Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan delivered a strong reprimand to the Indian defence suppliers, warning that overpromising and missing deadlines is “unacceptable” and reminding industry players that defence reforms are “not a one-way street”, they must be honest about their capabilities if they expect meaningful partnership.
Addressing a gathering at the Brainstorming Session 2.0 organised by the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS), in association with the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM), here on Friday, Chauhan asked the manufacturers to focus instead on credible timelines and transparent assessments of capacity. “You cannot leave us in a lurch. You sign a contract and you do not deliver at that particular time. It is a capability that is being lost. You have to be truthful about your indigenous capabilities. There could be security related issues. Lot of industries say this is 70 per cent Indian, but actually if you find out it is not. You have to be truthful in this because it is related to the question of security.”
“You will have to be cost competitive. Cost competitive is not for selling to Indian armed forces. You have to be cost competitive so that you can compete in the foreign market. You can’t have products which are overpriced and you will have to deliver things on time,” he added further.
Stating that the defence forces all over the world are preparing for future wars, the CDS said that most of the armed forces try to incorporate the lessons from the war into the system. “The war which is already over and there is no war which repeats itself. It’s a different war you got to prepare yourself for. In the Indian Armed Forces, we are actually trying to fight a future kind of warfare. And I have been saying that to win future wars, you will have to fight with tomorrow’s technology today. Having said that, I must also confess that predicting the future is perilous to say the least. It’s rather difficult. And war is an enterprise which is riddled with uncertainties. And to accurately predict the outcome of even the smallest of conflicts or a duel or combat is rather difficult.”
Adding further that a developed nation must have a strong industrial base and especially a defence infrastructure, manufacturing infrastructure has to be strong, the CDS said that only then can this nation be strong and secure, shashkat and surakshit. “So, the defence of India and its long-term security is predicated on a strong military backed by sound defence industrial base.
The CDS also suggested competency mapping stating that everybody should be aware of what we are doing in India. He also said that the industry should also take lessons from Op Sindoor.
“It was multi-domain. It was networked, digitised and also intelligent. Again post Sindoor, we have done a couple of exercises for Electronic Warfare and drones and it’s not that we have done this exercise alone. We have done it with the help of DPSU and private industry also. We understand the correlation between industry and fighting a war because it’s not only prior to fighting a war that we need to develop our capabilities but during a war we may have to tweak some kind of changes in the equipment which we hold, especially electronic warfare, drones, such kind of equipment. So we did incorporate the industry into these exercises,” he added.