During the recent conflict, Pakistan had no answer to India’s missiles, drones, unmanned air vehicles, which ended up with not only the decimation of some of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist bases but also with serious damages to their frontline runways and vital military bases.
When Pakistan tried to retaliate with drones, missiles and aircraft, our air power, air defence systems and anti-drone systems proved to be superior and successfully repelled their attempts again and again. What shocked Pakistan, surprised the rest of the world and brought joy to its own citizens was the fact that most of the weapon platforms and the air defence systems and anti-drone systems used were ‘Made in India’.
This changes the equation between India and our immediate adversaries, and also with other countries as far as defence equipment and their production is concerned. Our successes in Operation Sindoor, where we outrightly dominated the Pakistanis in weapon systems and equipment, have made the world sit up and notice the scientific and technological advances we have made in defence production.
It is a well-known fact that the outcome of wars and the ability of the armed forces are heavily dependent on the availability of superior quality defence equipment.
They can range from basic requirements like boots and helmets worn by the soldiers to small weapons, ammunition, vehicles, etc and extend to complex war platforms like modern armoured fighting vehicles, fighter aircraft, aircraft carrier warships, submarines and many more.
Modern warfare is very much technology and equipment dependent, which also includes effective surveillance, air defence systems and anti-drone systems as demonstrated in the recent conflicts across the world.
When India became independent in 1947, the British left us with a legacy of Ordinance factories. These ordnance factories were set up by the British to provide ammunition, equipment and military stores to their armed forces and the allied forces during World War 2.
Until recently, the Indian Ordinance Factories controlled by the Ordinance Factory Board produced small arms like pistols and rifles, vehicles like military jeeps and trucks, armoured vehicles like tanks, artillery guns, various grades of ammunition and explosives and a wide variety of military equipment and stores.
With time, technology in military hardware underwent massive advancements due to modernisation and Research & Development. During the initial years, critical equipment, arms and ammunition were imported from countries that were ahead in technology, primarily because of their power, stability and economy. One of the major concern in importing arms, ammunition and equipment is that we also need the transfer of technology so that India can produce them along with their spares (for replacement and maintenance) within the country and thus preference was given to countries like Russia (erstwhile USSR), France, Sweden and few others who were willing to transfer their technology, train our people and help in setting up the production infrastructure.
Even today, the bulk of our existing equipment and weapon platforms are of Russian origin. Though we have remained firm on our non-alignment policy, Russia has time and again helped us during crises.
We have even jointly developed the super — effective Brahmos missile, which is a cause of envy and concern for other countries, especially our adversaries.
Brahmos has proved its worth during Operation Sindoor when it struck its designated targets with pinpoint accuracy. As of present, Russia may be having its own set of problems in production and export because of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, sanctions and other issues.
It is wise not to depend too much on imported equipment, arms, ammunition and war machinery. The failures and shortcomings of Chinese equipment, especially their radars and missiles.
Anti-aircraft and other air defence systems used by Pakistan are a good reason why we should continue in our endeavour for self-reliance in defence production. By developing our own weapon systems and war equipment, we can ensure catering to the exact requirements of our defence forces as per the threat perceptions and our strategic objectives, which may not always be achieved by going for off-the-shelf products of foreign origin.
Continuous supply of ammunition, spare parts and maintenance, especially during conflicts and operations, is another major concern that can be affected by changes in global stability, international relations, economic and political conditions in the countries of import and any such eventualities.
For years, we have tried to design and manufacture our battle tanks, fighter aircraft, warships, artillery guns, missiles and other critical equipment. We were successful in producing missiles like Nag, Akash, Prithvi and Agni, primarily because of the effort of our ex-President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, who also spearheaded the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and had acquired reasonably competent expertise in this field.
We have had limited success in our efforts for other war equipment because of political, economic and administrative reasons.
National politics played its part in prioritising our efforts to upgrade the vintage ordinance factories, setting up a strong R&D base and revamping the production of war equipment as per the requirements of the military.
The past decade has seen India planning, designing, developing and manufacturing state-of-the-art war equipment, and the results have been more than satisfactory.
We have developed our assault rifle, artillery guns, combat helicopters, fighter aircraft, warships, aircraft carrier warships, nuclear submarines, radars, anti-drone systems and many others.
The involvement of the private sector is a welcome change and has given a much-needed boost to defence production. The defence verticals of the private industry will attract and retain some of our best engineering brains and scientific minds, which will help in R&D and production.
Such indigenous products will not only cater to their own needs, but they can also bring handsome revenue from the export of defence equipment to friendly foreign countries, as decided by the Government.
Sights on television such as a new ‘made in india’ hypersonic missile being successfully tested, an aircraft carrier warship made in the Indian naval dockyards being launched, test flights or induction of an indigenous fighter aircraft into the forces or the latest successes of Indian made radars, anti-drone and air defence defence systems against Pakistani aggression give confidence to our Armed Forces and fill our hearts with much pride and joy.
But, this is just the beginning of our new phase in self-reliance in defence production, and it must remain a work in progress at a larger and faster pace. We have to compete in attaining self-reliance with countries like China, Russia, America and other developed nations.
The Government policy of involving and encouraging the private industry has been a game-changer in our mission to become self-reliant.
The combination of established defence public sector undertakings and capable frontline private sector companies and startups will help us achieve the much-needed self-reliance in defence production.
(The writer is retired Colonel of Indian Army)