Indian Army's modernisation drive: Key defence projects on 'Make in India' path

NEW DELHI: The Army is now trying to go "desi" with a vengeance. Long dependent on foreign military hardware for its combat capabilities, the 1.18-million strong force's new mantra is indigenization in tune with the NDA government's ' Make in India' policy.

The Army, lagging far behind the much-smaller Navy and IAF in the modernization drive, has now also prioritized 26 procurement schemes that need to be fast-tracked. Seven projects, including acquisition of 155mm howitzers, air defence guns and light utility helicopters, have been placed in the "critical" category, while there are 11 in the "important" and eight in the "essential" ones.

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Though some of these requirements will have to originate from abroad, the aim is to ensure there is a major Make in India component wherever possible. With "a relatively much larger range and depth of inventory" than the Navy and IAF, the Army is "most suited" to meet its needs of platforms, systems and munitions through indigenous production.





"No nation can aspire to achieve great power status without a versatile indigenous R&D and defence production base...the Army is pursuing an ambitious indigenization drive," said General Dalbir Singh Suhag, ahead of the Army Day on Friday.

Some inroads have already been made. "We have signed 73% of procurement contracts in the past few years with Indian companies. In fact, in the last one year, this has risen to 87%. In terms of value, 55% of our modernization budget has been spent on the Indian industry," he added.

With the government now revising the entire defence procurement procedure to bolster the country's fledgling defence industrial base, a new Army Design Bureau is also being established to work closely with Defence Research and Development Organisation ( DRDO) and Ordnance Factory Board ( OFB) to promote indigenization.

But it will take a lot of doing. India continues to import 65% of its military requirements because of the tardy performance of DRDO and its 50 labs, five defence PSUs, four shipyards and 39 ordnance factories as well as the inability to encourage the private sector to enter defence production in a big way.

The Army, however, says new beginnings are now on the anvil. The Army-DRDO-OFB combine have already come together to develop the desi howitzer called Dhanush, which is the electronically upgraded version of the original Bofors 155mm artillery gun with much better range, accuracy, reliability, angle of fire and shoot-and-scoot capabilities, as reported by TOI earlier.

Similarly, the K9 Vajra-T howitzer developed by L&T and Samsung Techwin is likely to bag the over Rs 5,000 crore order for the 100 such tracked self-propelled 155mm artillery guns. "The contract should be awarded soon," said an officer.

Officers say the bulk of the new projects, for which "acceptance of necessity" has been obtained or will be sought, are in the categories of "Make Indian" or "Buy and Make Indian". This includes the ongoing one for the FICV (future infantry combat vehicle) project as well as the FRCV (future ready combat vehicle) programme to meet the Army's "futuristic requirements beyond 2027", both of which run into tens of thousands of crores.