By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd) Former Director General of Information Systems, Indian Army

LCH hot and high altitude trials in Leh in September 2015

According to Ministry of Defence's (MoD) annual report, the defence public sector untertakings (DPSUs), Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and private sector companies exported military products worth Rs 1,397 crore in 2015. In fact, the report mentions that military hardware exports touched that mark just in nine months — between April and December 2015. Also, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) issued industrial licenses to 190 companies till January 2016, of which 50 companies with 79 licenses have started production.

In a recent interaction with media,Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar talked about his aim to go for more defence exports and systems from India, gist of which is: DPSUs have been told that 10 per cent of their products can be exported — no need to supply 100 per cent to armed forces; his intention is to increase defence exports by DPSUs by increasing their production — this would not hamper armed forces; production of Akash missile has been increased from 200 to 500 and in two years will be 800; output from OFs has increased from Rs 43,000 crore to Rs 51,000 crore since he took over as Defence Minister — this improvement is accompanied with about 10 per cent reduction in manpower, per head production improvement between 33 per cent to 35 per cent in two years; need to become trusted suppliers with good quality and uninterrupted supplies, and; letters have been sent by him to many countries offering LCA Tejas for export, exhorting the excellent qualities of the fighter aircraft.

Parrikar also told media that the Rafale deal will be concluded soon at substantially lower cost than being talked about.According to MoD's annual report, final figures for the fiscal ending 31 March 2016 are yet to be tabulated but exports during 2014-15 were valued at Rs 994 crore. The report also lauds the role of private companies in the defence sector, stating that the exports by the sector with accelerated growth in 12-14 companies.

Major items being exported include offshore patrol vessels (OPVs), Cheetal helicopters, spares for radars, turbo chargers and batteries, electronic systems, light engineering mechanical parts and personal protective items of items like helmets, bulletproof jackets and other types of clothing. Countries to which defence exports are being done are Afghanistan, Algeria, Belgium, Britain, Ecuador, Indonesia, Israel, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Sudan and Vietnam.

With respect to the MoD annual report and the Defence Minister's interaction with the media, following are relevant: the figure of export of Rs 1,397 crores during 2015 doesn't mention what value exports were by DPSUs-OFB and what value by private companies — separate figures would have indicated which entity has made substantial progress; it is good to know defence exports are going up but what is the contribution to make up critical voids of the military must be focused upon — merely saying increased exports will not harm armed forces is not enough as commercialised entities are only interested in how much money can be made. For example meeting the advanced light helicopter (ALH) requirements of the military first got sidelined because of exports; a recent Eurpean Union study has revealed that 51 companies globally including seven India firms were 'legally' exporting components used by Islamic State (ISIS) to build improvised explosive devices (IEDs) — surely value of such goods should not be part of our defence export figures; the Defence Minister would do well to remember that the Akash missile was developed since early 1980s to replace the Russian Kvadrat system to provide air defence cover for mechanized force in manoeuvre battle, in which it failed completely. So while the Akash may be exported for static air defence role, replacement for Army's obsolete Kvadrat system needs high priority; theIndian Air Force (IAF) is down to 25 squadrons against the authorized strength of 45, and while physical induction of 36 x Rafale would take considerable time, the first 120 Tejas must be inducted on priority into IAF before getting into exports, and; MoDs report mentions bullet proof jackets being exported by private companies — what a pity that our army has a critical void of over 3,50,000 of them.

Defence Minister Parrikar's first priority should be equipping our military — neglected horribly last decade and a half. Defence exports can then go side by side. Increasing production is one way but then there are limits especially in the governmental defence-industrial sector. As the Defence Minister said if we can ensure quality and adequate supply, defence exports will certainly go up. It is heartening to know that Japan and some other countries have evinced interest in our indigenous light combat helicopter (LCH) that is an attack helicopter, has successfully flown at a height of 4.8 km and landed on a forward base in Siachen Glacier area with adequate weapon load. The LCH has completed performance trials and is headed for Final Operational Clearance (FOC). The IAF and the Indian Army are reportedy procuring 114 and 65 of these LCH respectively. On balance, while defence exports are looking up and future opportunites will be plentiful, focus should not be lost from retrieving the military from the 1962 like levels of equipping.

Photo Credit: HAL