Steel, Strategy and Strength: A Dive into India's Defence Manufacturing Landscape

The Indian armed forces are the largest volunteer military forces in the world. They are composed of over 1.4 million active serving personnel across the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). A military of this size is essential for manning our borders, protecting our skies and safeguarding our interests in territorial waters and beyond.

Illustration by The Geostrata

The effective operation, sustenance, and maintenance of such a behemothic entity in the middle of a challenging neighbourhood such as ours can only be carried out if the technological capabilities of combat support and weapons systems are comparable to or better than those of our adversaries. 

Ideally, all these systems must be designed, developed, and produced entirely within our borders in order to ensure confidentiality, security, and operational autonomy. However, in the wake of its 75th anniversary of independence, India still remains highly reliant on imports in order to sustain its massive defence framework.

As of 2022, India is the world’s largest arms importer with an 11% share in the global total - an uptick from the 2019 figure of 9.2%.

While this highlights a favourable trend in our warfare capabilities, the massive dependency factor cannot be overlooked. The objective of this article is to look into the future and propose a host of solutions to improve the current state of affairs, rather than explain the background and circumstances. 

Speaking at the launch of the Acing Development of Innovative Technologies with iDEX (ADITI) scheme at New Delhi on March 4 2024, Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh stressed that “[India is] acquiring technology from various countries through Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). But, like this, we cannot obtain the best technologies as countries never share their latest innovations.” He highlighted three main measures and objectives towards remedying this situation: 

1. The growth of domestic defence production from ₹ 44,000 Cr. in 2014 to over ₹ 1,00,000 Cr. in 2024.

   
   

2. Setting aside 75% of the defence capital procurement budget for Indian companies, despite the cost disadvantage.

   
   

3. The empowerment of Indian defence startups under a host of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) schemes.

This reflects a change in the larger Indian economic approach. While earlier the robust Indian service sector was heavily capitalised upon to drive our economic interests, having a healthy indigenous production base is being recognised as the single most critical virtue in today’s geopolitical climate. 

The easiest and most effective way to study this problem is to consider the case of the Indian defence aerospace industrial base and its most significant stakeholder, the Indian Air Force. The IAF does not possess a fifth-generation fighter jet as of now.

With neighbours and other nations with smaller defence budgets either importing these advanced fighters from the US, China or Russia, or producing them locally as is the case with Turkey and its first indigenous fifth-generation fighter, the Kaan, the pressure is mounting on the IAF to quickly ascend to this exclusive league. 

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Moreover, the strategic environment we find ourselves in dictates that all incoming aircraft be carrier-capable, so as to enhance the portability of our airbases. While the development of such an aircraft would traditionally take up to about twenty years, with additional time for the introduction of navy-compatible variants, current circumstances demand that this time be cut substantially.

India’s response to this issue was to announce two distinct programs: the Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter (TEDBF) in 2003 and the fifth-generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) in 2010 - both to be produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). 

However, development of the AMCA is stalled due to HAL’s diversion of resources to the Tejas Mark II program, whose purpose it is to replace multiple squadrons of previous generation aircraft. Experience from the Tejas Mark II production process is expected to contribute to the eventual realisation of the AMCA significantly, but the projected timeline of this priority arrangement is worrying.

As of February 2024, the AMCA sits awaiting approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), following the completion of its Critical Design Review (CDR) in 2023. The expected date of its maiden flight remains unclear. 

Keeping this in mind, reconstructive measures for the advancement of our capabilities must constitute a five-faceted approach. 

1. Extensive promotion, implementation and incentivization of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) that would place equal emphasis on emerging startups and established manufacturers alike and facilitate sharing the load with public-sector players.

   
   

2. Development of manufacturing infrastructure that can support and sustain its participants throughout production without excessive reliance on government subsidies.

   
   

3. Research, development and innovation begin at the level of undergraduate education that ties in to lucrative industry opportunities and places greater importance on research fundamentals rather than on the ‘cutting corners’ approach.

   
   

4. A regulatory framework that is complementary to the production pipeline, the aggressive minimisation of bureaucratic bottlenecks, timely assignment of projects.

   
   

5. Ensuring the highest order of quality and reliability at all stages of active projects.

The standardised application of this system across the three major defence services to the development of unmanned aerial vehicles, armoured vehicles, tanks, helicopters and ships, coupled with better management of defence procurement funds, can significantly boost India’s self-reliance by a multitude.

A comparatively younger Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) was able to successfully implement this approach and amplify its aerospace capabilities to the extent that Turkey is now part of an exclusive league of nations that can practise air superiority with a high level of strategic autonomy.

Bringing these changes about at public players such as the HAL, DRDO, and Mazegon Dock Limited, and shaping operations at private sector entities such as the Tata, Mahindra, Jindal, and various other emerging defence startups in the same mould will invariably lead to better utilisation of our prominent talent advantage. 

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BY ADHITYA BHARGAVA

TEAM GEOSTRATA

info@thegeostrata.com