SP's Land Forces 1/2020

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SP’s

Military Yearbook

February-March 2020

Volume 17 No. 1

SP’s

2019

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PUBLICATION

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cial OffiPartner edia M of MoD

Def

F ER O Y LISH DAIL PUB PO 20 D EX DEF of Mo

ROUNDUP

The ONLY magazine in Asia-Pacific dedicated to Land Forces

>> LEAD STORY

In This Issue Page 4 Indian Defence Industry

Akash MISSILE

In order for India to possess a technologically advanced and self-sufficient defence industry, a lot will depend on maintaining a conducive eco-system for all stakeholders and a robust framework for effective implementation of reforms.

Major General Arun Kumar Varma (Retd) Page 6 Indian Army Modernisation: An Update

Changing Policy Environment Boosting ‘Make in India’ The driver for a vibrant ‘Make in India’ will be the presence of a robust ecosystem energised and driven by the industry friendly policies, time stipulated outcomes with accountability and a policy of “Risk Sharing Gain Sharing”.

GRAPHIC: SP’s Design

Simplification to Core MBT Arjun Mk II

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has cleared the restructuring of the Army headquarters which involves relocating 206 officers from the HQ to field areas Lt General Naresh Chand (Retd) Page 9 DefExpo India 2020 Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd) Plus Indian Army Inducts First Lot of Locally-Assembled M777 Artillery Guns

Relaxation in Conditions

Facilitations & Guarantees

• Allowing all eligible vendors to participate in the prototype development process.

• No Cap on number of players who show interest & offer prototype.

• Suo-moto proposals allowed.

• Start-ups permitted to supply equipment.

• No foreclosure - assured orders.

• Provision for Project Facilitation Team.

• IPR remains with the industry.

• Reduces the total time from AIP to placing of order.

• Projects with developmental cost of less than three crore reserved for MSME.

10

Vishal Thapar Biggest Make in India Programme for Indian Army Dropped

10

Vishal Thapar $930 Million Deal for 6 Apache Helicopter Gunships for Army Awaits CCS Approval

Reduced Documentation

11

Vishal Thapar New Assault Rifles After 15 Years

11

SiG 716 Assault Rifle

• No detail project report required - saving of time & efforts.

SHQ Empowerment • SHQ to give all subsequent clearances after AIP. • Option with SHQ to accept single individual/firm offers on innovative solution.

• SHQs allowed to hire domain experts/consultants.

Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd) The Future of Warfare

14

Vishal Thapar News in Brief

15

Continued on page 2....

1/2020 SP’s Land Forces

1

>> LEAD STORY E D I T O R I A L

This issue of SP’s Land Forces coincides with the DefExpo 2020 and thus the lead article is on the nuts and bolts of ‘Make in India’ initiative pertaining to defence.

‘Make in India’ is a visionary initiative, mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which identifies 25 key manufacturing sectors including defence. The aim is to boost domestic defence manufacturing and achieve self-reliance and strategic autonomy. The Government plans to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2025.

Such economic growth requires foundational pillars of matching defence capabilities energised by a strong indigenous defence industrial base. The key to growth is sustained and evolved indigenisation programmes.

The lead article is followed up by an overview of India’s defence manufacturing base which includes the Defence PSUs and the private sector along with the initiatives carried

out by the Government to boost the defence manufacturing base.

Some key initiatives are Strategic Partnership Model; iDEX Initiative and Start-ups; and development of defence corridors. To harness the strength of private industry and to foster Government Private Sector partnership, DPP 2016 introduced the Strategic Partnership Model to develop strategic weapon systems. Strategic Partners from the private sector would be identified to become partners with the MoD in their deliberations under Government to Government negotiations with foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for collaboration in production. For iDEX, the Government has earmarked funds for innovations with the aim of trying to bring together innovators with public and private sector industry and the Armed Forces to find new technology solutions. Plans are also afoot to fund at least 250 defence start-

ups over the next five years in seeking new technologies. The development of Defence Corridors is another key initiative to boost manufacture and encourage including by MSMEs. Two defence corridors are coming up, one in Uttar Pradesh and the other one in Tamil Nadu.

Modernisation is an ongoing process for any army and involves structural and hardware changes. The Indian Army is at the brink of structural changes with Integrated Battle Group planned to be formed after being tested in two corps – one in the east and one in the west. The hardware changes are being carried out slowly but steadily.

Read all about this in an article on Army modernisation.

SP Guide Publications is proud to share that 7 articles by our journalists, in four categories, have been shortlisted for finals in the upcoming Aerospace Media Awards - Asia. These are the

most prestigious awards in Aerospace Media and the number of nominations for finals, received by us, are amongst the highest by a publishing company, which includes global leaders and heavyweights. Details of the nominations can be seen on pages 8 and 9 inside.

This issue just about wraps up with the usual News Digest and flag postings.Your favourite defence publishing house – ’SP Guide Publications’ will be at the DefExpo 2020 so if you are in Lucknow, do pay us a visit at Hall 3 Stall Q47.

Wish you happy reading and a Happy New Year!

Jayant Baranwal Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

Photograph: PIB

 Lt General A.B. Shivane (Retd)

I

t has been nearly six years since the ‘Make in India’ initiative was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Defence manufacturing is one of the 25 key sectors identified under ‘Make in India’ initiative to boost defence manufacturing and achieve self-reliance and strategic autonomy. India is poised to become a $5 trillion-dollar economy by 2025. Such economic growth requires to be on the foundational pillars of a matching defence capability energised by a strong indigenous defence industrial base. India is thus striving for self-sufficiency by promoting ‘Make in India’ initiative in its defence through focused, sustained and evolved indigenisation programmes.

India has also moved up two spots to become the seventh most valuable ‘nation brand’ 2019 in the world. The Indian defence market is set to grow at an CAGR >4 per cent with the base year as 2018 and prediction year as 2024. Its brand value has increased by a whopping 19 per cent in the last one year to $2,562 billion, according to the annual report on the world’s most valuable nation brands compiled by Brand Finance.

www.spslandforces.com

Envisaged Defence Production Target India plans to spend $130 billion on military modernisation in the next five years, as achieving self-reliance in defence production is a key target for the Government of India.

The Government has opened up the Defence industry for private sector participation to provide impetus to indigenous manufacturing. The department of defence production has set itself a target of producing equipment worth `90,000 crore in the financial year 2019-20. Exports worth `15,000 crore have been envisaged from the total quantity of equipment produced. The target set by the department for 2019-20 is nearly 12 per cent higher than the production achieved in the previous financial year. In the financial year 2018-19, the department had produced equipment worth `80,502 crore.

Recent Policy Reforms: Defence Manufacturing Sector The Indian Government has initiated several key reforms to encourage ‘Make in India’ in the Defence Sector. These have resulted in the rise in the procurement from private Sector with nearly `17000 crore contracts placed with Indian Private Sector

2

SP’s Land Forces 1/2020

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh addressing at the ‘Def-Connect’ under the aegis of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX), in New Delhi on November 11, 2019.

with top preference to IDDM. The policy initiatives have resulted in: l Enhanced Ease of doing Defence Business - MSME have been given a boost with nearly 70 per cent licences issued to MSMEs with 52 per cent in land systems. l Defence Investor Cell being established set on in January 2018 nearly 100 investors facilitated in 100 days. l De-Licencing of 65-70 per cent of items including parts, components etc for manufacturing by private industry. l Green Channel Policy 2017 which allowed deemed registration status, waiver of pre-despatch inspection, acceptance of stores under supplier’s warranty and renewal of registration on self-certification basis. l Opportunity for Industry to propose products/service Suo Moto. l Protection for foreign exchange rate variation. l Simplified Make II. l Setting up Defence Innovation Organisation and task force on AI. l Setting up of two defence industrial corridors namely in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Draft Defence Production Policy The policy aims to promote domestic production by public sector, private sector and MSMEs by facilitating faster absorption of technology and create a tiered Defence industrial ecosystem in the country. It’s highlights include:

l Ease of Doing Business in Defence Pro-

duction. l Simplification of Licensing Process -

Validity of Industrial Licence extended to 15 years with a provision of further three years extension. l Liberalisation of FDI Policy- FDI up to 74 per cent under automatic route will be allowed in niche technology areas. l Modification of Offsets - New investment linked avenues for discharge of offset obligation. l Involving Start-ups in Technology Development eg. iDeX. l Export Promotion - Defence exports have witnessed a tremendous growth from `1,521 crore in 2016-17 to `10,745 crore in 2018-19. l Innovation and R&D. l Focus on Vendor Development and Outsourcing.

Energising Make In India ‘Make in India’ is not just a sound economic option but a strategic imperative in promoting India as global hub of manufacturing, particularly in the strategic sectors such as defence. As of now the domestic defence industry lacks critical technologies, manufacturing ecosystems for integration of large platforms, supply chain and logistics.

This must gain greater focus.

The recent defence policy reforms and speeding up of acquisition process as part of ‘Make in India’ strategy is laudable, but have not commensurately paid off in terms of its

potential and outcomes. Thus, there exists a gap between expectations and deliverance due to a myriad of reasons including budgetary constraints, lacklustre implementation of policies, pervasive technological backwardness, bureaucratic lethargy, skewed offset policies and evasive foreign direct investment (FDI), among other issues. Above all there has not been any cultural shift or major restructuring for making the present Make in India initiative and defence procurement outcome oriented. A glaring example is the failure and loss of credibility of “Make” projects to take off essentially due to weak and wavering support by decision makers. The apprehensions of foreign investors toward ‘Make in India’ in defence could be reversed by a sound offset policy. Offsets’ discharge by foreign OEMs is a standard practice worldwide and have been leveraged to overcome technological barriers by effectively absorbing foreign capital, technological transfers and know-how. DPP 2016 also needs to be simplified and made more outcome oriented with aspects such as ATP included in RFP, quality cum cost based model, joint inspection and self-certification rather than an archival DGQA organisation, etc.

Conclusion The driver for a vibrant ‘Make in India’ will be the presence of a robust ecosystem energised and driven by the industry friendly policies, time stipulated outcomes with accountability and a policy of “Risk Sharing Gain Sharing”. ‘Make in India’ is also dependent upon R&D including industry-driven local R&D and production factors, producttechnology and manufacturing machine technology. In addition a vibrant competitive defence industrial base and an eco-system would enable utilization and consolidation of existing capabilities in fostering a constructive, long term partnership with global OEM to be part of global supply chain and augment the role of Indian private sector companies to develop capabilities and capacities through JV and partnerships. The focus must be on creating an environment that makes Indian firms to be world competitive and where all enterprises can flourish with levers of IPR in their control. ‘Make in India’ is indeed the enlightened strategic path which requires patience, resilience and support by all stake holders. SP The author recently retired as Director General, Mechanised Forces, Indian Army.

KALYANI GROUP ADVANCING towards making India self-reliant.

With a comprehensive portfolio of Artillery, Protected vehicles, Armored vehicle upgrades, Ammunition, Missiles and Air defense and Defense electronics, we have developed indigenous components and sub-systems based on the parameters set by the Indian Army. Our in-house capabilities and R&D facility enables us to be innovative and self-reliant. We are a strong believer of Made in India and have successfully implemented it.

KALYANI GROUP - proud to be a strong arm of the Armed Forces.

>> MAKE IN INDIA

Indian Defence Industry In order for India to possess a technologically advanced and self-sufficient defence industry, a lot will depend on maintaining a conducive eco-system for all stakeholders and a robust framework for effective implementation of reforms.

Photograph: PIB

 Major General Arun Kumar Varma (Retd)

Background In 1956, the revised Industrial Policy Resolution reserved the arms and ammunition industry with the public sector and the ordnance factories set up under the British rule became the core group of industries. India focused on its capability to indigenously produce equipment with little technical know-how, leaving the advanced equipment requirements to be addressed through imports.

Reverses in its conflict with China in 1962 and the embargo imposed by the USA on the export of arms to India post 1965 war with Pakistan gave an impetus to India’s defence industry. This also heralded an era of defence ties with the Soviet Union, and, to this day, bulk of requirement of advanced weapon platforms has been supplied by the Soviet Union/Russia. India even commenced manufacturing of equipment, albeit by way of license. Although the nation received advanced weapons, manufacturing/assembling via the license route led to stagnation in India’s domestic capabilities in terms of research, development and production.

Towards the onset of the 21st century, India opened its doors to liberalization and progressive economic reforms. The private sector was given access to the defence industry and introduction of the ‘Make’ type of procurement in the Defence Procurement Policy (DPP) 2006 allowed the industry to develop and produce advanced defence equipment. However, lack of focus and funding for research and development (R&D) in the public sector, coupled with absence of an enabling eco-system for flourishing of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the private sector, prevented India from building its indigenous defence capabilities.

Thus, India continued its reliance on import of advanced weaponry.

In an attempt to boost domestic procurement, the Government changed the order of preference in procurement under DPP 2013, making it a preferred choice to develop, design or manufacture defence equipment indigenously. Apart from simplifying the licensing policy and providing a level playing field to the private sector vis a vis the public sector, DPP 2016 introduced Buy (Indian IDDM)) and Buy and Make (Indian) categories of procurement to promote the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

www.spslandforces.com

Industrial Overview India has the third largest armed forces in the world, however, has remained the world’s largest importer of major weapons with 13 per cent share in the global import of arms. In 2015, India was recognized as the seventh largest military spending nations, after USA, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France and UK. In 2019, India moved up to the third largest military spending nations in the world.

Public Sector. India has a huge defence industrial base with 41 Ordnance Factories under the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and nine Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), collectively forming the public sector component. In addition, the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) have over 50 laboratories under its aegis.

Private Sector. The sensitive and strategic nature of the defence industry was cited

4

SP’s Land Forces 1/2020

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in the K9 VAJRA-T Gun at L&T Armoured System Complex at Hazira in Gujarat

often to thwart the entry of private sector in defence, and, its contribution was restricted to supplies of raw materials, semi-finished products, parts and components to OFB and DPSUs. However, post liberisation, and the relative lacklustre performance of the public sector, led the Indian defence industry to open its gates to private sector. Since then the private sector has performed remarkably well, and today, the private sector is an integral part of the defence industry. Notable players in India’s private defence sector are the Tata group, the Mahindra group, Bharat Forge and L&T. Large defence projects are witnessing increasing private sector involvement. Examples are the development of the Battlefield Management System (BMS), Pinaka Rocket Systems and the Avro Replacement Programme. Various global defence companies like Airbus, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Israel Aerospace Industries, Raytheon and Dassault have increased their investments into India by the way of joint ventures with the private sector.

Strategic Partnership Model. To harness the strength of private industry and to foster Government Private Sector partnership, DPP 2016 introduced the Strategic Partnership Model to develop strategic weapon systems. These will be created over and above the capacity and infrastructure that exists in Public Sector units. Strategic Partners from the private sector would be identified to become partners with the MoD in their deliberations under Government to Government negotiations with foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for collaboration in production. However, procedures for identification of strategic partners with the private sector need to be streamlined. iDEX Initiative and Start-ups. The Government has earmarked funds for innovations under the iDEX initiative with the aim of trying to bring together innovators with public and private sector industry and the Armed Forces to find new technology solutions. Plans are also afoot to fund at least 250 defence start-ups over the next five years in seeking new technologies for providing a cutting edge to the Armed Forces.

This is a good development but whether these start-ups will be ‘unofficially’ forced to tie up with DPSUs or given free hand to tie up with private sector industry and the Armed Forces will be important.

Defence Corridors. In pursuance to the budget speech of 2018-19, the Government decided to develop two defence corridors, one in Uttar Pradesh and the other one in Tamil Nadu. Subsequently, six nodes have been identified for Uttar Pradesh Corridor and five for Tamil Nadu Corridor. Although sops have been offered to the public and private sector to set up manufacturing units, the progress has been slow, since, assured orders for defence items is the primary driving force for investments to materialise.

Concerns India, aspiring to be a world power, has long harboured a dream of possessing a technologically advanced and self-sufficient defence industry. While its economic power has expanded, and its technological prowess in certain areas such as nuclear, space and information technology has grown, it has not been able to create a globally competitive defence industry. Consequently, India is still saddled with a bloated, noncompetitive, non-responsive defence industry, capable of producing technologically inferior military equipment, and that too never on time and mostly exceeding their original cost estimates. The result is that India still imports 70 per cent of its defence requirements and the armed forces continue to grapple with the outdated, vintage and obsolete weapon platforms.

Periodic CAG reports point to sub-standard products, exorbitant prices, inability to meet demands of the Armed Forces, as also rampant corruption which is hardly possible without complicity of the Department of Defence Production (DDP) and MoD officials.

Ironically, both MoD and DDP lack defence specialization and accountability. Government’s decision to turn the OFB into a public sector corporate for increasing exports, selfreliance, and latest technologies and innovations announced in May 2019 appears to have run into rough weather.

Role of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Many OEMs including the OFB and DPSUs are offloading manufacture of components and subassemblies to MSMEs, but shortage of skilled manpower is forcing MSMEs to employ mix of semi-skilled and unskilled workers, which has resulted in low productivity. The ‘Skill Development’ program is unable to meet the requirement of skilled manpower

of MSMEs. Unfortunately governmental focus on MSMEs appears to have diminished despite all the talk about their importance and future contribution towards India becoming a super power.

Make in India – a reality check.

The Government’s ‘Make in India’ policy and increase in the FDI cap was seen as a major step to revitalise the defence industry. Accordingly, a number of committees under retired bureaucrats were set up by the government to review the problems being faced, and recommend suitable solutions to improve the business environment in India. However, very little has changed on the ground, be it the negative fiscal environment (including taxation), the lack of infrastructure (roads, water and power) and antiquated labour laws. The biggest challenges to ‘Make in India’ policy are: l Decision making in defence procurement is bureaucratic whose primary focus is adherence to procedures and not on the end product. Like the Atomic and Space sectors, Defence procurement needs to report directly to the Prime Minister. l The existing R&D infrastructure is antiquated with severely constrained design capability and limited support, both scientifically and financially. It continues to suffer from low investment, concrete plans and timelines for execution. What India needs is a research and development institution like the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the USA. l Complete side lining of the Indian private sector by DRDO, OFB and DPSUs in design, production and maintenance.

Continued reliance on licensed production has compromised the domestic competence and capability to develop a product from scratch. Moreover, the monopoly enjoyed by these entities has bred complacency, arrogance and incompetency. With increased competition from the private sector in terms of productivity, resources and capacity utilization, the public sector needs to be completely overhauled and corporatised. l Foreign OEMs have developed sensitive and strategic technologies over several decades, investing billions of dollars. It is a fallacy that these can be handed over to India without a majority control.

Conclusion For improving defence manufacturing and becoming self-reliant in the near future, a lot will depend on how this sector is handled in terms of management, accountability, politicized unions, strikes, work culture, output and transforming limited successes to the required across the board excellence.

With global defence spending experiencing a slowdown in the last few years, global defence firms have increased focus on seeking growth opportunities in markets such as India. Armed with substantial budget, and an executive will to integrate the domestic industry with its global counterpart, the Indian defence industry has placed itself on a trajectory of growth and challengedriven production. Like every industry, the success of the defence industry will largely depend on efforts to maintain a conducive eco-system for all stakeholders and a robust framework for effective implementation of the reforms. SP

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HYBRID BIHO

+ 30mm twin-gun and missile system to defend against various low-altitude aerial threats with agile mobility + Automatic target detecting and tracking capability in any type of weather, day or night + Precise gun and missile system with real-time fire control

+ Hundreds of Hybrid BIHO units currently operated by the ROK Army + High technology transfer and localisation, full logistics support + Operation and maintenance training programs utilizing comprehensive simulation system

>> MODERNISATION

Indian Army Modernisation: An Update Defence minister Rajnath Singh has cleared the restructuring of the Army headquarters which involves relocating 206 officers from the HQ to field areas Photographs: DRDO, Rosoboronexport, SP Guide Pubns

 Lt General Naresh Chand (Retd)

generation, can engage targets in ‘fire-andforget’ and ‘fire-observe-and-update’ modes and meets the operational requirement of the IA as it is looking for third-generation ATGMs with a longer range than that of its existing Milan-2T and Konkurs.

M

odernisation is an ongoing process for any army and involves structural and hardware changes.

The Indian Army (IA) is also going such transformation-albeit slowly but steadily. Brief details are given in succeeding paragraphs.

Mechanised Forces T-90. During April 2019, the Cabinet Committee on Security had approved the purchase of 464 T-90 MS tanks. The T-90MS version has improved electronics and defensive systems compared with the earlier T-90 tanks. The future plans visualise a force of over 1,600 T-90 tanks by 2020. The older T-72 tanks will be replaced by upgraded versions of T-90.

Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) and Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV). These were very ambitious projects under ‘Make in India’ with large financial outlays to replace current inventory of infantry combat vehicles and tanks but both have been shelved probably for want of budgetary support. FICV itself involves 2600 vehicles with about plus $8 billion budgetary support.

Structural Transformation IA had ordered four transformation studies in order to meet the modern battlefield milieu as follows: l Reorganisation of the Army HQ. l Reorganisation and Rightsizing of the IA which is the key operational issue involving reorganizing existing brigades into Integrated Battle Groups. Details are yet not known. l Cadre Review of Officers. l Review of Terms of Engagement of the Rank and File.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh has cleared the restructuring of the Army headquarters which involves relocating 206 officers from the HQ to field areas, the creation of a separate vigilance cell under the COAS, and a new branch under the Vice Chief that will focus on human rights issues. It is estimated that the implementation of the four studies would reduce troops by about 100,000.

Artillery Field Artillery Rationalisation Plan (FARP) was formulated during 2000 in which 155mm calibre was made the standard gun system for Artillery and involved the acquisition of about 3000 plus guns by 2025 at an estimated cost of $8 billion. These included: l 1,580 towed gun systems (TGS) l 814 mounted gun systems (MGS) l 100 self-propelled howitzers (SPHs) l 145 BAE Systems M777 155mm/39 calibre lightweight howitzers for the mountains.

Except for M777, all other gun systems were of 155mm/52 calibre or 45 calibre.

Infantry The Indian Army (IA) had started with its ‘Future Infantry Soldier as a System’ (F-INSAS) programme over ten years back which involved equipping the infantry soldier with advanced weaponry, situational awareness and communications, to be completed by 2020. In January 2015, the IA split the F-INSAS programme in two separate projects; one arming the modern infantry soldier with the best available assault rifle, carbine and LMG, and personal equipment such as the helmet and Bullet Proof Vest (BPV); and the second component was the Battlefield Management Systems (BMS) which included the computer and communications. However, due to high cost of BMS, it was foreclosed in 2018. At present the focus is on modernisation of personal weapons and protection. Brief details are:

www.spslandforces.com

Personal Weapons and Protection Assault Rifles. India had signed a `700 crore deal to buy 72,000 of these rifles from the US under Fast Track Procedure (FTP).

The first lot of 10,000 SiG716 assault rifles arrived in India on December 1, 2019 and another batch of 10,000 rifles will arrive soon. The SIG716 uses the more powerful 7.62x51mm cartridge.

Carbine. The contract with UAE based Caracal International LLC for providing 93,895 close-combat weapons has run into trouble due to cost factors. Meanwhile, there are plans for a joint venture between India and Russia to produce seven lakh AK-203 assault rifles in India which will be modified for carbine role.

LMG. The IA has started its search for a new LMG with the calibre of 7.62x51mm by sending a delegation during April/May

6

SP’s Land Forces 1/2020

Current Status of FARP

(Top) 155mm x 52 calibre Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS); (middle) T-90MS tank; (above) Dhanush 155mm 45-calibre gun.

2019 to Bulgaria (Arsenal Company); Israel (Israel Weapon Industries) and South Korea (S&T Motiv Co.). Currently the Army is looking for 16,400 LMGs under FTC. Sniper Rifles. Limited numbers of two new advanced sniper rifles e.g. the Barrett M95 .50 BMG and Beretta Scorpio TGT ‘Victrix’338 Lapua Magnum have been provided selectively to troops along the LoC. BPV. The shortage of bullet-proof jackets for armed forces is being met through procurement of 1.86 lakh such jackets by April 2020 for nearly `639 crore. SMPP Pvt Ltd, which has developed these indigenous BPV claim that their BPV can withstand hardcore steel ammunition fired from an AK-47 rifle.

Night Vision Capability. This is being

improved selectively through indigenous effort and foreign collaboration.

Anti-tank capability There are plans to buy more than 3,000 Milan 2T anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) from France which are to be produced under licence by Bharat Dynamics Limited. Milan is manufactured by Euromissile which is a consortium originally set up by Aerospatiale-Matra of France and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace of Germany, now a subsidiary of the EADS. The IA also operates Russian origin 9M113M Konkurs-M ‘AT-5b Spandrel-B’ ATGMs. India has procured Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Spike LR (long-range) ATGM system which is fourth-

BAE Systems’ M777 155mm/39 Calibre Ultra Lightweight Howitzers (ULH). The contract for procurement of 145 guns of 155mm/39 calibre ULH was signed with US Government in November 2016 under the FMS Programme. As per the contract 25 fully formed howitzers from USA/UK were to be imported and balance 120 howitzers were to be assembled in India by BAE Systems in partnership with Mahindra Defence. The first regiment is equipped with 15 imported guns and three guns have been made in India to complete the inventory of 18 guns per regiment.

Dhanush. Ordnance Factories Board (OFB) had been contracted to produce a 45-calibre 155mm howitzer based on the Transfer of Technology obtained from Bofors in the 1980s. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) approved the manufacture of 144 pieces of 155mm/45-calibre howitzers with the option to acquire another 400 provided the prototypes are successful. After successful trials the OFB received a bulk production order for 114 Dhanush guns. The OFB has already handed over six Dhanush guns to Artillery during April 2019. Dhanush is the first indigenously built 155mm x 45 calibre long-range artilContinued on Page 8...

>> Marketing feature

B05YA01 COMBAT MODULE FOR ARMORED VEHICLES UPGRADE The light-weight category combat vehicles (IFV, airborne assault vehicles, APC) are able to determine the combat potential of a country’s armed forces due to their application versatility. Infantry fighting vehicles (BMP-1, BMP-2, BMP-3) and airborne assault vehicles (BMD-3, BMD-4) are the most common hardware of land forces and airborne troops.

Currently a huge fleet of such combat vehicles is in service both with the Russian army, as well as abroad. These vehicles have been produced for several decades and presently their weapon systems do not meet modern requirements. However, their life cycle is quite long and reaches 30–40 years.

Many countries keep on upgrading the main fleet of their combat vehicles. In Russia, a BMP-2 mechanical module was selected as a basis for designing a uniform combat module weighing below 3 tons for upgrading Russian combat vehicles.

Russian infantry fighting vehicle BMP-2, being the main combat vehicle of many countries’ land forces, was adopted for service in 1980 and used to exceed most of its foreign counterparts in terms of combat capabilities.

Nowadays BMP-2 still basically meets the modern requirements. However BMP-2 weapon system is falling behind the modern level a number of parameters: • guided weapon firing is possible from stationary position only due to wire command link of Konkurs anti-tank guided missile (ATGM); • Konkurs ATGM has low penetration capability and is not effective against modern tanks; • Konkurs ATGM has low firing rate due to manual reloading of the launcher; • at night the system may fire only automatic cannon or PKT machine-gun at range not exceeding 800 m; • the BMP-2 fire control system is not automated and does not allow for accurate firing, limiting the effective range of 30 mm cannon to 1100–1400 m. when firing on the move the system does not provide for required accuracy of line of sight stabilization; • 30 mm projectiles flat trajectory firing is not efficient against prone or entrenched manpower; • firing at aerial targets carried out using center rings of 1PZ-3 sight, actually delivers only a psychological effect, since the typical aerial target hit probability is hardly one percent.

The firepower of a combat vehicle is determined by its weapon system, thus, the increase of combat efficiency may be achieved by weapon system modernization. BMP-2 has a high weapon system upgrade potential. The challenge of increasing the firepower of existing BMPs providing their superiority over other modern vehicles has been successfully met by KBP Instrument Design Bureau.

The upgrade was implemented on a serially produced BMP-2 turret with 2A42 automatic cannon (without changing the mechanical module and turret internal layout).

The design concept implies the following: • mounting two Kornet-E ATGM launchers on the turret sides, each launcher equipped with independent electromechanical vertical drive and carrying two ready for fire missiles; • replacement of standard BPK-2-42 sight with combined gunner’s sight equipped with independent LOS stabilization system and incorporating optical, IR and laser range-finding channels, as well as missile guidance channel; • installation of onboard digital computer with sensors system, as well as TV-IR target auto-tracker; • installation of 30 mm grenade launcher with independent electromechanical vertical laying drive and 300-rds feed magazine; • installation of commander’s panoramic sight with independent LOS stabilization system and incorporating optical and laser range-finding channels; • installation of high-precision digital weapon stabilizer.

In-service BMP-2 CVs were upgraded by installation of B05Ya01 combat module

New combat module is also meant for upgrading other combat vehicles

The weight of add-on equipment installed does not exceed 500 kg, including around 260 kg of extra ammunition: 30 mm grenades and ATGM. The specifications of BMP-2 with new B05Ya01 combat module are improved as a result of KBP-offered upgrade package.

Due to introduction of day/night FCS the system provides accurate firing with all types of weapons, including guided, at moving and stationary targets, round-theclock engagement of all types of targets from stationary position, on the move and afloat at the range up to 4000 m with automatic cannon, up to 2100 m with automatic grenade launcher, up to 5500 m with 9М133-1 ATGM. Besides, 9М133М-2 ATGM with tandem shaped-charge warhead and 9М133FM ATGM with HE warhead and 9М133FM-3 ATGM with HE warhead and proximity fuse recently designed by KBP allow firing at range up to 8 km.

Kornet-E ATGM penetration capability, increased up to 1100–1300 mm, allows reliable engagement of modern advanced tanks fitted with add-on ERA. Besides, HEF warhead of the missile is able to destroy concrete fortifications and strongpoints. Due to stand-off range targets engagement capability the upgraded BMP-2 are sure to prevail in combat with enemy tanks and IFVs. The improvements implemented in Kornet ATGM (9М133М-2, 9М133ФМ-3) provide for considerable enhancement of its performance without increasing weight and dimensions. These improvements ensure: • engagement of modern and advanced tanks taking into account their armor protection growth tendency; • engagement of armored vehicles at stand-off range; • engagement of low-altitude assault and reconnaissance aircrafts, including drones; • increase fire rate when firing ATGMs is provide by installation on two stabilized launchers of BMP-2 ICV of four ready-to-launch guided missiles significantly; • implementation of TV-IR-auto target tracker enables to increase the accuracy of target tracking 3–6 fold in comparison with manual tracking. Automatic target tracker adds the FCS a qualitatively new feature, putting to life the “fire-and-forget” principle when firing a guided

missile. At the same time the missile cost is significantly lower than that of a missile with a seeker which fulfills the function of the auto-tracker; • laser guidance mode of the ATGM with orientation of the missile within the laser beam provides for high jamming-immunity against all types of active jamming; • effective firing range of a 30-mm projectile is increased from 1100–1400 m up to 1800–2000 m; • air defense firing effectiveness is increased significantly: kill probability by automatic gun when firing against “helicopter” and “low-flying attacking aircraft”-type target increases dramatically and its value approaches that of specialized gun and missile air defense systems of closed ranges with much lesser expenditure of ammunition.

Thus, the principle of ICV versatility is fulfilled by adding air defense capacities without additional expenditures; • еffective engaging of personnel is provided at ranges up to 2100, including that behind the accidents of ground and in trenches due to the implementation of low ballistics armaments (AG-30M automatic grenade launcher) with new GPD-30 rounds; • the scope of combat tasks which can solved by the CV commander is increased due to installation of night vision panoramic sight with technical view, implemented on ICVs for the first time.

BMP-2 upgrade meets the requirements towards future infantry combat vehicle for the nfuture 20–30 years, and upgraded BMP-3 ICV can be successfully used till year 2030–2040. The carried out upgrade features a systematic approach and leads not simply to enhancement of separate technical specifications of the system, but has enabled to create a vehicle with qualitatively new features, which can successfully compete with foreign counterparts on the weapon market. KBP mastered serial production of upgraded BMP-2 combat compartments.

The advertorial is based on the article of N.I. Khokhlov, L.M. Shvets, I.A. Matveev, O.A. Borovykh.

For more information please visit www.kbptula.ru

1/2020 SP’s Land Forces

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>> MODERNISATION

www.spslandforces.com

Indian Army Modernisation...Continued from Page 6 lery gun with strike range of 38 kilometres.

It is also a major success story of the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

155mm/52 calibre Towed Howitzer.

Nexter of France had offered their gun Trajan and had tied up with Larson & Toubro (L&T).

Elbit of Israel has offered their gun ATHOS 2052 and had tied up with Kalyani Group/ Bharat Forge. Howitzers of both Nexter and Elbit Systems underwent competitive trials in November 2015. It was then reported that fresh trials have been ordered for both the systems but it appears that Elbit Systems has won the competition as the Elbit-Bharat Forge bid for the Athos 2052 howitzer was found significantly lower than that of Nexter.

In fact it is understood that it is even less than Dhanush. The Ministry of Defence has the choice of opting for the indigenous Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), being developed by the DRDO in partnership with Tata Power SED and Bharat Forge.

Self Propelled Howitzers (SPH) K9 Vajra-T. According to industry sources, the K9 (South Korean self-propelled 155mm howitzer manufactured by Hanwha Defense) is being procured under the DPP2012 ‘Buy Global’ category. L&T had won the contract in 2017 to supply 100 units of K9 Vajra to the IA under the Centre’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. The K9 is expected to contain some 13 major indigenous subsystems, including its fire control, ammunition handling etc.

Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh flagged off the 51st K9 VAJRA-T Gun from L&T Armoured System Complex at Hazira in Gujarat on January 16, 2020.

Truck-mounted guns. The Acquisition of 814 truck-mounted Guns has been approved by the DAC in November 2014 and will be undertaken under the ‘buy and make in India’ category with transfer of technology. While the first 100 guns will be imported, the remaining 714 will be produced in India. Tata Power SED with its 155mm truck mounted gun system and L&T-Ashok Leyland-Nexter with their 155mm gun are among the private companies in India that are reported to be interested but at present the acquisition appears on low priority. Meanwhile the OFB has announced that they will produce two more versions of the Dhanush, one of them being a truck mounted version.

155/52 Calibre Self Propelled Howitzer. It was earlier reported that Bhim selfpropelled howitzer was being developed as a private venture of the South African company Denel in collaboration with DRDO but no details are known. It is also reported that L&T is expected to develop this system.

155mm/52 Calibre Advance Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS). ATAGS is India’s first indigenous 155mm/52-calibre towed gun system which is being developed

by DRDO along with Tata Power SED and the Kalyani Group/Bharat Forge. During January 2017, two ATAGS prototypes had been made and were under trials. Finally there will be a requirement of 1,500 towed guns costing about $4.5billion but the initial order is for the immediate requirement of 114 guns.

Catapult. The current system of mounting the 130mm gun onto the extended chassis of an OFB-built Vijayanta (Vickers Mk 1) MBT is being replaced by mounting a 130mm gun on the chassis of the locally designed Arjun MBT. The Pinaka Multi Barrel Rocket Launching System (MLRS). Pinaka is developed by DRDO and manufactured by L&T and Tatas. It has now been upgraded with an improved range of 60 km. In April 2017 a proposal for acquiring six additional regiments of Pinakas was cleared. The Mk II version of Pinaka would have guided munitions with ranges of 60 - 80 km.

BrahMos Cruise Missile. BrahMos programme is also proceeding at smoothly

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SP’s Land Forces 1/2020

with the enhanced range/advance version likely to be inducted in the near future.

The advanced version will have “trajectory manoeuvre and steep-dive capabilities” for mountain warfare. The hypersonic version is currently under joint development by DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenia.

Army Air Defence (AAD) Current Systems. The AAD holds a mix of guns, shoulder fired missiles, self propelled missile and gun systems. The key weaknesses are the successor to 40mmL/70 gun which is almost 50 years old, replacing old shoulder fired missile systems and self propelled gun/ missile systems. Progress is as follows: l IGLA-M is being replaced by IGLA-S from the Russian Federation. l The Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM) is being developed

by DRDO in collaboration with Israel

Aerospace Industries (IAI) for all three services. Army’s version is under development and the Naval and Air Force versions are in service. l Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile (QRSAM) is being developed by DRDO in association with Bharat Electronics Limited and Bharat Dynamics Limited.

It has a range of 25-30 km. l L/70 gun, 23mmTwin Gun and Schilka have been upgraded indigenously and are in service.

Army Aviation Corps (AAC) Light Utility Helicopters (LUH). For many decades the AAC is somehow carrying on with Cheetah and Chetak which need immediate replacement. Periodic accidents are an urgent reminder of the same.

There are also indications that a large number of 200 Kamov 226 T helicopters to be

produced under the Indo-Russia joint venture will be earmarked for AAC for replacing Cheetahs and Chetak LUHs. The infrastructure Kamov 226 is being established by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

Light Combat Helicopters. The AAC needs 114 Light Combat Helicopters.

Weapon System Integrated (WSI) has been carried out successfully with Mk-IV variant of the Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter, called the Rudra. Various versions of Dhruv are already in service in the Army.

Apache AH-64Es Armed Helicopters.

During June 2018, six Apache AH-64Es armed helicopters were contracted from the US at approximate cost of `4,168 crore (about $600 million). Deliveries are expected to be made in 2020. The AAC has plans to procure 39 AH-64E helicopters which would be adequate for three AAC squadrons earmarked for the three Strike Corps. SP

For the First Time in 2019,

SP GUIDE PUBLICATIONS offered its submissions to the organisers of Aerospace Media Awards, a prestigious platform that offers the recognitions to the Excellence in Journalism in the arena of Aerospace & Defence around the Globe.

Honoured in sharing the fact that a total of seven articles written by SP GUIDE PUBLICATIONS’ journalists have been short listed as the Finalists in the categories of:

Best Business Aviation Submission

Best Military Aviation Submission

Best MRO Submission

Best Propulsion Submission

“It’s an honour for having been selected as at the least seven finalists in at the least four categories by one of the most renowned and the most prestigious Aerospace Media Awards’ platform in the world. This clearly reflects and reinstates our commitments towards Excellence through Enlightening, we have been following since last 56 years and are poised to rigorously following the same for coming years and coming decades.”

—JAYANT BARANWAL, EDITOR IN CHIEF, CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR, SP GUIDE PUBLICATIONS

8 7 6

number of short listed finalists: SP GUIDE PUBLICATIONS versus global leaders

5 4 3 2 1 0

SP Guide Publications

FlightGlobal

IHS Jane’s

Aviation Week Group

>> INDIGENISATION

DefExpo India 2020  Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd)

D

efExpo India 2020 is being organised for the very first time at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh. It is the 11th edition of DefExpo with SP Guide Publications as official media partner and the largest ever held. The exhibition is scheduled from February 5 to 8. The theme for DefExpo India is ‘India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub’.

Prime ­Minister Narendra Modi has said, ­“ DefExpo will provide opportunity to professionals and industry to find new meeting grounds for developing military industrial enterprises”.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had launched the DefExpo 2020 website on September 30, 2019 enabling the exhibitors to register and book space online as per their requirements on a first-comefirst-serve basis, make online payments, book conference halls and venues for Business-to-Business (B2B) meetings.

Concurrently, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had also launched mobile app for DefExpo 2020. DefExpo India 2020 is the largest showcase for new and future defence technology providing opportunity to defence companies to display their land, sea and air capabilities at a single venue.

What will attract Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Defence Micro

Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), researchers and investors is the size of the Indian defence market.

The Indian government is looking at achieving a turnover of `1.7 trillion in military goods and services by 2025 and the SP model is envisaged to capitalise this opportunity and contribute to ‘Make in India’ programme. The target also is to achieve export of `350 billion ($5 billion approximately) in defence goods and services by 2025. As per the military’s acquisition plans for next 10 years, industry is expected to acquire capital assets worth `15 trillion. Defence production in India is heading towards private sector participation but at a very slow pace because of vested interests. Attempts to corporatise

Best Business Aviation submission Our Journalist: Ayushee Chaudhary For the article: “Coming Full Circle Pole to Pole in Less Than 48 Hours” Our publication:

BizAvIndia

Our Journalist: Sudhir Rajeshirke For the article: “6 Reasons Why it Benefits All” Our publication:

AIRBUZ

Best Military Aviation submission Our Journalist: S.B. P. Sinha For the article: “India Finally Uses Military Option Against Terrorists in Pakistan” Our publication:

SP’s

aviation Best MRO submission Our Journalist: Byron Bohlman For the article: “MRO Asia Competition Heats Up” Our publication:

Best Propulsion submission Our Journalist: Rohit Goel For the article: “Electrical Propulsion to Shake up Aviation” Our publication:

SP’s

Civil Aviation Yearbook 2019 Our Journalist: A.K. Sachdev For the article: “Engine leasing” Our publication:

SP’s

aviation Our Journalist: Murali Sundaram For the article: “Sustainable Alternative Jet Fuels” Our publication:

BizAvIndia

AIRBUZ

* The first Asia Aerospace Media Awards will be presented in Singapore on the evening of February 11, 2020, in conjunction with Singapore Airshow 2020.

Following consistently and relentlessly the path of Excellence in Enlightening since 56 Years

the governmental defence-industrial organisations are stonewalled by trade unions supported by political parties due to vote-bank politics. Between 2015-16 and 2018-19 (April-October), out of total of 188 contracts, 121 contracts were signed with Indian vendors including Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs)/Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs)/Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and private vendors for capital procurement of defence equipment. The equipment to be procured included helicopters, naval vessels, radars, ballistic helmets, artillery guns, simulators, missiles, bulletproof jackets, electronic fuzes and ammunition.

DefExpo 2020 offers an excellent opportunity for the Indian defence industry to showcase its capabilities and promote its export potential. Though the main theme of the exhibition is ‘India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub’, the focus will be on ‘Digital Transformation of Defence’.

Uttar Pradesh already has four units of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd at Lucknow, Kanpur, Korwa and Naini (Prayagraj), nine ordnance factory units, including Kanpur, Korwa, Shahjahanpur, Firozabad and one unit of Bharat Electronics Limited at Ghaziabad. One of the two Defence Industrial Corridors (DICs) of India is also planned in Uttar Pradesh. The Corridor will encourage Defence Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), including Indian defence industry and promote Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs). The other DIC is proposed in Tamil Nadu. DPP 2018 was a step towards creating an industry-friendly structure to facilitate better contract negotiations and improve the pace of contract awards. Breakthroughs like Make procedure, strategic partnership (SP) model, liberalisation of FDI norms and creation of a level-playing to private industry have been introduced. However, the strategic partnership (SP) policy has several shortcomings which might create barriers in realizing the goals. Additionally, the offset policy encourages foreign vendors to engage in the complete transfer of technology arrangements with Indian offset partners has remained largely unmet.

As per the India Infrastructure Research, nearly $13.5 billion worth of defence offset obligations would be discharged in India by foreign OEMs in the eight to 10 years. India’s defence sector has been growing at a modest pace for the past few years. However, modernisation of the Armed Forces and indigenisation of manufacturing is emerging as focus areas. These segments are receiving the much-needed push under the ‘Make in India’ programme. This is an opportune time to embark upon a new phase of selfreliance in the sector by manufacturing technologically advanced equipment within India; providing attractive opportunities for co-development and co-production of defence equipment and systems not only for our defence forces but also for export to the world. Events in DefExpo are conducted at an international level, which not only facilitates Business-to-Business (B2B) interaction with senior foreign delegations but also Government-to-Government (G2G) meetings and signing of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs). DefExpo will provide an opportunity to the major foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to collaborate with the Indian defence industry and help promote ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Ministerial level delegations from the foreign countries and visitors from across India as well as abroad are expected to visit DefExpo 2020 and witness India’s emergence as a major manufacturing hub. SP

1/2020 SP’s Land Forces

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>> SPECIAL REPORTS

Indian Army Inducts First Lot of Locally-Assembled M777 Artillery Guns Photograph: PRO Defence Nagpur

 Vishal Thapar

T

he Indian Army has inducted the first lot of Indian-assembled 155mm, 39 calibre M777A2 ultralight howitzers (ULH). This also coincides with its first M777 regiment getting its full complement of 18 guns.

These artillery guns are meant to provide rapid response, 30-km range sustained firepower capability for mountain warfare.

The commencement of supply of these combat proven titanium artillery guns from an M777 Assembly Integration and Test (AIT) facility at Faridabad is a big landmark in the estimated $750 Million programme to equip the Indian Army’s mountain warfare formations with light artillery. The facility has been set up by BAE, the original equipment manufacturer, in partnership with Mahindra Defence & Aerospace and forms the core of the Make in India element for this deal.

After L&T’s Hazira establishment, the BAE-Mahindra AIT is only the second artillery manufacturing facility in the Indian private sector.

Under a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) Government-to-Government contract signed with the US in 2016, 25 ready-built guns are to be imported while 120 are to be assembled and partly manufactured in India. The estimate of the long-term Indian requirement is 450 ultra light guns.

“The first lot of 3 Indian-assembled guns were accepted last month as part of a batch of 6. This completes the delivery and induction of the first 18 guns in the first M777

M777A2 ULH at Firing Range Devlali in Nashik

regiment,” SP’s Land Forces has learnt from reliable sources.

Relocated from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in the US, the AIT facility was set up in discharge of offsets obligations in this deal worth over $200 Million. The Hattiesburg facility was shut down after manufacturing about 1,100 howitzers in use by the forces of the US, Canada and Saudi Arabia.

A reported 40 Indian companies have been brought into the BAE supply chain to meet

the M777 offsets commitments.

The gun barrel is being supplied by the US Army’s Watervliet Arsenal facility in New York. Under the Berry Amendment of the US Congress, the barrel of an American gun cannot be made outside of the US. The BAE-Mahindra AIT facility is also meant to ensure that life cycle support is available locally for the Indian Army M777s, thereby increasing operational availability of these weapons. “The facility

is a fundamental part of the M777 production line. A domestic Assembly, Integration and Test facility will enable the Indian Army to access maintenance, spares and support for the M777 locally,” Dr Joe Senftle, Vice President & General Manager, Weapon Systems, BAE Systems, said earlier.

“This arrangement involves the Transfer of Capability to the AIT facility in India...

This is a fundamental part of the M777 production line, and the only AIT facility for the M777 outside of the UK,” he said.

At 4,200 kg, the M777 is half the weight of a conventional 155mm towed gun, enabling it to be slung under helicopters for airlift to distant mountainous frontiers. The ultra light howitzer is intended to provide the principal artillery firepower to the Indian Army’s Integrated Battle Groups deployed in the mountains.

It was used in the recent high-altitude exercise codenamed Himvijay, conducted in Arunachal Pradesh to validate new concepts for mountain warfare. The principal external military challenges to India’s security and territorial integrity are along its disputed mountainous frontiers.

The Excalibur precision munition recently acquired for the Indian Army can also be combined with the M777, which is combat proven in Afghanistan. The Excalibur reportedly extends the range of this ultra light gun to about 40 km.

The first M777 guns were inducted in the Indian Army along with L&T-Techwin’s K-9 Vajra self-propelled tracked artillery in November 2018. SP

Biggest Make in India Programme for Indian Army Dropped Photograph: SP Guide Pubns

 Vishal Thapar

www.spslandforces.com

T

he biggest Make in India programme for the Indian Army to produce 2,600 Futuristic Infantry Combat Vehicles (FICVs) at an estimated cost of `60,000 Crore ($8.5 billion) under the Make-1 procedure has been dropped.

“Development Agencies could not be shortlisted as the financial and technical criteria were found to be subjective in the selection process,” Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik stated in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on December 11.

The mega procurement case, which is in the works since 2009 to replace the Soviet vintage BMP-IIs, has been pushed back to the Ministry of Defence for a de novo look for re-initiation under a different procurement category, SP’s Land Forces has learnt from official sources.

While “subjective criteria” is the official version cited for the derailment, sources have revealed that it was an attempt by a competing company to alter the terms of the competition which tripped the programme.

The FICV procurement was approved by the Ministry of Defence in 2015 under the Make-1 category, under which the Ministry was to have funded 80 per cent of the

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SP’s Land Forces 1/2020

Tata’s FICV mock up

development of prototypes by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and two other private companies shortlisted as Development Agencies through a selection process. The development cost to the Government was estimated to be about `3,000 Crore.

While the OFB would be assured of an order, the other two Development Agencies were required to compete for a tender after the development of prototypes.

The companies in the fray were Larsen

& Toubro, Pipavav (later Reliance), Titagarh Wagons, Tata Motors, Bharat Forge, Tata Power SED and Mahindra. Tata Motors and Bharat Forge teamed up for a consortium bid.

“One of the companies in contention made an unsolicited offer to develop the prototype on its own cost. Following this, two other contenders too offered to do the same.

These three companies sought a migration of the competition to the Make-2 category - in which no funding is required from the

Government for the development of a prototype - with an invitation to the same set of companies to compete,” an official disclosed.

Those running the programme felt a proposal which involved the saving of `3,000 Crore to the Government could not be overlooked and send the case back to the Ministry of Defence for reconsideration.

But the Ministry refused to “migrate” an ongoing programme to a different procurement process, nor restrict itself to the same set of bidders and has instead decided to consider the FICV programme de novo, holding that the older process was no longer valid.

This effectively means that the procurement has been pushed back to Square 1, where the case would have to be moved afresh under a different category, and perhaps with revised Army Staff Quality Requirements (ASQRs).

The ASQRs drafted in 2015 while initiating the Make-1 programme sought a compact, tracked and amphibious FICV, not heavier than 18-to-20 tons to enable transport into combat zones. It also specified a requirement of firing anti-tank guided missile at a range of 4 km, and space for a crew of three and eight combat-kitted infantry soldiers. SP

>> SPECIAL REPORTS

$930 Million Deal for 6 Apache Helicopter Gunships for Army Awaits CCS Approval Photograph: IAF

 Vishal Thapar

A

$930 Million deal for 6 AH64E Apache attack helicopters for the Indian Army is awaiting approval of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS).

The acquisition is intended to be on the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route with the US. The Indian Army, which wrested for itself the attack helicopter role after a bitterly-waged turf war with the Indian Air Force (IAF), had reportedly made a case for 39 Apache gunships for close air support to ground formations, particularly its strike corps. It will have an integral attack helicopter capability parallel to that of the IAF. The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) approved the case for the first lot of 6 for the Army Aviation Corps in August 2017. The subsequent acquisition process included US Congressional approvals. The Congressional approval for this sale in June this year had indicated an upper price limit of $930 million.

The first lot of 6 Apaches for the Army will be a follow-on order to the 22 contracted for the IAF in 2015. The first

File photo of an IAF AH-64E Apache attack helicopter

lot of 8 of these gunships were inducted into the IAF earlier this year and based at Pathankot. Delivery of all 22 will be completed in 2020.

The options clause in the 2015 contract

provided for acquiring another 11 but the Government approved only 6 for the Army.

Both the IAF and the Army are also awaiting contracts for the indigenous Light Attack Helicopter (LAH) built by HAL.

The induction of the attack helicopters will mark a significant scaling up of the Army Aviation capability and inventory. So far, it has operated the Cheetah-Chetak fleet and the Advanced Light Helicopter. SP

New Assault Rifles After 15 Years PhotographS: Rosoboronexport, Sig Sauer

 Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd)

M

edia reports of December 14 indicate that soldiers deployed on the borders with Pakistan and China have finally started receiving new assault rifles after a wait of almost 15 years. These happen to be ex import from US firm Sig Sauer, which is a slap on the indigenous governmental defence-industrial complex, particularly the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), who despite spending enormous amount of money in terms of crores of rupees over decades have not been able to produce a single small arm for the Armed Forces which could truly be classified state-of-the-art.

The Army has received the first consignment of 10,000 Sig Sauer assault rifles. A total of 72,400 of these rifles were contracted in February 2019 at the cost of 638 crore under the fast track procurement (FTP) route. The delivery of balance rifles is expected to be completed by February 2020.

Of these 72,400 rifles, Army is to get 66,400, Air Force share is 4,000 while Navy will get 2,000. These 7.62x51mm caliber Sig Sauer rifles with an effective range of 500 metre have been imported to meet the immediate operational requirement. These rifles incorporating modern technology are compact and easy to maintain in field conditions. The 7.62x51mm SIG716 rifles are an advanced assault rifle platform with a 16 inch barrel, M-LOKTM handguards and a six position stock. The SIG716 is currently available in patrol and DMR configurations. India is procuring the patrol rifle configuration in line with the request for information (RFI) that the Indian Army had issued in Febru-

AK-203

SiG 716 Assault Rifle

ary 2018. Out of the 72,400 x 7.62x51mm SIG716 assault rifles, Indian Army would receive 66,400, while Indian Air Force and Indian Navy would get 4,000 and 2,000 of these rifles respectively. The Armed Forces require 8.1 lakh assault rifles for the three services, out of which Army alone needs 7.6 lakh rifles to replace the INSAS rifles.

According to Alexey Krivoruchko, Chief Executive Kalashnikov Concern (formerly Izhmash), the firm had been interested in producing AK series of rifles in India since 2008 and had been having earnest discussions with Indian companies from 2015

to establish a joint venture in India. It may be recalled that in September 2018, media reported India rejected the “Russian” proposal to produce AK series of rifles in India in joint venture with the Adani Group. By then the government was already under severe pressure due to the Rafale controversy. When Kalashnikov actually made the offer to Adani Group was kept under wraps but had it been accepted, the need for go for the SIG716 assault rifles would probably not have risen. But MoD told Russia that Kalashnikov would have to tie up with a government entity i.e. OFB. The rejection bit

was possibly delayed to enable procurement of the SIG assault rifles simultaneously, not only keeping both the US and Russia happy, but also MoD bureaucrats with imports being the lucrative option. It also avoided possible accusations of favoritism towards the Adani Group, and gave a fillip to the OFB which has not been able to produce a single state-of-the-art small arm over past 72 years, though established in 1802 and presently having 1,64,000 employees. By getting OFB involved in this venture, MoD also could deflect from the rising concerns for the need to downsize the governmental defence industrial complex (DRDO-OFBDPSUs), which are sucking hugely on taxpayers money with grossly poor outputs despite MoD overseeing their functioning and joint secretary level MoD bureaucrats appointed to all the boards of these entities.

Most of the balance of the Army or rather the military is to be equipped with the AK-203 assault rifle being produced in India with Russian collaboration. Ordnance Factory at Korwa in Uttar Pradesh is to manufacture 7,45,000 AK-203 rifles, with effective range of 300 meter, in collaboration with Russia; a joint venture that may be worth over `12,000 crore. The Army is to get over seven lakh of these AK-203 rifles, Air Force 29,000 and the Navy 13,600. The final contract with Russia is likely to be signed in early 2020. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had earlier stated that The entire Army cannot be equipped with state-of-the-art assault rifles because of budgetary constraints. Since supply of seven lakh plus AK-203 will take some time, perhaps Army could review the decision unless it wants to continue with the 5.56 INSAS with a variety of faults. SP

1/2020 SP’s Land Forces

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>> Marketing feature

KORNET-EM NEW CAPABILITIES OF ANTITANK GUIDED WEAPONS

www.spslandforces.com

Development and manufacture of antitank guided weapons have been carried out for half a century all over the world. Within this period these guided missile systems have turned out to be in the demand and most popular type of high precision weapons due to combination of such advances as simple operation, reliability, pin-point guidance and affordability. High popularity of antitank guided weapons is easily explained by its capability to cause damage to the enemy that shall be crucially higher than friendly force expenditures. In fact one-two antitank guided missiles shall be enough to kill the enemy tank, missiles prices being by ten or even hundred times lower than that of MBT. Initially antitank guided missile systems were developed to fight tanks. However modern battlefield scenario has greatly changed - large-scale hostilities between tank armadas have given way to scattered fights in local conflicts. And on this new battlefield ATGW have appeared to be attractively effective not only against MBT but also against other small-size targets including lightly armored and soft vehicles, cars, fortifications, manpower, enemy infrastructure, fire points and snipers.

The Kornet-E weapon system developed by JSC “KBP named after Academician A. Shipunov” in the early XXI century remains to be one of the mostly demanded antitank missile systems in the world military market. Due to availability of a shaped-charge warhead primarily designed to engage heavy armor contributed by a thermobaric high explosive warhead of blast effect Kornet-E ATGW has become an effective defense and attack weapon capable to destroy a wide range of targets on the modern battlefield.

Open media read that the Kornet-E system, including self-propelled home-made versions, is being used intensively and effectively in the current local warfare in the Middle East against all and any military armaments, equipment and manpower (Figure 1).

However the current development trends put forward new tasks to be provided by this type of the weapon, including: extended effective firing ranges; improved mobility; guidance automation to reduce operator’s influence on the engagement success; “fire and forget” or “fire, see and adjust” features; capability to fight various aerial targets.

Oversea designers prefer to meet these requirements by mounting different guided weapon modules on lightly armored carriers. Herewith they mainly use missiles equipped with IR or TV seekers.

This approach has advantages and drawbacks, and the most serious trouble is high price of the

Figure 1 Firing Kornet-E ATGW from a vehicular platform

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SP’s Land Forces 1/2020

“expendable” part – a missile with a seeker causing significant financial expenditure to equip equal army units.

With a financial factor in mind and to solve the above tasks, JSC “KBP named after Academician A. Shipunov” has created the Kornet-EM multi-purpose missile system which realizes stat-of-the-art capabilities using breakthrough engineering solutions which allowed to obtain advanced ATGW with quite a number of new attractive features (Figure 2).

Main Technical and Performance Data Firing range by day and night, m - 9М133М-2 ATGM 150-8000 - 9М133FМ-3 GM 150-10000 - 9М133-1 ATGM, 9М133F-1 GM 100-5500 Guidance automatic, remote control in direct laser beam (beam rider technology) Jam-proof capability high Ammunition load, pc 16 including ready-to-fire missiles 8 Firing modes 1 missile from 1 launcher against 1 target 2 missiles from 1 launcher against 1 target 2-4 missiles from 2 launchers against 2 targets Possibility to fire Kornet-E ATGM yes Advancement of science and technology at the beginning of the XXI century gave birth to innovative technologies and new materials and thus allowed to realize “fire and forget” or “fire, see and adjust” principles without using a seeker onboard the missile due to alternative solution to have a target auto-tracker added to the ground-based equipment installed on board the vehicle. This approach allowed transfer seeker functions from an “expendable” part of the weapon system into its “constant” multiple-use part.

Machine vision plus the target auto-tracker increases target tracking accuracy by 5 times compared to the previous ATGW generation and thus provides for high fire accuracy at ranges up to 10 km.

Availability of an automatic target engagement mode shall reduce the Operator’s psychophysical problems, simplify requirements to his skills and thus shall cut the time required for training.

The crucial part of the new weapon system is its automated launching unit (ALU) designed on the principle of modular approach which have been always traditional for the Kornet family (Figure 3).

The main part of ALU is its sighting and guidance module (SGM) with televiewer and thermal imager channels (TV/IIR sight), four missile launching guides and independent elevation and azimuth drives. SGM is fixed on a special frame which together with a sliding roof is installed in the opening on the carrier roof. The frame has a lifting mechanism provided to put SGM up for firing and to return it back for travelling. This frame also houses various electronic components which control SGM and ALU operation in general.

On the move ALU has its travelling configuration with SGM located horizontally inside the vehicle and thus being invisible from outside. To fire, SGM shall be raised outside with the help of the lifting mechanism, put vertically and fixed to provide a firing position.

Two ALU carried by the vehicle are independent in operation and yet do not require one more operator. It offers the following advantages: only one operator is required to control both ALU; the weapon system can simultaneously engage two targets with different azimuth, range and elevation; 2-fold increase in the rate of fire and target engagement rate; capability to deliver fire to the one target and to search for another one simultaneously.

The ALU control is to be provided by the Operator from the Operator’s station inside the carrier, and it comprises a control console and LCD monitor.

Using this monitor the Operator observes the outside situation, searches for targets and provides target tracking. The operator can select a surveillance mode – using TV or IIR channel and either in a wide or in a narrow field of view. He shall use console controls to produce the following commands: to put ALU up into a firing position and to return it back inside, to start ALU laying vertically and horizontally; for the TV/IIR sight control and target tracking; for selected target tracking (in an automatic mode as well), missile selection, missile launch and guidance.

The main smart component of the ALU equipment is an information-management system which integrates the Operator’s console with SGM to provide a single system, delivers Operator’s commands to ALU actuating components and registers/controls ALU parts operational resource.

In the combat process the Operator shall detect a target on the monitor display, aim SGM at this target so as to put a target image inside a target auto-tracker gate, produce a target acquisition command to the target auto-tracker, select a missile type to be fired, and launch a missile when the auto-track-

Figure 2 Kornet-EM on Tiger-M Vehicle

>> Marketing feature

Figure 3 Automated launching unit (ALU) 1 – sliding roof; 2 – TV/IIR sight; 3 – missile guides; 4 – SGM; 5 – frame with lifting mechanism; 6 – electronic components; 7 – monitor; 8 – operator’s console

Figure 4 9М133М-2 ATGM

er is ready. When these steps are done the Operator’s job is finished: SGM shall be tracking a target and guide a missile to the target automatically by target auto-tracker commands. But if the Operator detects a more vital target he can stop automatic guidance and send the missile to a new target. Thus the Kornet-EM system offers “fire and forget” and “fire, see and adjust” principles realization.

New missiles have been developed to be used with this weapon system: the 9М133М-2 antitank guided missile with a flight range up to 8 km and the 9М133FМ-3 guided missile with a flight range up to 10 km. Moreover this weapon system has a “long arm” advantage, i.e. capability to effectively fight the enemy remaining safe beyond the enemy return fire.

In general the 9М133М-2 antitank guided missile (ATGM) has borrowed the design solutions from its predecessor used with the Kornet-E system. But it outperforms the latter in range being extended from 5500 m to 8000 m due to aeroballistics optimization, and also has a modernized shaped-charge warhead which provides 10% increase in armor penetration up to 1100 – 1300 mm. With this enhanced missile the Kornet-EM weapon system has obtained capability to engage all modern MBT enjoining possibility of high potential growth to counter future tanks with increased armor protection (Figure 4).

The 9М133FМ-3 guided missile turns out to be radically new in the class of missiles used with ATGW (Figure 6). It has an extended flight range up to 10 km, thermobaric WH of blast effect and it is equipped with a proximity fuse. The 9М133FМ-3 guided missile has been designed to engage various lightly armored and soft targets such as cars, buildings, bunkers, manpower, fortifications, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers as well as small size low level air targets like helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and others. In accordance with the selected target the Operator can switch off or switch on the proximity

Figure 5 Kornet-EM tripod version

Figure 6 9М133FМ-3 guided missile

fuse, i.e. one and the same missile can be used as against ground-based targets (proximity fuse is switched off – explosion shall be on impact) so as against aerial targets (proximity fuse is switched on – explosion shall be near the target).

The missile with a proximity fuse and a flight range of up to 10 km contributed by machine vision, high guidance accuracy and target auto-tracker available with ALU makes Kornet-EM obtain the innovative feature – capability to engage low velocity aerial targets (helicopters, UAV).

New capabilities of the Kornet-EM weapon system are well combined with the attractive features borrowed from its predecessor – Kornet-E ATGW based on the Kvartet Launching Unit – among them possibility of a salvo fire, i.e. engagement of a single target by two missiles riding in one and the same laser beam. This firing mode is very helpful to fight hard armor and the targets provided with an active protection system. Two missiles shall be launched from the same launching unit with a short time interval (less than 2 s), one missile shall initiate ERA and the second missile shall hit the target.

By now Kornet-EM ATGW has been proved in all required tests and is being serially manufactured and installed on the Tiger-M vehicle against the contract with the overseas Customer. Yet the ALU modular design allows integrate the Kornet-EM system with practically any vehicle, of foreign manufacture as well, provided the carrier load capacity and inside volume are enough to do it. In case a carrier load capacity is 1.0-2.0 tons single ALU shall be installed, if a load capacity is 1.7-1.9 tons it shall be possible to install two ALU. The comparative analysis of the mobile Kornet-EM version and its foreign equivalents shows that in traditional missions Kornet-EM outperforms the weapon systems, which use ATGW with a seeker to provide homing, by 3-5 times estimated on the basis of cumulative factors, and yet the Kornet-EM

is easier to use and to provide services to, has 2-3 times less price for its guided missiles being an expendable part of the weapon system and thus a crucial factor which determines weapon system service costs when it is in the army.

Moreover Kornet-EM is available as a tripod version with the 9P163М-2 launching unit. In this configuration Kornet-EM enjoys all the advantages of the Kornet-E system with the latter high capabilities that have been proved in the recent local conflicts (Figure 5).

The design of the Kornet-EM launching unit is practically identical to the one used with Kornet-E ATGW. Main upgrade efforts were undertaken towards modernization of the sighting and guidance unit (SGU) and the latter was developed to have a new sighting channel with adjustable magnification (12х and 20х) and thus to provide more convenient operation for the User at long target ranges. To ensure high guidance accuracy at 10 km range, the laser guidance channel has been also modernized.

Moreover, a new thermal sight – 1PN79M-3 – was designed to be of the third generation and configured for a closed-loop operation without cooling bottles as those used with the earlier Kornet-E thermal sight.

High design similarity between the Kornet-EM and Kornet-E launching units provides for minimized Customer’s costs of old system replacement by the upgraded one – practically there is no need to provide fresh training for users and technicians.

Pioneering technical solutions together with high guidance accuracy, formidable warheads, operation reliability and simplicity shall ensure high market demand worldwide as for the self-propelled version so as for the tripod variant of Kornet-EM ATGW for the next 10-15 years.

The advertorial is based on the article of N.I. Khokhlov, O. Y. Yastrebov, M.I. Andreev, N.V. Solovyev

1/2020 SP’s Land Forces

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>> TECHNOLOGY

The Future of Warfare From disruptive capability to increased survivability, the Indian Army seeks new technologies for a military edge Photograph: Boeing

 Vishal Thapar

relatively homogenous individual systems which can operate in a coordinated swarm for a common objective without any centralised guidance and control.

The activity of the ‘swarm’ is characterised by self-organising group behaviour based on simple rules. Interaction between the systems or agents comprising the swarm is through exchange of information either directly or via the environment.

A

midst a general view that it may have missed the bus on the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), the Indian Army has listed some of its modernisation priorities to India’s evolving Defence Industrial eco system in terms of key capabilities it needs to face future challenges. There is a realisation that superior technology will win future wars, and capability delivered by a balanced Defence ecosystem will determine India’s military options.

COUNTER-REMOTELY PILOTED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS (CRPAS)

LIQUID ARMOUR Ceramic-based armour plates used in contemporary body armour are heavy and bulky, restricting troop movement and causing fatigue. Liquid Armour - or Smart Fluids, when integrated with standard Kevlar body armour, reduces overall thickness by almost 50 per cent, offering troops increased protection with reduced mass, wider coverage area and greater ease of movement.

Liquid Armour with unique properties of shear thickening or dilatant fluids that ‘lock’ together when subjected to ballistic force, enhances energy absorbing capacity of materials like Kevlar. When integrated with Kevlar-like materials, the Liquid Armour restricts the motion of the fabric yarn in relation to each other, resulting in an increase in the area over which the impact energy is dispersed. Consequently, this is far less likely to distort than conventional body armour, which generally bends inwards when a bullet strikes, which prevents fatality but causes great pain.

The Smart Fluids used as Liquid Armour – Shear Thickening Fluids and Magnetorheological Fluids – are non-Newtonian.

STEALTH CAMOUFLAGE The Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been working on visual deception for long. It is reported to have made a breakthrough with ‘Invisibility Suits’. China and some other countries, too, are working on stealth camouflage.

Active or adaptive camouflage provides concealment from visual detection by adapting to the surroundings in order to achieve near invisibility for the personnel or objects to be concealed. This optical technology works by placing a thin screen between the observer and the concealed objects. Research in this field has reportedly been validated in concealment of tanks, aircraft and ships.

Tactical adaptive camouflage suits have reportedly been in use by US special forces.

Current capability is reported to hide objects from microwaves or infrared waves. Cloaking devices or Invisibility Suits are capabilities of the future.

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CASED TELESCOPE AMMUNITION The ideal load an individual soldier should carry is one-third of his body weight. On a mean case basis, it should not exceed 25 kg. The actual battle load lugged by an Indian soldier today is about 35 kg, including that of the personal weapon and Bullet Proof Jacket.

The Indian Army believes that current small arms technologies have plateaued, and no game changing technologies have been introduced over the past 50 years.

But a new small arms concept based on Cased Telescope Ammunition is set to provide a breakthrough in reducing Infan-

14

SP’s Land Forces 1/2020

Counter-electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project

try combat loads up to 40 per cent and increasing lethality. Unlike traditional brass casing, the new technology places a bullet inside a light weight polymer casing and fully encloses it in plastic. Also, the length of the polymer encased round is 30 per cent shorter than the brass-encased bullet.

But this new age ammunition is not useable in weapons that use brass shell casings.

Prototype rifles and machine guns have been developed by the American company Textron to showcase the new technology.

Publicly available accounts of the testing of these prototypes at the Kvarn Land Warfare Centre in Sweden suggest a 20 per cent tighter shot grouping and 30 per cent less ammunition to accomplish fire missions compared to the existing Swedish light machine gun. The prototypes were also rated higher in burst control fire, recoil reduction, trigger operation and ease of maintenance.

EXTREME ACCURACY TASKED ORDINANCE The US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has developed selfguiding maneuverable sniper bullets with real time guidance that can change course in flight while tracking a moving or accelerating target. This promises to revolutionise rifle accuracy and range with the objective of improving sniper effectiveness. The Indian Army is looking at acquiring this capability. Accuracy is vital for sniper firing because if a target is missed, the sniper risks giving away his position, thus endangering his own life and that of his fellow troops.

The new ‘Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordinance’ (EXACTO) appear to function in a similar manner to laser-guided bombs. A real time guidance system for .50 calibre manoeuvreable bullets allows the bullet to change course during flight as a corrective to any factor that may lead to missing the target.

EXACTO bullets are fitted with optical sensors positioned on the nose, which can guide mid-course correction for the projectile in flight through a series of external fins.

These are intended to “greatly extend the day and night time range over current stateof-the-art sniper systems” and dramatically reduce misses.

LONG RANGE MUNITION TECHNOLOGY The Extended Range Guided Munitions (ERGM) involves artillery rockets with independent motor propulsion for greater range, speed and accuracy. Guidance can be based on the Global Positioning System (GPS) or the Intertial Navigation System (INS) or could also use Radio Frequency (RF)-based sensors to home in on the targets.

Due to high costs of ERGMS, a desirable ammunition mix can involve dumb bombs fitted with a Course Correction Fuze. This adaptation can provide accuracies better than 50m using GPS or INS, representing a big leap over accuracy expectations from dumb bombs.

LONG ENDURANCE NEAR-SPACE RPAs Long Endurance Near Space RPAs which can fly long-duration sorties at heights of above 65,000 feet have been termed ‘Quasi Satellites’. Meant to fly in the ‘Death Zone’ which is too high for fuel powered manned jets and too low for satellites, these are intended to be low-cost alternatives to satellites.

Prototypes are being developed by Google Titan Aerospace Solara (US), Zephyr (UK) and CH-T4 (China). It is meant to be powered by electric engines in combination with solar panels. With envisaged improvement in technology of solar panels, light weight materials and increased battery capacity, the endurance of the RPAs is likely to increase from weeks into months and even years. The coverage swathe for these Near Space RPAs would be about 7,00,000 sq km, which for the reader’s reference is more than the size of Myanmar.

These could be used as a communications hub and an instrument to keep persistent surveillance over high stakes areas like the Line of Control. Other likely uses are as an Electronic Warfare platform and real time monitoring of disasters.

SWARM INTELLIGENCE With drone swarming set to define the future of warfare, the Indian Army is seeking Swarm Intelligence capability to overwhelm an enemy.

While the concept is in its nascent stage, the basic principles are woven around

An asymmetric and indeed disruptive threat is posed by the rapid proliferation of small, slow and low-flying Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPAs) which provide even poorly equipped combatants with aerial command of the battle space.

There are lessons from Syria and Iraq, where about half-a-dozen militias used RPAs to lethal effect, confounding battle hardened commanders. More recently, RPAs were used to deadly effect in Saudi Arabia to cripple a major crude refinery.

Traditional air defence systems which are geared to detecting fast moving manned aircraft or missiles are found to be ineffective against RPAs. That’s the critical void for the CPRAS to fill. CRPAS can be handheld, ground based and even mounted on UAVs. The last category is meant to interdict unmanned threats from the air from close proximity.

For CRPAS detection systems to be useful, these must trace all RPAs but not be so sensitive that they confuse even birds for a target. An overwhelming number of false positives can render the system unusable.

In future scenarios where legitimate UAV use is common and widespread, CRPAS detection systems would be required to differentiate between legit drones and potential threats.

DIRECTED ENERGY WEAPONS Among the non-contact weapons which will define the future of warfare, Directed Energy Weapons (DEWs) for non-kinetic destruction of targets will have a key place.

DEWs comprising high power lasers, high power microwaves, charged particle beams look set to be used to destroy a wide spectrum of targets spanning the tactical, operational and strategic domains.

These weapons will generate electromagnetic energy that can be precisely directed over long distances to disable or destroy targets. These will enable lethal direction of force at the speed of light.

Unconstrained by gravity or atmospheric drag, directed beams will be an extremely accurate weapon.

DEWs are expected to redefine futuristic Air Defence Systems to protect Vulnerable Areas & Vulnerable Points, with the use of static and mobile laser or high-power microwave weapons to intercept missiles and hostile aircraft.

These transformational weapons also have an application in sub-conventional warfare and counter-terrorist operations.

The world’s leading military power is known to have used High Power Microwave to neutralise or disable communications and electronic systems and IEDs used by terrorists. The kill mechanism is Microwave energy rather than explosion as with conventional weapons. The footprint of Microwave munitions is said to be at least 100 times greater than conventional weapons. SP

>> News in Brief Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh flags off 51st K9 VAJRA-T Gun from L&T Armoured System Complex in Gujarat Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh flagged off 51st K9 VAJRA-T Gun from Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Armoured System Complex at Hazira in Gujarat on January 16, 2020.

This was the 51st one delivered out of the total of 100. Addressing a gathering on the occasion, Raksha Mantri called for active participation of the private sector in defence manufacturing, reaffirming the Government’s commitment to make India an arms manufacturing hub and net defence exporter. While Rajnath Singh acknowledged the increasing participation of the private industry in defence production, he stressed that a lot still needs to be done to make India a global defence manufacturing hub. Rajnath Singh also listed out various far reaching reforms introduced by the Government under the ‘Make in India’ initiative to achieve $26 billion defence industry by 2025 and provide employment to 2-3 million people. “We wish to create an ecosystem that provides a platform to both public sector and private sector to work together and contribute to nation building through their strengths and experiences,” he added.

India and Finland ink MoU to enhance bilateral defence cooperation

Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence of Finland Jukka Juusti have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further defence cooperation between India and Finland on January 16, 2020. The MoU on co-operation in the field of Production, Procurement, Research and Development of Defence related Equipment and Industrial cooperation has been inked on the sidelines of Raisina Dialogue 2020. Under the broad ambit of the MoU, cooperation between Finnish companies and Indian Defence Public Sector Undertakings could be explored.

Pakistan extends deadline for delivery of T129 ATAK Helicopters Pakistan has agreed to extend the deadline for the delivery of 30 T-129 ATAK attack helicopters by one year, to allow Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) to work around a US veto on the re-export of their turboshaft engines.

TAI in 2018 signed a $1.5 billion contract to provide an initial batch of 30 T129 ATAK attack helicopters to Pakistan, assuming the US government would allow the re-export of their US-made LHTEC T800-4A turboshaft engines. However, the US is not allowing these

>> Show Calendar 4–5 February Asia Defence Expo & Conference Series (ADECS) Marina Bay Sands, Singapore www.asia-decs.com/about-adecs 5–8 February DefExpo 2020 Vrindavan Yojna, Sector 15, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India https://defexpo.gov.in 20–23 April Defence Services Asia Exhibition and Conference (DSA 2020) MITEC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia www.dsaexhibition.com

engines to be re-exported to Pakistan and TAI is now looking to Tusas Engine Industries, its sister company, to develop a new, indigenous engine to replace the T800.

Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM) Successfully flight-tested

H-drive, three steering axles, HITFIST turret with 25 mm cannon and advanced Command, Control and Communications systems by Leonardo, the “Freccia” VBM assures crews excellent mobility, protection and firepower. The contract marks the resumption of the supply of 381 vehicles to the Italian Army.

BAE Systems $2.68 billion contract for APKWS laser guided bombs

Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Jayant Baranwal Deputy Managing Editor Neetu Dhulia Senior Editorial Contributor Lt General P.C. Katoch (Retd) Senior Technical Group Editor Lt General Naresh Chand (Retd) Air Marshal B.K. Pandey (Retd) Group Executive Editor Vishal Thapar Staff Correspondent Ayushee Chaudhary

QRSAM system developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was successfully flight-tested from Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the Odisha coast on December 23, 2019. The missile was flight-tested with full configuration in deployment mode intercepting the target mid-air, meeting the mission objectives. The entire event was monitored by Ground Telemetry Systems, Range Radar Systems, Electro Optical Tracking System etc. The QRSAM weapon system, which operates on the move, comprises of fully automated Command and Control System, Active Array Battery Surveillance Radar, Active Array Battery Multifunction Radar and Launcher. Both radars are four-walled having 360-degree coverage with search on move and track on move capability. The missile is single stage solid propelled missile has midcourse inertial navigation system with two-way data link and terminal active seeker developed indigenously by DRDO. Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh and other senior officers congratulated the teams involved in the flight trials and development of QRSAM.

The CIO consortium signs contract for 30 “Freccia” 8x8 Medium Armoured Vehicles

Contributors India General V.P. Malik (Retd), Lt General Vijay Oberoi (Retd), Lt General R.S. Nagra (Retd), Lt General S.R.R. Aiyengar (Retd), Major General Ashok Mehta (Retd), Major General G.K. Nischol (Retd), Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (Retd), Brigadier S. Mishra (Retd), Rohit Sharma

BAE Systems announced that the US Navy has signed a $2.68 billion indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract for the purchase of thousands of additional APKWS Laser-Guided Rockets which are combatproven and low-cost precision munition. APKWS rockets fill the gap between unguided rockets and large precision munitions, and are the US government’s only programme of record for 2.75” laser-guided rockets. APKWS guidance kits are compatible with new inventories of rocket motors, warheads, and launchers, and easily transform unguided rockets into precision munitions with little training. The APKWS laserguided rocket is used by the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Army of the US. It is also available to allied nations via FMS.

Pentagon (DARPA) contract for Lockheed Martin Lockheed Martin Corp., Missiles and Fire Control, Texas, has been awarded a $31,938,845 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to support the Operational Fires Integrated Weapon System Phase 3 programme, which will enable capabilities for a mobile, groundlaunched tactical weapon delivery system capable of carrying a variety of payloads to a variety of ranges. Work is estimated to be completed by January 2021.

Boeing gets a FMS contract for Apache AH-64E

The contract for the purchase of 30 “Freccia” 8x8 Medium Armoured Vehicles (5 in Combat version and 25 in Anti-tank version) with ten years integrated logistics support was signed Italy’s General Secretariat of Defence and National Armaments Directorate. The “Freccia” VBM is an 8x8 Armoured Infantry Fighting Vehicle (AIFV) of proven reliability in its various versions (Combat, Anti-tank, Mortar Carrier and Command Post). Due to a hull designed to provide maximum protection, a powerful Iveco engine coupled with the traditional

Boeing won a $564.5 million FMS to the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates and the UK for the remanufacture of Apache AH64E aircraft. AH-64 Apache is used by the US Army and a growing number of international defence forces. In July, the US Army revealed its plans of granting the company a multiyear contract to remanufacture up to 600 Apache AH-64E helicopters, although no value was disclosed with the news. Boeing’s AH-64 Apache has widely been accepted by several militaries across the world. This company secured major orders for this product from the Netherlands, the UAE and the UK, earlier this year. Work is estimated to be completed by March 1, 2025. SP

APPOINtMENTs Lt General Satinder Kumar Saini Assumes Appointment of VCOAS Before assuming the appointment of Vice Chief of the Army Staff, the General Officer was heading the Southern Command of the Indian Army.

Lt General Satinder Kumar Saini is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and the Indian Military Academy. He was commissioned into the 7th Battalion, The JAT Regiment in June 1981. He brings with him an enormous amount of experience in serving in the most challenging areas. In his last appointment as GOC-inC, Southern Command, he steered transformation of the Operational Philosophy of the Southern Army to overwhelm the emerging threats and validation of many new concepts during training exercises.

The General Officer is a graduate of the Army Command and Staff Course at the Staff College, Camberley in UK and has studied at the Royal College of Military Science, Shrivenham, UK. He is also a graduate of the Higher Command Course and the National Defence College, Bangladesh.

Chairman & Managing Director Jayant Baranwal Executive Vice President (Planning & Business Development) Rohit Goel Manager – HR & Admin Bharti Sharma Assistant Manager – HR & Admin Pooja Tehlani Deputy Manager – Circulation Rimpy Nischal Group Research Associate Survi Massey Creative Director Anoop Kamath Design Vimlesh Kumar Yadav, Sonu Singh Bisht Group Director – Sales & Marketing Neetu Dhulia Deputy Director – Sales Rajeev Chugh SP’s Website Sr. Web Developer: Shailendra P. Ashish Web Developer: Ugrashen Vishwakarma Published bimonthly by Jayant Baranwal on behalf of SP Guide Publications Pvt Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, photocopying, recording, electronic, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publishers.

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