Lt Gen. Rameshwar Yadav (retd)

The government has announced setting up of defence corridors in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. This has been done to encourage the Indian industry to contribute towards defence production and make the country self-reliant in the field of military hardware and software.

Interestingly, recent media reports mentioned that the Indian Army is planning to replace the assault rifles, the basic personal weapon of soldiers across the spectrum of arms and services with reduced technical specifications from ordnance factories and private sector. Unfortunately, India as a country has not been able to develop even small arms of reckonable quality and continues to procure them from abroad.

While the figure quoted for indigenously manufactured weapons stands at 6.5 lakhs, only 72,400 state-of-the-art assault rifles have been imported under the fast-track procedure for frontline troops. The move is ostensibly to give a boost to ‘Make in India’, albeit at the cost of reduced quality content of the weapon system to be introduced. It is a good idea and fits into the corporate parameters to achieve economies of scales, though media reports suggest that inadequacy of funds is one of the reasons for compromise in the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQRs). It militates against the operational efficiency which should be the primary criteria.

While our disputes lie in the mountainous terrain with infantry as the predominant arm on the frontline, 85 to 90 per cent of the capital budget is spent on heavy weaponry and platforms to be used in areas with settled borders. Despite being the largest and the main combat content in the Indian context, the infantry does not get the priority that it deserves. A simple back-of-the palm calculation would reveal that the entire frontline infantry can be equipped with the best of weapon systems within the cost of eight to 10 Rafale aircraft or a single ship.

Of course, there is a need to attain higher deterrence capabilities. The technologies available with the ordnance factories for the manufacture of weapons under license are normally one to two generations old because, by the time an assembly line is set up, the technology gets updated. Hence, purchase of state-of-the-art imported equipment becomes necessary to attain higher combat superiority. Also, as such