By Vivek Raghuvanshi11:06 a.m. EDT October 3, 2015
NEW DELHI — India's Ministry of Defence has drawn up a list of warship systems and equipment that it will only acquire from domestic industry, an MoD source said, although the Navy will continue to depend on imports for weapons and equipment.
The move follows a decision earlier this year to limit warship and submarine building to domestic industry from the design stage, while allowing import of select systems and equipment.
This equipment has been divided into categories: Float, Move and Fight.
Whereas the list reserved for domestic sources includes systems and equipment from the Float and Move categories, the Indian Navy will continue to import items from the Fight category, the MoD source added.
“The domestic sector will have to be patronized, keeping the long-term requirement of self-reliance in mind," said naval architect S. Navaneetha Krishnan, a retired Indian Navy. "If the domestic sector/shipyard is not confident, then they should be permitted to develop a tie-up with a suitable foreign original equipment manufacturer [OEM]. The advantage of this approach will be that the Indian industry will get technology in selected areas.”
A Navy official said, “The Indian Navy will continue to be dependent on imports of weapons and equipment listed in the Fight category, including surface-to-air missiles, surveillance radars, early warning radars, satellite communication systems, aviation control suites, fire-control systems, light and heavyweight torpedoes, towed array sonars.”
The items listed under the Float category include aircraft lifts, composite superstructures and paints for hull. The Move category includes gas turbines, main propulsion diesel engines, marine gearboxes, propellers, air independent propulsion, steam generation equipment and canned motor pumps.
While the domestic industry is nearly capable of supplying the necessary equipment under the Float category, the Navy will continue to depend on imports for weapons and equipment because of the high cost of research and development.
“Most of the equipment in the Float category can be indigenously produced," Krishnan said. "However, some in the Move and Fight categories will have to be jointly developed with the help of some foreign OEM since the Indian Navy may not be able to afford to spend time and money on the research and development for these items.
"The domestic market will also not be ready to invest in R&D if there is no surety. This is one of the reasons for inadequate R&D in high-tech defense equipment," Krishnan said.
While 90 percent of equipment under the Float category is indigenous, the dependence on imports for weapons and equipment will continue, said Anil Jai Singh, a retired Indian Navy commodore.
"Unfortunately, not enough is being done to address this, and we will continue to be dependent on imports or saddle the forces with second-rate obsolete technology under the garb of indigenization,” Singh said.
“Indian shipyards have the capability to undertake construction of warships and submarines," said Shyam Kumar Singh, a retired Indian Navy captain. "As regards design, we have full capability for design of warships and reasonably good capability for design of submarines. Indian industry has also grown and achieved confidence in this field. I am restricting myself to hull [Float] and propulsion [Move] categories only. We have a long way to go for guns and weapons.”
The MoD has also decided that while some systems in the Move and Fight categories will need to be imported in the short term, the Indian government's Defence Research and Development Organization will need to focus on developing these systems with help from overseas sources, the MoD source added.
Sujeet Samaddar, a retired Indian Navy commodore said, “There is no need to make every nut and bolt of a ship or aircraft in India. Prudent self-reliance is a smart mix of Indian and global content.”
