Contracts signed with the indigenous defence industry have seen a three-fold jump in the last four years and the domestic market can potentially bag contracts worth Rs 8 lakh crore within the next decade, Army chief General Manoj Pande said on Thursday.
In an interaction with a small group of journalists on the sidelines of the DefExpo-2022, Gen Pande said there are growing opportunities for the defence industry and this is demonstrated by Rs 40,000-crore worth Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for major defence procurements getting cleared and with the signing of indigenous contracts worth Rs 47,000 crore last year.
“I would say that to modernise, we need to indigenise,” he said, adding that indigenisation is an opportunity, not an impediment.
Lessons from Russia-Ukraine war
The Army chief said that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war had brought with it several lessons, including the need to achieve self-sufficiency and not to have foreign dependence for fresh capital procurements or for sustenance, which includes getting ammunition and spares to keep its weapon systems and equipment running.
“We are working towards indigenisation of ammunition and looking for alternate sources of spares (for equipment and weapon systems),” he said, adding that it would provide a good opportunity for the Indian industry.
The Army, he said, is looking for proven systems which can be inducted into the force within six months, as well as new technologies.
Partnership with private industry
The Army chief said the force is taking efforts to narrow down on additional areas in which the force can cooperate with the private industry so that the relationship between the two evolves from that of a buyer-seller to a partnership.
“We are handholding smaller startups, making trial and testing procedures easier, making firing ranges available and making the conduct of ‘no cost, no commitment’ demonstrations easier in forward areas so that industry is able to understand our operational environment better,” he said.
Responding to a query from News18 on emergency procurements, the fourth round of which would be from domestic vendors, Gen Pande said the Indian industry has stepped up to the challenges significantly to address the needs of the Armed Forces.
Stating that emergency procurements were made to address critical operational requirements for frontline troops deployed along the northern borders, Gen Pande said contracts worth Rs 6,000 crore were already signed in the last three rounds and the process has worked well.
“I feel the requisite framework and provisions are in place and we will have to implement it on the ground and convert it into a tangible success story,” he said.
New technologies
Talking about new technologies the Army is looking to induct, Gen Pande said there is a requirement for equipment and platforms for intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance roles, including UAVs, counter-drone systems, ground-based surveillance systems and radar systems as well as special armament such as loitering munitions.
“We are also looking at mobility solutions, especially in forward areas to get better equipment to respond to contingencies in a quicker time frame, such as all-terrain vehicles,” he said.
Unmanned ground vehicles, logistics drones, see-through armour, new rocket systems, a variety of ammunition, and software-defined radio sets which are less prone to jamming are among the other equipment which the Army is interested to procure as part of its modernisation plans.
The Army chief said that the design, development and manufacturing of defence systems have four pillars, which are resource allocation, enabling policies, viable market, and competition.
“We are striking a good balance between these two and drawing out a list of the cases we can look at,” he said.
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