Vision, Strategy, Technology and ‘Atmanirbharta’: The need for convergence

By Air Marshal Sumit Mukerji (Retd)

The recent remarks of Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Amar Preet Singh to some of the senior leadership of Hindustan Aeronautical Limited (HAL) while sitting in the cockpit of the LCA Tejas (Mk-1A?) during the Aero India show in Bengaluru has had a telling effect across the country. Picked up by an onlooker’s sensitive microphone, the remarks were virtually an indictment of the government public sector unit (PSU), bringing to the fore not only the concerns of the Air Chief at the dwindling strength of fighter squadrons in the IAF and the scant lack of accountability for this shortfall in hardware, but indirectly highlighting the likely disastrous effect on national security.

The ‘shock waves’ of the comments have reverberated across every form of media and the suggested evidence of the likely (in)competence of HAL to meet promised deadlines has shown the PSU in a pathetic state of irresponsibility.

Frankly, what the Air Chief has said didn’t seem to be unfamiliar to most of the IAF who, over the years, have had the opportunity to deal with and use HAL products. And that probably adds greater weight to the indictment, emphasising how national security stands compromised by the PSU. True to form, the Chairman of HAL put the blame for the shortfall on America’s General Electric Company, whose GE-404 jet engine powers the Tejas fighter, for their delayed delivery programme. Fortunately, he was also gracious to accept that HAL should have pursued the progress more vigorously and promised to oversee the production line and allay the concerns.

This acceptance was quite possibly a first. As mentioned earlier, the outburst did not ‘feel’ new to the IAF because similar concerns had been aired by many Air Chiefs up the line but had remained within the walls of the Ministry of Defence. Thus, the indictment casts its umbra across the Ministry which has apparently not been effective in ensuring product availability to the end user and not imposing adequate accountability upon the organisation responsible for the lapse.

True to form and quick off the blocks, Tavleen Singh, in her ‘Fifth Column’ in The Indian Express headlined an article “India needs DOGE” (after the newly created Department of Government Efficiency created by Donald Trump, on assuming the mantle of the President of the United States of America).

Under the overarching umbrella of geopolitics and the shifting sands of alliances and political grouping, there are many factors that impinge a country’s military inventory. For India, the irrefutable requirement of securing its Northern and Western borders (and the Eastern too?), apart from patrolling a 7,000-km coastline and ensuring security to merchant shipping transiting the sea lanes of communication (SLOCS) in the Indian Ocean, national security is a matter of deep concern and must remain at the top of the agenda for every government occupying the seat of power.

Further down the chain, for people responsible to execute the orders of the government, there is a necessity to ensure the respective organisation(s) are well equipped to oversee the allotted task. Possibly, the major factors governing this process are the vision of the nation, the strategy employed by it, the ability to absorb the fast-changing face of technology and lastly, the ability to obtain the means or hardware (with its associated replenishment cycles factored in) to stay abreast of the challenges.

Of course, there are many other factors that leverage and contribute towards national security but for the purposes of the present context, the aforementioned may be seen as a framework. For the nation to feel secure, the four need to coalesce or fuse into a symbiotic whole. It is a sad commentary that the 1.4 billion teeming population of this country is indifferent or harbours no concern for national security, while the political puppeteers are more focused on retaining their chairs and fattening their pockets, to even look up at the big picture.

So, where do we begin? With the ‘Vision’, of course. Successive prime ministers have stated that India’s area of interest stretches from the Gulf of Aden in the West to the Malacca Straits in the East, straddling the strategic Indian Ocean. Given the adopted policy of strategic autonomy, India needs to balance its geopolitical presence in the comity of nations dexterously. The rather dynamic matrix in existence today does not predict a situation that may emerge in the coming decade.

As a growing power with regional and subsequently, global leadership aspirations, the path for India will be rocky and uneven. Astute diplomacy and the delicate ability to walk the tight rope of geopolitics will be the test for the coming decades. However, with global commerce and trade, which influences economic growth and seemingly continues unabashedly across geopolitical affiliations, it becomes necessary for India to firmly trace and indicate its path witha stated national policy.

Through decades, scholars, academicians, military leaders, industrialists and our own think tanks have been crying hoarse for a national security strategy to be promulgated and stated up front. A white paper or a national security strategy would provide strategic foresight and direction in long-term strategic planning, thereby providing the platform to forecast, formulate and create the architecture for systematic growth.

From the defence perspective, it has been evident over the years that we, as a country, operate in a reactive mode rather than being proactive to emanating threats. The progressively escalating threat matrix, leapfrogging with accrued technology enhancement, has made it even more imperative to be prepared for the future.

Technological progression in the last one hundred years has been nothing less than extraordinary. The rapidity of transmission, from concept to development, through application and into redundancy, has left many of us from the baby-boomer era, gasping to stay afloat. The term ‘Revolution in Military Affairs’ (RMA) which held sway through most of this period, has waned into grey obscurity.

The transitions brought about by miniaturisation and chip-interface applications have been and continue to be staggering. Thus, the need to be in sync and maintain a state-of-the-art posture requires a strong and supportive R&D base with a driving force to keep it proactive and flexible to change.

The global market has also created a manufacturing culture where sub-contractors and suppliers play a huge part in the completion of a project. Working under the most stringent technical production criteria, sub-contractors and suppliers for niche (like airplane) technology development are selectively identified. Supply chain management and operational logistics have attained as much prominence as the warfighter and its machines. The old adage of ‘an army marches on its stomach’ has taken on an overpowering avatar. The Prime Minister’s push for ‘Atmanirbharta’ is not unfounded and indeed, is a noble call to strive for seminal industrialisation in critical product development. Possibly the greatest criticality and challenge will be faced against forces inimical to democracy and India’s future.

It is impossible for any nation to hop, skip and jump from being totally reliant to being self-sufficient. There is a need to hold hands, develop public-private interface, create joint ventures with those who have the knowhow and develop a production line which is designed to be ‘productive’. We have been far too dependent on foreign countries for all our arms requirements. There is a crying need to improve the quality of our products to achieve world standards and to infuse a sense of urgency and pride in our people to enable the right ethos and sense of work culture.

The multifarious nature of factors contributing to national power necessitates the need for convergence and the efficiency of this amalgamation in a streamlined manner that will project the effectiveness and credibility of our country. Channelising or funneling of the process will be dependent on the leadership and the drive of the population through national pride, dedication and determination.

The diversity of this country and the existing work culture are the hurdles in the path of success. But succeed we must, if we have to prove ourselves on the global landscape.