7/Sukta 31 & 32) and Kautilya’s Arthashastra (Sangram/10thAdhikaran/ Ch 3) also underscore a powerful advice to Governments, “To win wars, influence neighbouring states and to promote his national interests, the King must build up an Army of soldiers so honoured, privileged and motivated that their wrath unnerves the enemy; their sacrifices beget love and respect of their own people; and their valour is rewarded with the highest esteem and admiration by the King and his ministers.”

In the post-Kargil period, however, the military morale has been sadly on a downhill slide as is manifestly evident from the increasing cases of soldiers committing suicides, fratricides, insubordina-

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October 2014

tion and defiance. Sporadic cases of mutiny in the last decade or so have raised many serious questions on military management. What is even more shocking is that such incidents are not confined to units deployed in operational areas alone.

Angst against exploitation and injustice to their families back home has been driving soldiers to suicide and fragging even in peace locations. Answering a question in the Rajya Sabha on July 22, 2014, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley admitted that suicides among security personnel of the armed forces were a serious issue. He informed the House that the Armed Forces had lost 597 personnel to suicide in the last five years (that is, at a rate of ten soldiers every month or 120 every year). He also revealed that 1,349 officers quit the Army during the same period. And while the Army bears the brunt, this dangerous trend is shared by all three wings of the Armed Forces.

Causes for this onset of decay are many. For decades, a perception of ‘raw deal’ by the successive pay commissions has been allowed to grow in the Armed Forces by governmental neglect. Denial of growth opportunities, unfair salary and pension fixation, erosion of status, dilution of military privileges and isolation of military from decision-making process even in matters of national defence, security and welfare of military personnel are some of the sores that have festered over the years. Provisions such as preferential hearing of soldiers’ cases by civil administration and courts exist only on papers now and many district magistrates, police officers and judges are either not aware or remain deliberately callous in attending to genuine problems of soldiers and their families. Subsidised canteen facilities, medical facilities, military quota, field allowances and numerous other privileges that were once unique to military have been systematically usurped and multiplied by the civil services and politicians.

Compare stocks and prices in Parliament House canteen or any other departmental canteen in Government offices and military canteens to know the difference.

Today, AC suites in the state guesthouses and Bhavans in New Delhi’s Chanakyapuri are available to politicians at `45 per day with sumptuous non-veg dinner for `130 per diner whereas Army officers passing through Delhi are gratified after paying `500 or more for a room in a Delhi Cantt officers’ mess – if they get one at all!

Persistent representation on pay commission anomalies by the Services Headquarters to the MoD and Prime Minister yielded no positive result from the UPA

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KEEPING AN EYE: A patrol party of Indian Army jawans

Government even as hordes of anguished Ex-servicemen staged protests returning their service medals over non-grant of One-Rank-One-Pension (OROP).What is even more frustrating is that while both the Governments – UPA and NDA – had declared their approval and decision to implement OROP, no tangible gain has fructified yet.

The need to maintain a youthful profile of the Armed Forces implies that a large number of JCOs and other ranks retire from the service at an early age of 35-48 years. Likewise, a majority of commissioned officers also retire between 52-54 years of age. This period is the most crucial phase in the life of the retiring personnel since the burden of family and social responsibilities is heaviest on a man at such a juncture. Increasing expenses on ailing parents, education and marriage of children, separation from family and a host of other responsibilities suddenly surround the retiring soldier. There are no second-career opportunities, no assured lateral absorption in government services nor is there any satisfactory rehabilitation scheme for hordes of youthful retiring service personnel.

Unlike Civil Services, career progression in military narrows sharply as one advances in the service. With each successive promotion the pyramid becomes narrower because in a unit of 800 person-

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nel there can be only one Subedar Major who will occupy this position for 3-4 years.

Likewise, there can be only one Chief and seven Army Commanders at the top who shall serve 2-3 years, implying thereby that only eight out of every set of 3000 officers can aspire to reach these levels no matter how competent the remaining are.

Whereas, nearly 90 per cent IAS officers make it to secretary/additional secretary level, only 0.003 per cent officers in the armed forces reach that level. The reason for mass screening out, unfortunately, is not incompetence or disqualification on grounds of merit but the scarce vacancies at the top. On the contrary, no civil servant retires without reaching the top pay scale in his stream, no matter how incompetent one might be. In such a situation, no cadre deserved service compensation like ‘Non-Functional Upgrade’ (NFU) more than the Armed Forces. Here ironically again, only civil service officers are granted NFU. There is no reason why such compensatory dispensation should be selectively granted to the civil services and denied to the soldiery.

The long-awaited and direly needed modernisation programme of the Armed Forces has remained mired in the complex procurement processes and bureaucratic red tape at the MoD and departments. Instances of corruption in some cases have vitiated the processes even

October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

further. As per a report tabled by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence, Army’s modernisation programme has been declining steadily and ominously. A mere 27 paisa out of every rupee was being spent on capital expenditure (CAPEX) during 2008-09. It slid to 18 paisa per rupee by 2013-14. Narendra Modi’s arrival as India’s Prime Minister did boost aspirations of strategists and thinkers within and outside the Armed Forces. For once, it appeared that in its quest for a global role, India could now embark upon a ‘transformation programme’ repositioning the military from its defensive and counteroffensive posturing to the level of a potent fearsome war waging Force capable of enforcing peace and deterring hegemonic adventures in South Asia and neighbourhood. Even as Arun Jaitley might seem overburdened as a Minister with two major portfolios – Defence and Finance – he is also the most suited man with acumen and understanding of both vis-à-vis the India’s strategic interests and military requirements. He will need to start streamlining the systems within the MoD itself.

Today the situation is dismal. The armour and the mechanised infantry remain equipped with obsolete or no night fighting capabilities. Only a small number of units have adequate night fighting capability. Deficiencies in armour ammunition including war wastage reserve have

SPECIAL FEATURE

COMBAT EXERCISE: Indian military showcasing its artillery strength during the Exercise Sudarshan Shakti

already reached critical levels. With no gun inducted ever since Bofors, artillery is ageing fast too. With no spares available, requirements are being met by ‘cannibalising’– an emergency recourse that has reduced effectiveness by half. The state of army’s air defence (AD) is even worse.

A major part of the main AD equipment is obsolete and inferior to what is being acquired by our adversaries. L-70, Zu23-2B and ZSU23-4B (Schilka) guns are from 1960s vintage. AD missile units are equipped with Igl-1M, Strela-10M, OSA-AK and Kvadrat missiles – all obsolescent in the wake of more advanced and effective systems like Spider (Israel), S-400 (Russia) and Patriot (US) available in the international market. Army Aviation is similarly carrying on with obsolete Cheetah and Chetak helicopters. New acquisition of 197 helicopters is stuck even four years after trials and re-evaluation of Russian Kamov Ka-226 and Eurocopter AS 550 models.

For the infantry soldier, the indigenously designed INSAS rifle has proved to be inferior to the modern assault rifles being acquired by our adversaries. Critical deficiencies hampering infantry soldier’s combat potential include carbines, General-Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), anti-material rifles, anti-mine boots, lightweight bulletproof jackets, bulletproof helmets, third generation Night Vision

Devices (NVDs), anti-mine vehicles, snow scooters and new generation grenades.

One major reason why the situation is so dismal is the procurement procedure itself. In the high-tech high-speed digital age today, it takes as much as 3-4 years to have a procurement proposal approved because such proposals have to pass through a maze of tortuous processes involving more than 15 departments and agencies. “Expeditious processing also will take at least 48 months for a project to be approved,” says a senior IAS officer who retired early this year from MoD. How this bureaucratic lethargy is taking toll of life and equipment is evident from the increasing loss of combat aircraft, war ships and submarines. Official callousness has become so frustrating that a meritorious Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral D K Joshi resigned in anger owning responsibility that lay at someone else’s desk for the repeated mishaps in submarines and ships.

Ill-equipped men pushed into operations are either committing suicide, killing their colleagues or seniors in sheer frustration.

Perhaps, for the first time in postindependence India, political parties realised the value of military personnel and ex-servicemen but only during the few months preceding general elections. All parties attempted to placate soldiers and ex-servicemen with a view to winning

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October 2014

their support and vote during the recent Lok Sabha elections. Utterances from the Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi himself, however, seemed more reassuring. They indicated evidence of strategic vision and understanding of military requirements and the plight of serving soldiers and ex-servicemen. In his maiden budget speech, Defence and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley eloquently declared in Lok Sabha, “There can be no compromise with the defence of our country. I therefore, propose to allocate an amount of 2,29,000 crore for the current financial year for Defence... Modernisation of the Armed Forces is critical to enable them to play their role effectively in the Defence of India’s strategic interests.” Thus, it would be fair to assume that the present Government is sincerely sensitive and alive to military requirements and the country’s strategic needs. In the initiation of defence reforms, it would be prudent to start from revamping the MoD so as to weave military expertise in the policy-decision mechanism at all levels of defence, security and strategic planning and coordination. Besides a positively inclined political leadership, India now has some seasoned bureaucrats with proven credentials of professional integrity and wisdom to grasp vital necessities of national defence.

In Ajit Doval, we have a man of proven excellence who has vast experience in varied fields that fit him perfectly in his present position as National Security Advisor and Foreign Policy Advisor. Results of his ‘advice’ are already visible. Joining in this strategy-synergy blending with the Government is the new Army Chief, Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag, whose crisp and sharp warning to Pakistan against any future misadventure across the Line of Control eloquently echoed Prime Minister Modi’s stand on national security and mutually respected neighbourliness. Gen Suhag’s credentials as a war hero, Special Forces Commander and an enviable performance record of prestigious instructional and staff appointments set him apart as a man who shall live up to the Government’s trust to deliver results. Together, the Team ‘Modi-Jaitley-Doval-Suhag’ exudes vision and confidence. India was perhaps never poised better to refurbish and lubricate its military might for bigger global roles.

The setting is perfect for much needed transformation of the Armed Forces by revamping MoD and by making soldiery an attractive, prestigious career for the youth of the country.

The writer is a military veteran, author and social activist

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SPECIAL REPORT

INDO-MYANMAR BORDER: PRUDENCE

MUST PREVAIL T

he Group of Ministers (GOM) report of the Kargil review committee on the Border Management clearly emphasised upon the concept of ‘one-border-one-force’ and accordingly, began implementing the same wherein it assumed a form that is explained; The International Border (IB) with Myanmar that was partly guarded by the Border Security Force (BSF) and in good part by the Assam Rifles, consequent upon the recommendations of the Kargil Review Committee, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued instructions for the Assam Rifles to be assigned this border in entirety and the BSF units located at the time on the Indo-Myanmar Border were withdrawn. In turn, some Assam Rifles Battalions which at that time were assigned to the IndoTibet Border in the North Sikkim and the Arunachal Pradesh were also withdrawn from the Indo-Tibet Border and re-deployed on the IndoMyanmar Border. Regretfully, decision now stands reversed and the BSF is again directed to undertake the responsibility of security and surveillance of the entire Indo-Myanmar border and the deployments of the Border Outposts (BOPs) are to be affected at the zero-line only with a road along the intended fencing.

A long awaited acceptance by our government, Assam Rifles is now gazetted exclusively as the ‘Para-Military Force’, on a consideration that it is officered by the Army. The other military oriented po-

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lice organisations under the Home Ministry, like the BSF and the CRPF that were loosely referred as Para-Military Forces, are now grouped as the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and referred as such.

The Assam Rifles has a chequered history: raised in the 1835 in our country’s Northeast only as the Cachar Levy, it was to eventually grow and nurture in the same area for more than 178 years.

They have earned the reputation of being the ‘Sentinels of the North-East’. In keeping with the policy propounded by the Kargil Review Committee and accepted by the Government, they should remain

The Assam Rifles has a chequered history: raised in the 1835 in our country’s Northeast only as the Cachar Levy, it was to eventually grow and nurture in the same area for more than 178 years October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

BSF

It would not be advisable to transpose our approach on the Indo-Pak Border at the western end of our country to the IndoMyanmar Border aligned at the country’s eastern end, writes JASPAL SINGH

GUARDING THE FRONTIER: A Border Security Force personnel guarding the border region

charged with the responsibility of Surveillance and Security of the Indo-Myanmar Border and also to conduct CounterInsurgency Operations in the same area.

The rank and file of the Assam Rifles are well informed about the local lores and intelligence.

Towards seeking an increase in its manpower required for undertaking this commitment, the BSF has placed a demand for an additional 41,000 troops and a sum of `5,000 crore (Geopolitics, January 2014) for setting up the infrastructure along the entire Indo-Myanmar Border, thereby, placing an additional strain on their already stretched budget. In accordance with the directions of the Ministry of Home Affairs, consequent upon the BSF getting to deploy on the zero-line, the Assam Rifles will remain to the rear and concentrate upon the conduct of counter-insurgency operations.

SPECIAL REPORT

We do not agree with this kind of arrangement that involves re-deployment of BSF on the Indo-Myanmar Border and dividing the responsibility of Border Management and the conduct of Counter-Insurgency Operations between two different agencies, that is, the BSF and Assam Rifles, which deploy in a close proximity of each other in the same region. In the particular region, operations entailing security and surveillance of the International Border (IB) with Myanmar and the Conduct of Insurgency Operations are compatible and only a single agency should, therefore, deal with any kind of situation arising in the same IB region.

India and Myanmar share a long international border that is aligned mostly in a North-South direction and extends over a length/distance of approximately 1,640 km. In the north, it starts in the

Tirap Frontier Division of Arunachal Pradesh and terminates at a point where a tri-junction is formed by the territories of Myanmar-India (Mizoram)-Bangladesh.

The terrain over which the IB is aligned, is hilly and forested where the soil below is loose but held together by the afforestation that has developed over a period of time. A development of an infrastructure over such a length and terrain may well include construction of the BOPs, roads/tracks and alongside possibly, a construction of a ‘Border Fence’ over the entire length and alignment of the International Border (IB). Construction works on such a scale and magnitude could cause a major disturbance in the ecology leading to a large scale defoliate. Also, a phenomenal rise in the initial cost of infrastructure development and hence its maintenance would be a con-

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tinual draw upon an already stretched budget.

Instead, we would recommend the managing of Indo-Myanmar Border as conceptualised and it is appropriate to first reproduce the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Border Cooperation signed between India and Myanmar at Nay Pyi Taw (Myanmar) on May 8, 2014.  The MoU provides a framework for security cooperation and exchange of information between India and Myanmar security agencies. A key provision is that of conduct of coordinated patrols on their respective side of the IB and the maritime boundary by the Armed Forces of the two countries. Both sides have agreed to exchange information in the fight against insurgency, arms and drug smuggling, human and wildlife trafficking. Both sides have also agreed to take steps to prevent illegal crossborder activities.

We need to manage the Indo-Myanmar border in the spirit of the MoU signed with Myanmar. It would not be advisable to transpose our approach on the Indo-Pak Border at the western end of our country to the Indo-Myanmar Border aligned at the country’s eastern end because the situation on the IB with Myanmar is different. Myanmar has had centuries of bonds and friendly relations with India and that needs to be maintained and strengthened. We should not, therefore, unilaterally alter the arrangements of free movement of populace on either side.

The hills over which the IB is aligned be left free of an occupation by both sides and deliberate efforts directed/pursued to increase the density of afforestation over these hills. This would safeguard against interference in the free-movement of tribals across the IB and at the same time, gradually restrict their movements as well.

The crossing points on the zero-line should, however, be jointly manned and the arrangement of holding ‘BorderHatts’ is already in place. Most populated hamlets on our side are already some distance away from the IB. Surveillance upon such hamlets could be imposed by placing company/platoon-sized Security Force (SF) Posts adjoining such hamlets which are subjected to periodic census and issuance of identity cards (now UIDs-Adhaars) to ensure verification.

Local tribals from Myanmar or India are permitted to move on either side of the IB up to a distance of 16 km without

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BSF

SPECIAL REPORT

SECURING THE EAST: Border Security Force will undertake the responsibility of securing the Indo-Myanmar border

any official travel documents. In fact, tribals treat areas lying between the two rivers as one country notwithstanding the alignment of an IB. Village headmen/ elders may be exercising jurisdiction over a village whose habitants may be living on both sides of the international border.

Such habitations would lie between the definable rivers and in this case, may well be from the Chindwin river (Myanmar) in the east to the Ukhrul river (India) in the west. It would, therefore, not be advisable to introduce any kind of verification on the zero-line; to what extent this would actually be practicable is also placed in doubt. Setting up a barrier within the area of jurisdiction of a single village headman would cause interference of free movement of the tribals across the international border and may well lead to conflicts and resultant tensions that are not conducive to peace and tranquillity which presently prevail in the region.

Cross-Border footpaths/tracks may link such hamlets to similar populated centres on the Myanmar side of the IB and thereby enable free movement of tribals across the IB which should be acceptable but on our side of the IB, remain under surveillance of the Assam Rifles sub-units.

Insurgency in our North-Eastern area is mostly locally grown but over a period of time, the insurgents are known to have organised sanctuaries in the Myanmar

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Insurgency in our North-Eastern area is mostly locally grown but over a period of time, the insurgents are known to have organised sanctuaries in the Myanmar territory territory. A system of sustained verification of populace is a significant method to contain such movements. Our counter-insurgency operations should not cause any incidents of hostility with the Myanmar government agencies. Action against insurgents inimical to Indian interests and seeking sanctuary in Myanmar are best dealt in cooperation with the Myanmar government.

A better option to the fencing would be to invest in the economic development of Myanmar like the construction of road and rail link from Imphal to Mandalay and increased assistance towards development of hydro-electric projects in Northern Myanmar, one such major project is under progress in the region with our assistance. Development of hydro-electric projects could lead to

October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

the setting up of industries in the region thereby keeping people more confined to Myanmar and also import power from Myanmar towards increased industrialisation of our Northeastern region.

An economically-strengthened Myanmar will eventually emerge a strong buffer between India and the Kunming region of China and in this manner, eventually ensure a better safeguard of our border with Myanmar. At this stage, it would not be out of context to recommend placing the entire Indo-Myanmar Border under the Ministry of External Affairs. It is interesting to reveal that in the immediate aftermath of Independence in 1947 and up to the early 1960s, Assam Rifles was placed under the Ministry of External Affairs and the same border was managed under the aegis of this Ministry only. In times to come and as part of our emphasis on the ‘Look East Policy’, there will be greater involvement of our Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in this region and we have the former Army Chief, General V K Singh (Retired), assigned specifically to the region as a Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs. It is advisable to restrict the number of agencies to be involved in this region.

A Retired Brigadier, the author served as the Deputy Director (Chief Instructor) at the BSF Academy at Tekanpur (Gwalior)

geopolitics OCTOBER 2014 | www.geopolitics.in

A NEW BEGINNING Vietnam may well be the key to the success of India’s Look East Policy

ONLOOKER

ASHRAF GHANI’S VICTORY IN AFGHAN POLL

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After months of political stalemate, the Afghan Election Commission declared former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani winner of the presidential poll. The announcement came after Ghani signed a power sharing agreement with rival Abdullah Abdullah, who will fill the newly-creat-

ed position of government Chief Executive.

The unity deal ended months of political turmoil following June’s presidential elections in which both candidates claimed victory, destablising the nation at a time when US-led NATO combat troops prepared to leave after 13 years of fighting the Taliban.

Abdullah Abdullah Chief Executive of Afghanistan

HUMAN RIGHTS PAKISTAN’S NEW SPY CHIEF UNDER ATTACK Rizwan Akhtar, conArmy War College, Rizwan

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Akhtar argued that Pakistan “must aggressively pursue rapprochement with India”.

HEMANT RAWAT

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UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that human rights were “under attack” throughout the world.

“From barrel bombs to beheadings, from the deliberate starvation of civilians to the assault on hospitals, UN shelters and aid convoys, human rights and the rule of law are under attack,” the UN chief told the 193-nation Assembly.

sidered to be a close ally of Army Chief ........has taken over as the new head of the country’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI).

The position is one of the most important posts in Pakistan, at the intersection of domestic politics, the fight against armed groups and Pakistan’s foreign relations.

It is also one of the most controversial, given accusations against the ISI of meddling in domestic politics and having ties to the Afghan Taliban and other groups fighting the US-led NATO troops in Afghanistan.

In a 2008 publication while he was at the US

RAJAPAKSA AND ‘WAR CRIMES’

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Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa assailed the United Nations Human Rights Council in his address to the UN General Assembly, calling its probe into Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war disproportionate and politically motivated.

His country has refused

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to cooperate with the Human Rights Council’s investigation into the deaths of some 100,000 people since it was announced in March, despite the international pressure to issue visas to UN investigators.

“Post-conflict Sri Lanka has also become an unfortunate victim of

We will work as a team and we hope we will fulfill the hopes and dreams of our people,” Abdullah told cheering supporters in Kabul. “The people should not have any concerns that (we) will divide the country.”

ill-conceived agendas of some in the Human Rights Council,” Rajapaksa said in his address to the 193-member UN General Assembly, adding that the body was overlooking Sri Lanka’s “substantial progress” since the war ended in 2009.

October 2014 geopolitics

In the same paper, he criticised US policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

ONLOOKER

If Russia takes that path -- a path that for stretches of the post-Cold War period resulted in prosperity for the Russian people -- then we will lift our sanctions and welcome Russia’s role in addressing common challenges.”

YATSENYUK’S ‘GAME OF SANCTIONS’ ON RUSSIA

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Russia has been under economic sanctions from Western nations after its invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk once again called on the West not to ease sanctions on Russia, in his address to the UN General Assembly. “We ask our partners

Barack Obama US President

GENERAL PRAYUTH GAINING POPULARITY

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Thailand’s Prime Minister General Prayuth may have grabed power by overthrowing the previous government in a coup, but since his four months in the office, his popularity has risen. Opinion surveys show that most Thai citizens support the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and the mil-

itary-led government of Prime Minister Prayuth.

According to the Bangkok Poll released recently, 67 per cent of respondents across the nation said they wanted Prayuth’s government to stay until the country was peaceful and all its problems were solved – even if it took longer than the year it had scheduled.

not to lift sanctions until Ukraine takes control of its entire territory,” Yatsenyuk said.

Yatsenyuk said Russia must abide by “all points” of a peace deal that provides for autonomy in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow rebels have been fighting Kiev since April.

APOLOGIES TO THE QUEEN! “Look, I’m very embarrassed by this. I’m extremely sorry about it.

It was a private conversation, but clearly a private conversation that I shouldn’t have had and won’t have again.”

Cameron apologises for saying the Queen ‘purred’ over referendum

TONY ABBOTT’S ANTI-TERRORISM SCOTTISH REFERENDUM AND DAVID CAMERON LAWS

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Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has sought tougher antiterrorism laws after authorities claimed to have foiled an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) plot. The Australian government is all set to introduce a new legislation in Parliament to tackle terrorism in the country.

The ISIL threat has seen a major detention drive in Australia. Federal police had, for the first time, used preventive detention orders to arrest people without charges. But Abbott says

the current legislation is inadequate to fight the threats to Australia from groups such as ISIL, which he has described as the nation’s greatest national security challenge.

www.geopolitics.in

æ

The Scottish referendum result saved David Cameron from a historic defeat and also helped opposition chief Ed Miliband by keeping his many Labour Party legislators in

October 2014

Scotland in place.

Cameron’s party would have found it harder to win a national election in 2015 without that support from Scotland. Scotland’s landmark independence referendum has resulted in most voters choosing to keep the 307-year union with England. In the referendum, supporters of the United Kingdom won 55.3 per cent of the vote that worried allies and investors while 44.7 per cent voted for independence.

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DIPLOMACY

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VIETNAM IN INDIA’S LOOK EAST POLICY

BSF

President Pranab Mukherjee’s just concluded visit to Vietnam was a big success story, says BALADAS GHOSHAL

PIB

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xternal Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s three days successful visit to Vietnam in August and the four-day visit of President Pranab Mukherjee in the middle of September with the aim of broadening and deepening of political, economic and strategic relations highlights the importance of Hanoi in New Delhi’s Look East Policy, which, to quote Swaraj, the new BJP-led government wants to transform into an “Act East Policy”.

India and Vietnam enjoy excellent political relations growing out of the former’s unflinching support for the latter in its fight, first against French colonialism and then against American intervention that had imposed enormous sufferings on the Vietnamese. India was also one of the few countries in the world that supported Vietnam when it sent its army into Cambodia at the end of 1978 to end the genocide there by the Pol Pot regime.

Even though it brought great diplomatic costs to India, particularly in its relations with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the West but Delhi was determined to stand by Hanoi. “Vietnam values India’s friendship most. India has always stood by us in our difficult times and we can always depend on India,” said Truong Tan Sang, the President of Vietnam, at a meeting with me on June 23, 2011 in Hanoi. After an excellent overview of the current strategic and political environment in Asia-Pacific region, he made a forceful point: “India is a responsible stake holder in the peace, stability and security in the region and has a unique role to play in the security architecture of Asia.” I felt the same warmth, friendship and good will in my meetings in JulyAugust with the Vietnamese interlocutors both in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Within three months after becoming the President, Truong travelled to India in October 2012 to reaffirm Vietnam’s consistent policy of giving high priority to the strategic partnership with India, elevate it to a higher level and to promote the two countries’ cooperation in all fields and at regional and international forums. Since then there has been a spurt in high-level visits from Vietnam to India, supported by business and government-level delegations. This was followed by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit on December 19 to Kolkata first to meet business leaders and then to New Delhi to attend the anniversary of the India-ASEAN summit on December 20-21. Since then there has been a spurt of visits of dignitaries from both the countries to further strengthen the bond that has been built on a com-

DIPLOMATIC COURSE: Indian President, Pranab Mukherjee and President of Vietnam Truong Tan Sang inspecting the Guard of Honour at the Ceremonial Reception, at Presidential Palace Vietnam

October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

DIPLOMACY

mon outlook and interests. As Vietnam is having a troubled relationship with China over the disputed islands and waters in the South China, Hanoi wants deeper engagement in all areas with New Delhi.

President Mukherjee’s visit and the seven agreements that were signed during the time reaffirm India’s consistent policy of giving high priority to the strategic partnership with Vietnam; elevate it to a higher level and to promote the two countries’ cooperation in all fields and at regional and international forums.

Vietnam is important in the promotion of India’s political, economic and security interests in South-East Asia, and in turn, in the success of our Look-East Policy. Vietnam’s strategic position — as a neighbour of China, situated parallel to the great sea trade routes of Asia — always made the country tremendously important. Vietnam’s geographical configuration with a coastline of over 3,300

Vietnam is important in the promotion of India’s political, economic and security interests in South-East Asia, and in turn, in the success of our Look-East Policy km in length gives it a strategic footing in the naval waters extending from China’s doorstep in the Gulf of Tonkin, a long littoral on the South China Sea, and ending with another dimension in the Gulf of Thailand. Its size and resources make it the politically and military predominant country in the Indo-China peninsula.

While the above was earlier significant only to the United States and Japan in terms of lifeline sea-lanes running parallel to the Vietnamese littoral, it is also increasingly becoming important to India, as a major part of its trade takes place through the seas.

India, therefore, has a stake in helping Vietnam emerge as a strong regional power and invigorate an Asian order that rejects hegemonic dominance by any power, not at least by China. The two countries have a common stake in the safety of the Sea Lines of Communication, particularly in South China Sea. Other than territorial waters which are governed by international law, oceans cannot be the preserve of any one particular country, be it a super power or not. India, Japan and the countries in Southeast Asia like Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines has a common outlook in terms of the issues relating to peace and common prosperity, and subscribe to the security and economic structure based on equal opportunities without hindering the rights of others to pursue the national goals and without being dominated by any particular power. In other words, they subscribe to an inclusive and transparent structure based on norms and conduct prescribed by the international law.

Vietnam’s strategic significance has increased dramatically, owing to huge — and not always widely recognised — transformations in its economic performance and foreign-policy orientation.

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October 2014

Reinvigorated by two decades of rapid economic growth and a broad-based opening to the outside world, Vietnam is now an emerging player in regional economic and security affairs. Indeed, in recent years the country has played a pivotal role in helping to establish Asia’s emerging security order. In October 2010, Hanoi hosted the East Asian Summit, a meeting at which the US and Russia were recognised as Asian powers with vital national interests in the region. Since then, Vietnam has made persistent efforts to put South China Sea dispute in the agenda of the ASEAN and East Asia Summit meetings by highlighting the fact that Beijing’ salami-slicing strategy poses a threat not only to the security of the ASEAN countries having rival claims, but also to the freedom of navigation and thus to the international trade and commerce. With former Vietnamese Deputy Foreign Minister, Le Luong Minh, now Secretary General of ASEAN, a more proactive regional approach to the South China Sea disputes is evident.

On political and foreign policy issues Vietnam had been a consistent supporter of India, including our scheme for the reform of the United Nations and our recent bid for permanent membership in the Security Council. Apart from cooperation in the bilateral framework, the two countries have maintained close cooperation and mutual support at the regional and international fora such as the United Nations (UN), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and other mechanisms in the ASEAN like the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), East Asia Summit and Mekong-Ganga Cooperation.Vietnam along with other Southeast Asian nations perceive India as a benign power whose peaceful rise accrues significant strategic benefits for her to play a larger role in the region. This is in contrast to their perception of China whose emergence as a major economic and military power together with its irredentist claims over the whole of South China Sea and exclusive economic zones have created apprehensions in Asia about China’s future ambitions and intentions.

In terms of India’s energy security, Vietnam’s offshore oil deposit offers opportunities for exploration and eventual supply to India. Recently, Vietnam renewed India’s lease of two oil blocks in South China Sea for another year. Indian oil companies have felt, for technocommercial reasons, that they would like to avail the opportunity to explore those oil blocks for a further period of one year. Earlier the companies had found that it would be difficult to utilise those

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DIPLOMACY

because of lack of availability of deep sea rigs there. Indian companies, including ONGC Videsh (OVL) and Essar Oil subsidiary Essar Exploration and Production Limited, have been expanding energy cooperation with Vietnam. OVL along with Vietnam’s PetroVietnam joined hands earlier to bid for the British Petroleum’s stake in Nam Con Son gas fields spread over 955-square kilometre include two offshore gas fields, a pipeline and power project. OVL was reported to have invested $217 million on the gas fields and could invest even more. OVL also has stakes in two other exploration blocks 127 and 128 in Vietnam. Even while China had raised objections in the past, and had done it again while President Mukherjee was in Hanoi and one day before Xi Jinping’s visit to India on September 16, 2014, to these explorations on the ground that the areas fell within Chinese waters and had repeatedly warned India against such moves, New Delhi made it clear that its state-owned firm would continue to explore in the South China Sea. And the previous Navy chief D K Joshi said in 2012 that Indian warships would be prepared to set sail for the South China Sea if the country’s economic interests were threatened in any way. The exploration projects do not violate international law, and China’s opposition has no legal basis.

Economically, Vietnam with its stress on economic liberalisation offers very attractive preferential prospects for Indian Foreign Direct Investment in fields such as information technology, electricity, oil and gas, metallurgy, coal, transport, agriculture, fisheries, food processing, health care and medicine. India has offered substantial help to Vietnam in capacity building and technical knowhow to support its development. During her visit, Swaraj said that India had helped Vietnam with its knowhow in rice cultivation through a rice centre set up there. “Look today, at how they have left us behind” in rice exports, she said addressing an event. Since 1976, India has offered several Lines of Credit (LoCs) to Vietnam over the years on concessional terms and conditions.

So far, India has extended 17 LoCs worth more than $165 million to Vietnam. The last major LoC extended by India was in July 2013 for execution of a hydro power and pumping project. India has also extended lines of credit of $100 million for infrastructure and defence procurement.

India has also agreed to consider earmarking an amount of $100 million under Buyer’s Credit to the National Export Insurance Account for use by Vietnam. Both the countries also have fairly robust eco-

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LOOK EAST POLICY: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj meeting with Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi; (right) ONGC Videsh oil rig in South China Sea

Vietnam expects India to play a vital role in the capacity building of its military deterrence capabilities and work together to address regional and global challenges October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

nomic ties and the bilateral trade stands at $8 billion, of which Indian exports to the country is about $5.4 billion. To offset the trade balance, India should offer some concessions to Vietnam, particularly removing tariff barriers to Vietnam’s fruit exports to India.

While politically India and Vietnam were always very close, economic and strategic aspects were missing from that cordial relations until about 2000 when the then Defence Minister George Fernandes visited Vietnam in March that year and agreed for a periodic security dialogue, thus creating an institutionalised framework for regular meetings between the Defence Ministers to discuss matters related to shared threat perceptions. In the 2003 joint declaration, India and Vietnam envisaged creating an “Arc of Advantage and Prosperity” in Southeast Asia.

The New Strategic Partnership signed in 2007 further strengthened multifaceted

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ties ranging from political and economic engagements to security and defence cooperation, science and technology and close cultural contacts. Since then defence cooperation has increased considerably, particularly in jointly combating the menace of piracy and co-operation in ship building and hydrographic survey, joint naval training, joint anti-sea piracy exercises in the South China Sea, jungle warfare training, counter-insurgency training, air force pilots training in India and assistance to Vietnam in establishing defence production.

Due to its estranged ties with China, Vietnam is looking at India for a deeper defence cooperation which includes possible procurement of weaponry besides training especially that of the Navy. Faced with an intensifying maritime territorial dispute with China in the recent months, Vietnam has been especially interested in strengthening naval cooperation with

Delhi. To offset its asymmetrical naval equation with China, Vietnam would like help and support from another naval power in the region like India. It has already offered berthing facilities to Indian naval ships at Na Thrang, just south of China’s new naval base at Sanya on Hainan Island. The Indian Navy was perhaps the only foreign navy in recent times to have been given this privilege by the Vietnamese at a port other than Halong Bay, near Hanoi. Indian Navy frequently visits Vietnamese ports and has been training Vietnamese submarine force. Vietnam has sought Indian help to augment the size and capabilities of its navy by supplying offshore patrol vessels and fast attack craft. That nation is building a naval deterrent to China with Kilo class submarines from Russia and it would like to add

During Mukherjee’s visit, after the delegation-level talks, India and Vietnam declared their commitment for free movement in the waters of South China Sea www.geopolitics.in

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India’s missile technology to its defences.

Vietnam is interested in particularly India’s ship attack variants of the missile. Indian tests showed the supersonic cruise missile could be successfully fired from ships, which matched Hanoi’s goal of creating a meaningful deterrent against China, as this leading-edge technology would further complicate the ability of the Chinese navy to operate off the Vietnamese coast with impunity, particularly in the south of the South China Sea. Apart from training Vietnamese naval and military personnel and helping maintenance of Russian-sourced equipment, New Delhi has also agreed in principle to sell Vietnam the BrahMos supersonic antiship missile and possibly Prithvi surfaceto-surface missiles.

India extended a $100 million export credit to Vietnam for defence deals. During Mukherjee’s visit, the two countries said in a joint statement that the credit line would open new opportunities for defence cooperation and that details of what Vietnam would buy were being finalised.

“The leaders agreed that defence and security cooperation was an important pillar of the strategic partnership between the two countries,” the statement said.

The credit line that India offered may help slow-moving talks to sell BrahMos cruise missiles to Hanoi. Vietnam expects India to play a vital role in the capacity building of its military deterrence capabilities and work together to address regional and global challenges. The evolving strategic partnership is meant for mutual benefit and is not meant for an alliance against any third country.

During Mukherjee’s visit, after the delegation-level talks, India and Vietnam declared their commitment for free movement in the waters of South China Sea as they pledged to further enhance their friendship by increasing people-topeople contacts and visits by top government and political functionaries of both the nations in the future. The reference to free movement in South China Sea waters came ahead of President Xi Jinping’s visit to India about the same time. Mukherjee’s visit together with Foreign Minister Swaraj’s has laid the foundation for a much stronger India-Vietnam relations, lend greater substance to the strategic partnership between the two countries to establish peace and stability in the region and create a new Asian balance of power.

The author is Director, Society for Indian Ocean Studies and Former Professor and Chair, South and Southeast Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

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A CHINESE TRAIN TO SIKKIM? More than promoting tourism and economic development in the bordering areas, China is consolidating its military gains and that could have ominous implications for India, argues CLAUDE ARPI

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Lhasa to Shigatse, the seat of the Panchen Lamas’ and the TAR’s second largest city.

According to Yang Yulin, deputy director of the railway office of TAR, it is the largest infrastructure project in Tibet during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), with an investment of more than $1.7 billion. Zhu Bin, a manager with a mineral company based in Lhasa told The People’s Daily that “it will accelerate transportation of the mineral products, which could only be transmitted through highways that often risk being cut off during rainy seasons or see vehicle turnovers”. That is certainly one of the objectives of the train.

A Tibetan writer based in Lhasa, told the Communist newspaper that the railway will help local Tibetans to “exchange with the outside world and tourists will be attracted to the area”. It is obvious that China is not investing billions of dollars for the Tibetans to ‘see the outside world’. The train to Shigatse has three basic purposes, one, to bring more tourists, the TAR’s main source of revenue (15 million will visit the TAR in 2014); two, to take away minerals to the mainland to feed the economic machine and three, to ‘strengthen’ the borMAKING INROADS: A train is runnig on the Qinghai-Tibet railway which was completed in 2006 by China

XINHUA

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ompared to India which struggles to develop a decent infrastructure (particularly in the Himalayas), China is far ahead. But India bravely continues to dream to catch up one day with China’s prowess in the field, whether it is for highways, bullet trains or airports in remote corners of the country.

The Communist leadership in Beijing, is however, apparently not satisfied; it wants to increase the pace of its own development, especially on its borders with India.

Xinhua announced the other day that Beijing was soon to upgrade the road network in Tibet “to make travels on The Roof of the World much easier”. But, for whom, is the question.

The Chinese Ministry of Transport (MOT) has affirmed that China will expand its road network to 110,000 kilometres by 2020 in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) alone. That is not all, according to Xinhua, China plans to complete a network of railways of 1,300 kilometres by the same year 2020 (the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan). China will also build several new airports in Tibet, says the Ministry, adding that more than $13 billion have been invested in transportation in the last 20 years in Tibet.

New Delhi should worry; unfortunately the chalta hai attitude still prevails in India. The Chinese ministry itself acknowledged that the development of transport in Tibet was “crucial to China’s national security and the lasting prosperity in the autonomous region”.

‘National security’ in Tibet means the strengthening of the borders with India.

The Global Times recently ran another story: “Sky rail to run from Lhasa to south Tibet; further railway expansion to connect Nepal, Bhutan, India by 2020”. It announced that the railway linking Lhasa and Shigatse (poetically called by China as the ‘closest stretch of railway to the sky’) will be open to traffic by the end of this year. The construction of the extension of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, which started in September 2010, will be 254 kilometres long and have 13 stations. Trains will be able to run at a speed of 120 km per hour and it will take only two hours from

October 2014 www.geopolitics.in

ders with India by allowing quick movement of troops and armament.

More surprising, Yang announced that during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) period, the construction of a railway connecting Shigatse with Kyirong in northern Nepal and with Yatung, in the Chumbi Valley located between Sikkim and Bhutan, will start. Kyirong is a logical extension of the line as China has extensively invested in this landport to make it the main link between Tibet and Kathmandu, (and economically invade Nepal), but why Yatung?

Border trade between India and Tibet is minimal. Despite the great hopes generated in 2006, when Nathu-la was opened between Yatung and Gangtok, border trade has been stagnating (partly due to the restricted list of items allowed to be traded). Wang Chunhuan, professor at the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences in Lhasa, told The Global Times that the railway network in Tibet would play the role of a continental bridge in South Asia and promote economic and cultural exchanges. Does it mean that China would like to open the Yatung-Nathula-Gangtok route in a big way? Has Beijing consulted

DIPLOMACY

Delhi on this or is it a unilateral decision?

The Global Times quoted Liu Zongyi, a Chinese expert on India, working for the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, saying that “Indians have lately been working on adding infrastructure in the South Tibet region, in order to strengthen control.” ‘Southern Tibet’ is the Chinese name for ‘Arunachal’! Liu explained that it was a bargaining chip. If people on the Chinese side of South Tibet region (Arunachal) see better economic development in southwestern Tibet (Shigatse and Ngari) they will be tempted to join the People’s Republic.

This is, of course, a Chinese Dream: it will never happen. But the move towards Yatung is indeed a bargaining chip at another level. Liu admitted: “The growing railway network will increase Chinese activities in this area, balancing Indian moves.” China is nervous about India’s raising a ‘mountain strike corps’, XVII Corps, with its headquarters at Panagarh in West Bengal, not too far from Sikkim (and Yatung). When fully operational (by 2018-2019), the Corps, costing some `64,678 crore to the Indian tax-payers, will have 90,274 troops. The Corps will be spread on the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) from Ladakh to Arunachal Pradesh; it will have two high-altitude infantry divisions (59 Div at Panagarh and 72 Div at Pathankot) with their integral units, two independent infantry brigades, two armoured brigades.

It will also include 30 new infantry battalions and two Para-Special Forces battalions. Incidentally, the projected

railway line to Yatung, perhaps, explains the inflated size of the Chumbi Valley in the newly-published Chinese maps. Huge chunks of Bhutanese territory have been engulfed in the Chumbi Valley to make place for the railway line. China will certainly not invest billions of dollars to build ‘a continental bridge in South Asia and promote economic and cultural exchanges’, but balancing the developments on the Indian side, is worth a few billion dollars.

Also important to India is the railway linking Lhasa to Nyingchi Prefecture, located north of the McMahon Line, which is expected to start in a few months. It is also part of the 13th Five-Year Plan. Historically, the infrastructure in Tibet has been crucial for China. This year, China celebrates the 60th anniversary of the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet and the Sichuan-Tibet highways. Ma Jiali, a Chinese ‘expert’ and senior researcher at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (Ma is an old India hand) affirmed: “I think it’s safe to liken the two highways to blood as they hold Tibet and the inland cities together,” explaining that the two highways were crucial for the ‘national unity’. Ma asserted that the two highways were of strategic importance in safeguarding the national security and maintaining the territorial integrity.

The website, China Tibet Online added: “In 1962, Indian side constantly caused troubles in the China-India border areas and later invaded Chinese territory.

The two highways contributed remarkably to the success of China’s war of self-

defensive counterattack since a total of 65,700 tons of goods and materials were delivered to the front via the Qinghai-Tibet and Sichuan-Tibet highways, according to historical data.” Of course, India did not ‘invade’ China, but it is true that the infrastructure made the difference.

Two months back, China Military Online reported that General Xu Qiliang, a member of the Politburo and Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) inspected the borders with India (opposite Ladakh). According to an official military website: “Xu Qiliang recently [it is not disclosed when] inspected the troops of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the People’s Armed Police Force (PAPF) garrisoning Xinjiang and Tibet.”

The article adds: “During the inspection, General Xu Qiliang visited the officers and men in frontier areas, and held talks with the leaders of the troop units garrisoning in Hotan [Xinjiang, near the Aksai Chin], Ali [Ngari or Gar] and Lhasa [in the Tibetan Autonomous Region or TAR] areas to discuss the development and reform of frontier troop units.”

Xu Qiliang also met sentries of a frontier defence company at Shenxianwan (just north of the Karakoram Pass and the Depsang Plains): “The troops were performing their duties at the altitude of 5,380 meters”. Xu Qiliang went to the barracks of the Khurnak Fort frontier (opposite the Indian troops in Ladakh, north of the Pangong lake) defence company and Banmozhang (near Sirijp on the Panggong Lake where many incursions have taken place) “to inspect a water [speed-boats] squadron and inquire about the soldiers’ work, study and life.”

A month later, his colleague, General Fan Changlong, China’s seniormost General also visited Tibet accompanied by three of the seven PLA’s Army Commanders (from Lanzhou, Chengdu and Jinan Military Regions). It was obviously not a sightseeing tour. The recent heavy traffic of Communist VIPs/VVIPs from Beijing visiting Ngari (Western Tibet) has also probably due to Beijing’s decision to consolidate its borders; namely the frontiers opposite Ladakh.

All these developments, coupled with the PLA’s transgressions in Ladakh during the just concluded visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s to India indicate that China is ready in case of a conflict with India and that China is in a strong bargaining position over the boundary issue.

The author is a French scholar specialising on China and is based in South India

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BOOK REVIEW

WAR WHICH WAS TO END ALL WARS This book of Indian Voices of the Great War: Soldiers’ Letters 1914-18 has been edited by David Omissi, an authority on modern Indian imperial and military history, writes ARVINDAR SINGH

Indian Voices Of The Great War: Soldiers’ Letters 1914-18 Edited by: David Omissi Publishers: Penguin Viking Pages: 382 Price: `599

T

he First World War which has been famously called ‘The Great War’ began on July 28, 1914 and ended with the Armistice on November 11, 1918. It was one of the deadliest conflicts in history during which nine million combatants perished. Fought between the Allies consisting of the Triple Entente of England, France and the Russian Empire which was later expanded to include Italy, the United States and Japan and the Central Powers consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria on the other side, it was described by historian H G Wells as “the war to end all wars”, a dictum which was unfortunately belied by future events.

This book of Indian soldiers’ letters of the Great War was edited by David Omissi, a senior lecturer in History at the University of Hull, Prize Research Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford and an authority on mod-

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ern Indian imperial and military history.

Writing on this collection, Sir Mark Tully, an old India hand and formerly head of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Delhi bureau for many years, mentions in the foreword that “even though sixty thousand Indian soldiers lost their lives and nine thousand and two hundred were decorated for valour on various fronts in Europe, Mesopotamia and East Africa, yet the memory of this crucial contribution of manpower, transport and money finds no place in the Eurocentric histories of the First World War.” Tully further adds, “The letters were censored but they still provide a vivid picture of the hardships the soldiers endured, what enabled them to bear those hardships, their concerns and the concerns of those who wrote to them from India”.

It would be in place here to shed a bit of light on the background of this tome which is part of the numerous works coming out this year during the centenary of the start of the First World War. Towards the end of September 1914, the Lahore and Meerut Division of the Indian Army began to arrive in Marseilles and around the same time a member of the Indian Revolutionary Party was arrested in Toulouse who was carrying on his person a fair amount of seditious literature intended for dissemination amongst the Indian militia. Thus, the authorities felt the immediate need to appoint an Indian Mail Censor during the period of the stay of Indian troops on French soil. Second Lieutenant E B Howell, a member of the Political Department of the Indian Civil Service, who was serving in France as an interpreter was assigned the task. He was headquartered at Rouen where the Indian Base Post was set up. Due to the considerable linguistic difficulties in this rather humungous charge, it was decided not to censor inward mail. Later, however, this aspect was also covered and inward

October 2014 geopolitics

mail also fell in the purview of the censor. The Head Censor began to dispatch weekly reports to England supported by extracts of the Indian correspondence which explains from where the material for this book has come from. The censorship of mail helped the British in taking action where required to avert desertion of Indian troops and prevent issues which could have resulted in a difficult disciplinary issue, like for example the feeling of resentment among Indian troops against the pattern of notepaper being distributed by the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) as rumours began to spread about the troops being converted to Christianity.

It must be also noted that censorship brought some welcome tidings as well.

The higher echelons of the British Army were indeed surprised and impressed at the esprit-de-corps of the Indian soldiers who despite much suffering had little to complain about. Some grievances about affairs with the officer cadre did undoubtedly surface through the mail. As a case in point, on October 11, 1916 Hira Singh wrote to Pensioned Risaldar Albal Singh at Hoshiarpur in the Punjab, complaining about the attitude of his Deputy Commander “who obstinately sticks to his decision and will make thousands of efforts to avoid his judgement being upset”.

By the end of 1915, the team of Captain Howell was enlarged from four to eight which included two Indian Postal Clerks. A vast majority of the letters were written in Urdu, the principal lingua franca of the Indian Army, others were mainly written in Gurmukhi, Hindi, Garhwali, Gurkhali or Bengali. The first report of the censors to the Secretary of State for India, the India Office, the War Office, the Foreign Office, Buckingham Palace and to the commanders of the Indian Divisions among others was sent in December 1914 and the last in June 1918. The reports were

BOOK REVIEW

first sent on a weekly basis and after June 1917, sent as a fortnightly one as ‘interesting’ letters as defined by the censor were becoming less in number. The letters of British troops with the Indian Corps were monitored but not included in the extracts sent to Whitehall. Letters from the Indian diaspora which were considered more politicised than others were given special attention.

The letters suppressed by the censor also present an object of curiosity. Some contained incitement to murder, as is the letter written on July 11, 1917 from Shah Pasand Khan to his brother Ali Khan in Jhelum District of the Punjab, in which he refers to the daughter of a certain Madat Khan (probably a relative) who has committed an impropriety and be “made an end of”. Since, Indian soldiery was largely illiterate most of the troops depended on an amanuensis for their letters. Some of these particularly the Muslim combatants requested these writers to ensure that their liaisons with white women were kept under wraps. However, some others were quite boastful of their antics like Balwant Singh (a Sikh) wrote on October 24, 1915 to Pandit Chet Ram in Amritsar, “The ladies are very nice and bestow their favours upon us freely”. The letters also contained code language which was soon deciphered by the censor, ‘black pepper’ and ‘white pepper’ for Indian and British soldiers respectively, ‘fruit’ for white women, ‘tentpegging’ for a cavalry charge, ‘tribal feud’ for news of the war, ‘wedding’ for an impending battle and so on. This secret language was fairly easily decoded.

The entry of Turkey into the war on the side of the Central Powers led to some discontentment among the Muslim troops who shunned fighting against their coreligionists. At Rangoon, in January 1915, the 130th Baluchis peacefully refused to embark for Mesopotamia. The following month soldiers of the 5th Light Infantry opened fire on their officers in Singapore and a year later a mutiny occurred in the 15th Lancers who refused march from Basra against the Turks resulting in most of the Regiment being imprisoned. The soldier’s mail was an important instrument to gauge the reaction among them and a general feeling of relief was felt when the Lancers were finally freed.

Another factor which the army personnel faced and gave vent to in their correspondence was homesickness.

Many relatives from India wrote letters lamenting the long separation imploring soldiers to return home on furlough or for matrimonial reasons. Some parents

of soldiers even petitioned the Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief for leave on a variety of reasons. The illness of a parent was a common explanation cited for such leave. Some letters are a little different from the usual, a Parsi wrote the following to a lady friend in Gujarati on January 16, 1915 “they (the local population) are greatly impressed by the Indian troops and by the men from India. When we first reached England, the people came to the steamer and joyfully mingled with us... whatever has been written in the Indian press is quite accurate”. Obviously the man was bowled over by his reception by the British. The Pathans as a class among the soldiers had a good number of desertions, not only for religious scruples but also because they had a workable exit option as their territory was not formally administered by the English and punishment was, therefore, unlikely.

Problems back home also are a salient feature in this work. One finds soldiers worrying about drought, high prices, dacoits and particularly the Plague and scarcity which afflicted the Punjab in the summer of 1915. One finds in the book a pointed hallmark of the Indian Army being mainly an organisation of peasants in uniform, and that peasant concerns and thinking dominated their lives which were far from abandoned on donning military fatigues. Politics was hardly discussed, and the only politician to figure in the whole collection is Maulana Azad and that too, more in a ‘Muslim’ context and not a political one. A letter written on August 26, 1916, from Mohomed Hasan to Sowar Raja Khan Zaman Khan of the 38th Central India Horse in France expresses a hope for self-government after the war, “if we Indians bring back to India the flag of victory which we have helped win for our King George, we shall have proved our fitness and will be entitled to self-government”. A couple of references are made of the Muslim League but it was not of much significance, by and large the army was apolitical.

Soldiers were exercised over the availability of religious artefacts such as ‘kripans’ (swords used chiefly by Sikhs) Granths and the Quran probably to bring some kind of normalcy into the layers of trauma and bereavement which were a part of the daily ordeal. A feeling of immense gratitude was expressed usually on the receipt of these spiritual objects from the home country. Some letters mentioned the erosion of caste or religious dissimilarities amongst them. The YMCA encouraged caste Hindus to treat the lower castes as equals. However, some

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October 2014

believed that the war would lead to the spread of Islam.

The Indian soldiers were unquestionably prolific letter writers. By March 1915, the Indian soldiers in France and Britain were churning out ten to twenty thousand letters a week, except while actually fighting or on the march. As the war progressed it was decided by the autumn of 1916, that the Indian Units should relieve the British army in secondary theatres allowing them to focus their energies on the Western Front. Thus a thrust was given to new recruitment as the Indian Army had to be enlarged. An enlistment bounty of `50 was introduced in June 1917.

But this did not have much of an effect, even though one does find mention of it in the letters sent back home. Quotas for recruitment were fixed and those who did not meet the targets were threatened with dismissal from their posts in the districts particularly in the Punjab, Zaildar Jawala Singh for example, wrote to Dafadar Kartar Singh of the 9th Hodson`s Horse in France from Lyallpur on December 11, 1917 “On the November 29, the Deputy Commissioner sent for me and gave me a month to finish my recruiting saying that if I did not supply the men in time I should be dismissed from my Zaildarship and Lambardarship”(the posts of Zaildar and Lambardar were lower level functionaries in the District administration). During this period also some transferring of men from regiments which had long been linked to particular castes and districts took place which caused resentment which featured in the epistles sent home.

At the time of the Armistice, India had provided over One million men which comprised of eight hundred and twenty seven thousand combatants, contributing on an average one man in ten to the war effort of the British Empire. In the wartime Indian Army reached a highest strength of five hundred and seventy three thousand Combatants with a maximum of two hundred and seventy three thousand serving outside the subcontinent at any one time. It is however, as Mark Tully remarks in the foreword, “a sad reflection on British Imperialism that the contribution India made willingly in the hope that its loyalty to the Empire would be rewarded by home rule was not recognised or remembered. India itself was not free, so it wasn’t in a position to recognise that contribution”.

Across-the-board on the subject of the Indian contribution to World War I, complete with maps and illustrations, this book does justice to the subject of the ‘forgotten heros’ of the this war.

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RIGHT ANGLE

IAF’S CHANGING ROLES

A

s has been pointed out by the Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha in his conversations with Geopolitics (see pages 34-37), the challenges confronting the Indian Air Force are not only enormous but also changing.

He is right when he says that the nature of air power is evolutionary. That means the challenges the IAF faces today are different from the ones in the past. For one, as wars are becoming multi-dimensional, requiring an inter-disciplinary approach and the marshalling of all organs of national power, the IAF requires different force constructs for different situations, ranging from highly mobile and effective conventional forces, to ‘rapid-reaction joint special-forces’. The IAF is supposed to provide the crucial edge in future conflicts that are likely to be short, sharp and unpredictable.

For another, as a rising power, India’s vital interests are not confined to its geographic parameters but beyond. Indians live and work abroad. Both the Indian government and private companies do have strategic investments in other parts of the world. In times of emergency, Indians and Indian enterprises need protection and support in foreign lands. The IAF cannot remain immune to these challenges; in fact, it has already proven its worth in the evacuation of stranded Indians in conflict-ridden West Asia in the past.

In a sense, the IAF has got a bigger role to play in peace time. We have carried a feature in this isPrakash sue showing the exemplary performance of the IAF during the unprecedented floods in our Kashmir. As a matter of fact, the most visible role of the IAF now is the role it displays during “peace-time” applications such as airlift and surveillance. One may add “military diplomacy” to this phenomenon. After all, India today has defence-agreements with many countries that include joint training, joint exercises and joint-management of defence installations and systems. Military diplomacy also involves the use of our forces, including the IAF, to carry out our commitment to the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations and other regional cooperative organisations.

Another important feature which is usually overlooked in our analyses on the IAF is the role it is expected to play in protecting our “space assets”, now that India is probably one of the “developed’ space powers of the world, in the wake of our unprecedented success of the Managalayan. In fact, I fail to understand why the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scrupulously maintains a distance from the IAF under the plea that it has nothing to do with war-making efforts. After all, the IAF is right when it suggests, and here I am mentioning the IAF’s “basic doctrine” of 2012, it is now better to talk of “aerospace power” rather than “air power”. To quote it, “Air power, in a classic sense is defined as the total ability of a nation to assert its will through the medium of air. It includes both civil and military aviation, existing and potential. In the modern sense, air power which has evolved into aerospace power is defined as the product of aerospace capability and aerospace doctrine.

Air power is the strength of an air force as opposed to an attendant capability… Aviation related research and development as also industrial capabilities have a force multiplier effect. Space capabilities further add to the above to enhance the aerospace power of the nation… Air power doctrine is primarily a deriva-

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tive of the fundamental principles that guide the application of air and space power and offers innovative ideas for the optimum exploitation of the medium.”

While the IAF is very clear that it has an aerospace role and in this task it needs the help of ISRO that is devoted to the civilian or peaceful use of space resources, the latter is not that enthusiastic to join hands – at least publicly. As India is a signatory to the international treaty that outlaws military activities (Outer Space Treaty) in space, a common property of mankind, ISRO seems to take a too legalistic view of abhorring the IAF. But then the fact is that the Outer Space Treaty has been the subject of diplomatic wrangles over the precise definition of space weapons, other than nuclear weapons. Besides, there has been no transparency on the part of major world powers in keeping the outer space free from military activities, with the result that one hears concepts like “Star Wars” (Strategic Defence Initiative) by the US and anti satellites (ASAT) by Russia.

In any case, it is a fact that the US and its allies have used space resources extensively in fighting recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Taking all the aforementioned aspects into account, it is needless to say that augmenting a strong and comprehensive aerospace capability is inescapable for India. The IAF’s role cannot be limited to just protecting and defending the country’s air and providing air support to our land forces, something that Nanda we witnessed in the past. The IAF today has to play varied roles of “Deterrence, Punishment, Protection, Projection and Peace-time operations”. The range, reach and capabilities of the IAF can only be limited by its equipment, weapon systems and the level of technology. The challenge before the IAF, therefore, is to overcome these limitations so that it is ever ready and flexible enough to carry out all its strategic, operational and tactical tasks.

Unfortunately, at the moment the IAF is not well-endowed to carry out these tasks. As the Air Chief has admitted in his interview to us, we do not have the authorised number of active fighter squadrons due to the non-availability of aircraft. He has, therefore, highlighted how crucial it is for the IAF to procure the Rafale fighter aircraft from France and Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) from our own Hindustan Aeronautic Ltd (HAL) at the earliest. The IAF is also faced with the challenges of obsolescence with rapid improvement in technology and prohibitive cost of new acquisition. Due to the aging fleet of IAF, the dependence on Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) support has increased.

Notwithstanding all these limitations, the Air Chief, like a true soldier, assures that “the IAF is prepared at all times to ensure the safety and sovereignty of the Indian skies and safeguard the interests of the country”. But then, the fact remains that there are limitations and the IAF deserves all the support from the government to overcome them. The laudable “Make in India” programme is no doubt the ultimate solution for the real reliability on the front of the weapons-systems, but that will take quite some time to happen in spite of the ‘good governance” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Can the IAF afford to wait till that time? I shudder to think of an answer.

October 2014 geopolitics

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