There is a need to formulate a national military-civil technology fusion policy
Gp Capt. Rajiv Kumar Narang (retd)
The US uses the term ‘Civil-Military Integration’ (CMI) for the integration of military and civil technology and industrial bases. The US CMI has seen several vicissitudes since the Second World War in which civil and military industries have gone through three stages, comprising pre-Cold War, Cold War and post-Cold War periods. In these three stages, the US civil and military industries were coupled, decoupled and coupled again, to form CMI in 1994. Chinese examined the CMI and articulated their Military-Civil Fusion (MCF) strategy to harness capabilities of both, civil and military technologies, to enhance the scale of production and economic viability. The Academy of Ocean of China has examined these developments in detail in an article in 2018.
of public-private partnership
US CMI For National Industrial Base
The CMI in the US was first achieved when the Defence Technology and Industrial Base (DTIB) was integrated with Commercial Technology and Industrial Base (CTIB) during the Second World War to leverage strengths of both for technology development. The DTIB focuses on developing and manufacturing defence equipment like aircraft, tanks, ships, etc., while CTIB is focused on developing and manufacturing commercial machines, equipment such as cars, trucks, commercial ships, civil aircraft, other machines and equipment.
After the end of the Second World War, the defence and commercial technology and industrial bases segregated. As a result, DTIB was largely isolated from the commercial base and thus lost some of the benefits of larger number of buyers. This isolation raised the cost of defence goods and services and reduced the defence industry’s access to fastmoving commercial technologies. It also denied commercial firms the chance to exploit the results of large national level defence science and technology investments.
In September 1994, the US Congress’ Office of Technology Assessment, published a study titled Assessing the Potential for Civil-Military Integration: Technologies, Processes and Practices that aimed at bridging the critical gaps between the two industries. According to this study, civil military integration is defined as the process of merging the DTIB and the larger CTIB into a National Technology and Industrial Base (NTIB). The NTIB includes non-commercial elements such as public utilities and other non-Department of Defence (DoD) government procurements. The NTIB optimised the use of DTIB and CTIB by both civil and military users, which helped in increasing the scale of manufacturing and cost competitiveness of their products.
The NTIB is also part of the Global Technology and Industrial Base. The US has R&D and technology development initiatives around the world, and it leverages its global technology initiatives as well as global talent for developing niche technologies. The CMI involves an integrated base, common technologies, processes, labour, equipment, materials, and/ or facilities to meet obit defence and commercial needs. The decisions to use integrated resources are based on the same technical, legal and economic reasoning that commercial firms use when servicing global markets. The CMI brought cost savings and increased technology transfer between the civil and military industries, though greater benefits are realised in the longer time frame. The most significant aspect of CMI is that it increases the viability of defence and civil industrial capability under economic constraints.
China’s MCF
China’s MCF development strategy blurs the differences between civilian and military applications of dual-purpose technologies such as robotics, AI, aerospace, aero-engines, nuclear, semi-conductors, cyber, etc. The MCF is especially significant in aeronautics, space and drone technologies. The current MCF policy came into existence in 2012 and aimed at making China a technological and scientific power by 2050. The 27-member Chinese MCF Development Committee was established in 2017. The structure of MCF Committee is similar to India’s Space or Atomic Energy Commission, with four functionaries in the Secretariat and twenty-three members.
The MCF Development Committee is headed by President Xi Jinping with the Premier as the deputy head, the Executive Secretary and Executive Vice-Premier as the other members comprising secretaries, politburo members, members from the Chinese Military Commission (CMC) departments, researchers and technology experts, ministers from various ministries and other relevant senior functionaries. The MCF has been part of every strategic initiative taken by China ever since Xi Jinping became President in 2012, that include initiatives such as ‘Made in China 2025’ and the ‘Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Plan’. The MCF has led to parallel growth of government-led civil, military and private sectors.
In addition to the MCF Development Committee, the Chinese Military Commission (CMC) has the Science and Technology (S&T) and the Equipment Development Departments (EDD) that promote R&D, innovation and indigenous development. The S&T Department promotes strategic management of national defence science and technology and innovation, pushing for integrated development of military and civilian science and technology. The EDD is responsible for R&D, testing, authentication and information construction.
Need For National MCTF In India
India does not have a national MCF or CMI policy, strategy and plan for any sector. This lack of integration between civil and military sectors leads to incoherence in technology development, sub-optimal utilisation of technology development resources and ecosystem. This affects the scale of manufacturing and cost competitiveness, especially at the global level. There is a need to formulate a national military-civil technology fusion (MCTF) policy, as there are multiple sectors that would benefit from such fusion. The name MCTF is proposed instead of MCF to emphasise the pre-eminence of technology collaboration.
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