SHOCK WAVES IN DRDO: Perform or Perish is the New Mantra

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Former DRDO Chief Dr. Avinash Chander

The government's decision to sack Chief Controller of DRDO Dr. Avinash Chander has shaken the defence establishment and sent shock waves through the Defence Public Sector units (DPSU's), it even caught Dr. Chander offguard. The all important DPSU's which is in a way the secondary line of defence of the nation following the armed forces, have been literally hijacking the development and manufacture of defence related equipment in the country. There is a severe lack accountability in these organisations and DPSU's have never been put through a stringent science audit. Over the past several decades there has been virtually nothing noteworthy the DPSU's have contributed to strengthen the nations security against two potent adversaries on either side of our borders. Our safety & security can only be attributed to the resolve and bravery of our armed forces who have been stacked against all odds over the years in the defense of the nation.

Lt Gen Harwant Singh (retd), in a scathing report said "DRDO in stand-alone mode has achieved little and will not be able to meet the future needs of the armed forces. It has shown little skill and capability in the field of even reverse engineering of comparatively simple equipment. This is legacy of the Nehruvian policies of entrusting all this to the public sector (DRDO in this case). Since then vested interests have opposed any change in this moribund policy".

So why did the government sack Dr. Avinash Chander?

• Was he inefficient as an administrator
• Did he indulgence in corruption? 
• Was he advocating cronyism or nepotism in his administrative capacities? 

It is an emphatic no? On the other hand, it is a perceptible and overt message to all concerned that this government means business when it comes to critical results and does not brook any compromises or delays! Besides, such an earth shattering event has never occurred in the history of any defense public sector units in the country. There is a unvarying notion that government run agencies are holy cows which cannot be touched by any departmental agency or for that matter execution of extemporary government termination of personnel is an inconceivable notion, has been shattered by this singular action. Simple, this dispensation is unlike any other the country has seen, it is marked by a strong intent and purpose and principally it gives great emphasis on national security and national interest. It is notable to mention that this decision was not executed by any powerful bureaucrat or under-secretary in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) but by the nation's Defence Minister himself, of course the green signal must have come from the PM who must have authorized the exit of the chief controller. In short, the sacking of the DRDO chief had a strong corporate typecast flavor to it, perform or perish.

LCA Tejas Naval Prototype NP-1

The death knell was sounded in August 2014, the PM had sent a strong feeler to the DRDO, attacking its “chalta hai” (laid-back or lackadaisical) culture, asking it to complete projects before or on time to put India ahead in the world. The Prime Minister also added “The world will not wait for us. We have to run ahead of time. That is why whatever we do, we should try hard to do it before time. It should not be so that a project is conceived in 1992 and in 2014 (we say) it will take some more time. The world will go ahead.”

DRDO has faced criticism for the past several years for delays and cost over-runs in crucial projects for the armed forces. Though Dr. Chander was one of the most prominent scientists in the country and the developments indicate that the government was not happy with the performance of the DRDO and Avinash Chander as its chief. Mr. Chander is one of the key scientists behind the Agni missile project including the 5,500 km-range Agni-V ICBM that had given the country a credible nuclear-capable deterrent against China.

A report by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence presented in Parliament on December 22, 2014, had criticised DRDO for chronic inefficiency and delays in executing numerous programs. The committee said "projects are not executed according to their schedule, and inordinate delays in execution of almost all the projects [are] common phenomena".

Some of the critical projects that have been subject to endless delays include: (Please note that this is not an exhaustive list but an indicative one)

• Nearly 70% of our defense equipment is imported and this includes even low-technology items
• Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas fighter, a much delayed project was conceived in 1990 and the LCA-Tejas has taken more than two decades to evolve as a credible fighting system and it is still limping toward its crucial Final Operational Clearance (FOC) which has been pushed for the umpteenth time to December 2015.
• In the same vein the Naval version of the fighter has seen inordinate delays owing to downright shortsightedness on the part of ADA in its design, development and implementation phases.
• The failure of the Kaveri engine is a great setback to DRDO, however developing an afterburning turbofan engine is a very sophisticated technology to master, even developed countries like France struggled to develop a new turbofan engine. Snecma a seasoned player and prominent engine developer with several decades of experience of various engine types, took more than 15 years to perfect its M88 engine for the Rafale. DRDO should have set realistic targets with regard to the Kaveri engine and because of this lack of foresight the program had to be eventually cancelled, though the engine is still being used for other applications.
• The failure of DRDO to provide reliable and effective modern guns to the armed forces
• Arjun Main Battle Tank program, the delay cannot be entirely blamed on DRDO, the Army has shown great animosity for the indigenous tank program and favored imports (there is so much money to be made in imports) more clamantly, the army due to its misplaced idiosyncrasies has been back pedaling on the induction of sizable volumes of the tank since it had set unrealistic targets for DRDO. However, DRDO has also delayed on the technologies that had to be developed in its development.
• Advanced Air Defence (AAD) & Prithvi Defence Vehicle (PDV) ballistic missile defense system has gone into deep slumber mode. The last AAD test was conducted in November 2012 and the PDV in April 2014.
• Intermediate Jet Trainer IJT-SITARA delayed due to design blunders (HAL Stakeholder)
• Development, testing and induction of Arjun MK-2 & MK-3 
• K-4,K-5 & K-15 Series of Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBM) test and induction
• Delay in testing and induction of NAG anti tank guided missile (ATGM) for the Army, to compensate for the delay India is procuring Spike ATGM missiles from Israel
• Rustom-II UAV test and induction
• India's concept super secret AURA stealth Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (Stealth Bomber) prototyping to be completed
• Completion of Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) System
• 155mm Gun test and induction
• INS Arihant test and induction
• AMCA test and induction
• Astra MK-1 & MK-2 test and induction
• Induction of Long Range Surface to Air Missile BARAK-8 in collaboration with Israel yet to be inducted
• Multi-Caliber Gun test and induction
• Advanced Sub Machine Gun test and induction
• F-INSAS test and induction
• Future infantry fighting Vehicle for the Army test and induction
• HTT-40 Trainer test and induction (HAL Stakeholder)
• Light Combat Helicopter test and induction (HAL Stakeholder)
• 12 tone Class Utility Helicopter test and induction (HAL Stakeholder)
• Light Utility Helicopter development, testing and induction (HAL Stakeholder)

Unless the government takes concrete steps to resolve issues that exists in DRDO and the status quo broken, the Prime Minister’s expectations of India developing high-end defence equipment and becoming self reliant in this field will only remain a pipe dream.

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India's Missile Armory

INTRODUCTION

If we naive Indians have to aver the barb of Mr. Gary Milhollin who doesn't fail to incessantly purport ad nausea in various fora across the US in the hope that we would sublimely come to believe that the American military and space program has been a squeaky clean effort. Pitifully and regrettably it is not so. He jibes that the Indian civilian space and later military programs have been offshoots of generous help rendered by the western space powers, especially the US, Germany and France. However, what he his figuratively trying to convey is rhetorical, deceptive and discriminating in its agenda. Agreed, India may have taken some technical aid from other nations to develop its nascent civilian space program, but discounting India's genuine effort thereafter to develop technology is certainly selective amnesia. Interestingly, America did not develop its space or military ballistic missile programs on its own, it however leapfrogged to acquire high technology solutions in space and defense by resorting to ignominious means.

PROOF IN THE PUDDING

Modern rocketry started with the ambitions of an obnoxious and direful psychopath who wanted to dominate the world. His name - Hitler. He wanted to possess a super weapon to quash the allied countries. The man who would help Hitler realize this dream was a Nazi rocket scientist named Wernher Magnus Maximilian von Braun or commonly known as Wernher von Braun, an avid Nazi sympathizer. He developed the V-2 or Aggregat-4 long-range ballistic missile perhaps one of the greatest technological achievements of this century. After the fall of the “Third Reich”, American soldiers captured von Braun and some of his key associates, and the prized catch was clandestinely shipped to America. The Americans brought over 300 trainloads of spare V-2 parts to the United States from Nazi Germany. Much of von Braun's production team was also captured by the Soviets. Wernher von Braun and his compatriots war careers as Nazis was deceitfully hidden from the public by the US government. In White Sands, New Mexico, von Braun and his team trained and tested rockets for the US military and for several years went about launching captured V-2 rockets. Before 1945, neither the Americans nor the Soviets had any extensive advanced rocket facilities or programs and it was von Braun and his team who were instrumental in developing this capability. Hence, the early American rocket program development is steeped in so much muck that even the Americans would want to forget and disown it. This could be the very reason why Mr. Milhollin fails to mention this fact even as a supplementary note in his speeches on the subject of proliferation.

India has a very solid non-proliferation record unlike China or Pakistan in the region as its institutions are bound by solid democratic principles governed by rule of law and its decision makers have complete legislative power over these entities. India has been a very responsible and stable nuclear power right from its inception and until this day. The authors' contention and concern on the risk that cooperating with India (this was way back in the 1990's) could contribute to the spread of missile technology was rather unfounded. On the other hand, when Pakistan illegally started developing its atom bomb in response to India's own nuclear weapon status, by either stealing, smuggling or rummaging the international market for machinery, parts and components, the Americans conveniently turned the proverbial blind eye thus encouraging Pakistan to develop what is now known as the "Islamic Bomb". This was permitted by the US in the name of its National Interest policy. Other intervention policies like the support to the Afghan Mujaheddin has backfired with severe ramifications which eventually led to the 9/11 massacre of several thousand innocent Americans. On the question of China, these guys supplied Pakistan with sophisticated gas centrifuges to enrich uranium and in turn, Pakistan sold this technology to Iran and Libya via the A Q Khan network in the name of “Islamic Brotherhood”. The US did not take Pakistan to task then, when A Q Khan openly sold other nuclear technology secrets to the so-called “Rouge State” North Korea, all it did was to impose punitive sanctions, which the Pakistanis cared less. Pakistan continued trading in illegal weapons despite these sanctions since it was aware that the US would not alter its "friendly" relationship with it because of the ongoing war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The US is dependent on Pakistan for logistics support.
Pakistani weapons trade with North Korea is rather amusing since the technology exchange followed was a sort of archaic barter system; Pakistan got critical ballistic missile technology from North Korea in exchange for Pakistan’s nuclear know-how.
The Americans have failed to realize that they are bound to face an impending nuclear attack not from India, Russia, China, North Korea or even Iran but sure as shooting from Pakistan. Realizing rather late US and its cohorts are hastening ways and means to secure Pakistan’s dirty bombs, especially given Pakistan’s vacillation between being ruled by a trigger happy military junta and the fair chance of being overrun by religious zealots who by all means will not hesitate to use these nuclear assets against India, Israel and the US.
Hence, it is imperative that India develops and maintains a minimum qualitative and quantitative credible nuclear deterrence and defense program in whatsoever manner against its adversaries, taking into account its long term strategic and security requirements as a responsible emerging global power.

(Gary Milhollin-Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School and Director, Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control in a discourse before the House Committee on Science, June 25, 1998)

PROJECT "DEVIL" & "VALIANT"

India’s quest to develop a short-range ballistic missile started way back in the 1970’s when the Project “Devil” and Project “Valiant” were conceived. These projects were the precursor of the more transparent and successful Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGMDP) conceived by former President of India Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, which was launched in 1983. It is generally believed that the Defense Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), which had begun in 1958 and later, transpired into what is now DRDO intended to reverse engineer the Soviet Union’s S-75 Dvina ballistic missile. This is not the case, as India never had the policy to either reverse engineer nor adopt crafty branding techniques of bought out weapons as being done by other nations to bolster its offensive aspirations. Project “Valiant” died an early death and Project “Devil” continued with secretive government funding and support. The project was a partial success, however plenty of new technologies, design competence, materials and components development and production techniques were realized during its development, which laid ground for the more successful Prithvi and Akash programs.

Though there are several imported missiles in the armed forces, I have however focused exclusively on the systems developed indigenously.

The task to develop several technologies was difficult for the Indian scientists as they did not have prior expertise, industrial infrastructure nor the production efficiency to develop high-tech machinery, components, subsystems and products. But with customary resolve they solved daunting problems successively and developed truly world class products for the armed forces. Over the past decade development of critical technologies has been accomplished on a trial and error basis, similar to the proven model of repetitive testing adopted by the erstwhile Soviet space and defense scientists to prove the efficacy of new technologies. Therefore, delivery schedules of some final products has suffered to reach the end-users on time and as a result DRDO and its related agencies have invited considerable flak. However, in most of the cases the rebukes are rather unmindful, unfair and unjustified.

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SHORT RANGE BALLISTIC MISSILES

Images: DRDO

PRITHVI-I

Prithvi-I "Earth" in Sanskrit is a theater class short-range, road-mobile, liquid-propelled ballistic missile with two motors clustered next to each other as a single stage configuration. Prithvi was the first missile to be developed under the IGMDP. It has a warhead mounting capability of 1,000 kg and a range of 150 km. It has an accuracy of 10 – 50 meters and can be launched from a transporter erector launcher. It was inducted into the Indian Army in 1994. This missile will be phased out once the more capable and accurate Prahar missile completes its development process. The Prithvi-I will be later upgraded and used for longer ranges.

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