Dept of defense research and development is headed by secretary who is the Scientific advisor to the Defence minister.

Missiles:

1. Nirbhay: first indigenously designed long range subsonic cruise missile with a range of 1000 km.
2. Helina: Anti tank guided missile
3. Brahmos: Two staged missile with a solid propellant booster engine [first stage] and liquid ranjet [second stage] with a range of 290 km.
4. Tejas [ Light combat aircraft]:  indeginously developed.
5. Agni V: Inter continental ballistic missile with range of 5000km.
6. Akash: Surface to air missile with range of 25 km.
7. Astra: Air to air missile being developed.
8. Prithvi - Surface to surface
9. Nag - Anti tank missile
10. Varunastra - Anti submarine torpedo
11. K-15 sagarika - Underwater missile
12. Prahaar, Shaurya - Surface to surface
13. Dhanush - Naval version of prithvi
14. Trishul - Surface to air, Anti aircraft

Defence Procurement Policy: Strategic Partner Model

Make in India aims to boost the indigenous production of defence equipments. In this the private sector of India shall have a critical role. A Strategic Partner model was proposed that envisages selection of an Indian private sector company that would get all contracts of manufacturing for a long period of 20 years. This means that if an Indian company like Tata is selected then it would get permission to manufacture helicopters for the army or airforce for the next 20 years. Such a commitment can encourage private sector companies to manufacture in India.

However opposition to this move is also strong due to the following points:

1. Monopoly to a single company should be avoided.
2. For each equipment 2-3 companies should be shortlisted. This shall create competition and price discovery is possible.
3. There could be legal challenges by all other private companies that were not shortlisted.
4. The Ministry of defence cannot clear this proposal as it is worth more than Rs. 1000 crore and therefore has to be cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security.

Due to this delays many defence projects are struck.

Defence Exports: Problems and the Future Path

The Defence Minister Parrikar has set a target of 2 billion dollars for the export of Indian defence equipments. This would mean an increase of 6 fold from the current exports. The main steps taken by the Government so far to achieve this are:

1. Removal of 2/3rd of items from the military goods lists so even private and foreign players can manufacture them without licence.
2. No No objection certificate is required for dual use items i.e. goods that are usually used for civilian purposes but may have military applications as well such as GPS.
3. Most important step taken was dilution of norms related to end user licence. Earlier when an Indian company would export to a foreign company it had to get the end user certificate signed from the foreign company and the foreign government. This requirement made Indian made goods less attractive as the procedure was difficult.
4. Now the Government has changed the rule so that only critical Indian technology when exported would need to be signed by the Foreign government. The Indian Defence PSU’s are burdened with domestic orders and so can’t meet the export demand. However now they have been given a 10% dispensation for exports. This shall help create a foreign demand.
5. Indian manufactured military platforms which can have a good demand face a problem as the IPR on the technology is held by foreign companies. BrahMoS which is designed, developed by India can’t be exported as for this purpose approval of the BrahMoS board is needed.

Recent efforts have been taken to ensure that Indian private manufacturers are involved in the manufacturing of defence equipment for the military. These Industries have been taken on board the foreign delegations for discussions on defence between Government to Government.

The other major problems seen by the Indian defence exporters is that the Government doesn’t allow for exporting of Equipments currently in use by the Indian army to neighbouring countries. The mindset of Indian political institutions too has to change as foreign firms have shown interest in manufacturing in India but the bureaucracy and the politicians have to work in tandem to ensure this happens in reality.

Joint Exercises

Joint Military Exercises conducted in the Army in 2016

1. Shakti - Indo french military exercise
2. Surya kiran - Indo Nepal exercise
3. Garuda Shakti - Indo Indonesia exercise
4. Force 18 - Indo ASEAN
5. Maitree - Indo Thailand
6. Yudh Abhyas - Indo US
7. Prabal Dostyk - Indo Kazakh
8. Indra - Indo Russia

Q.Which one of the following is the best description of ‘INS Astradharini’, that was in the news recently? (UPSC CSAT 2016)

• Amphibious warfare ship




• Nuclear-powered submarine




• Torpedo launch and recovery vessel




• Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier

Ans . C

1. Indigenously built Torpedo Launch and Recovery Vessel ‘INS Astradharini’ commissioned in October 2015.

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