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Compare performance of Indian-foreign weapon systems: DRDO

It's kind of funny to read that, when we know how much the weight difference between the T90 and the Arjun is and he probably will lose in most performance comparisons too, which is why he should focus more on development and delivery, rather than on barking around in front of the media.

A rather stark point was raised by "the man" in-charge of projects in a branch of the forces this side of the border in a conversation to me recently. The requirement for indigenous development cannot got to the lengths of paranoia since there is no point in reinventing the wheel if there is already one available to you now at the same cost. Local development has to be done on a need by need basis and not just for the heck of it.
 
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Russian tank designs with 3-men crew and an auto-loader is smaller in size, Western tank designs with 4-men crew (4th guy is the loader) is bigger to fit four persons, hence heavier. Besides western tank designs (including Arjun) rely on heavier armour, a manual loading design itself is safer than auto-loaders, and won't malfunction also. Surprisingly, Arjun falls in the weight category of 4-men crew western tanks.

So what IA was thinking when they specifically asked for a 4-men crew tank with heavier arnour based on western design?



How can size be an issue now when army asked for a bigger 4-men crew tank in the first place?
Arjun 2 cannot be transported through train as possiblity of collision between two train moving simultaneously is extremely high
 
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After having read the thread to this point, I think the problem lies with production line. Even if DRDO develops a product (may be slightly less compared to western product) who is going to produce it? DRDO chief should point out the lack of better production line of our PSUs rather than whining.
 
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And what critical systems of arjun are actually made in house??
Majority are imported,the tracks were importedd,maybe now made under tot....the engine is imported.

The ecm is imported,the laser pods are imported.

There is nothing glorious about arjun,,,just like there is nothing glorious about tejas or dhruv.
They are assembled on imported parts.

And still the performance is not upto the mark,,,,it may be better than t-90s in some aspects but overall no comparison at all.

Yaar, you are back with our old arguments. You have already made your point regarding your view of % of indigenous content. I disagree that you must have everything done in house when you can source it cheaper and the supply chain is reliable.
Why have the same argument again unless you have better data now.
 
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Wrong in north east even T90S can't move in narrow roads.One of the reason why IA issued tender for 300Light tanks

That are wheeled and tracked tank destroyers, that are meant to be an addition to the MBTs that will be used in these areas and not an alternative, but that also shows the limitations of mobility in these areas.

This is how marketing is been done,both are in the advance stages of induction

No, that has nothing to do with marketing, but with bragging around!

Who got PR by using IAF's EMB 145 for "flight" displays at the airshow, DRDO or Embraer? The latter of course and they will be very happy about it, since they didn't paid a single dollar for it. That's wasted money, when a simple info booth with mockup systems of DRDO would had got them far more at far lower costs, but that obviously is less to brag about right?
Same goes for LCA, since it doesn't got FOC yet, which makes induction only possible in 3 to 4 years, so more than enough time to do your work first and then market it. What's even funnier is, to present it at shows in the Gulf region, when we know that we can't sell a single LCA to them, unless we change the Israeli systems with indigenous, French, or Russian once.
So what kind of marketing is that? Advertising one product of a different company, while your own systems are not developed yet and advertising another product that you can't sell to most customers at the air show.


Russian tank designs with 3-men crew and an auto-loader is smaller in size...

Again the point was not about the tank itself, but about statement of the DRDO chief that the forces would not take their products for minor differences and that he wants performance comparisions of DRDO and foreign products. But when you develop a tank that is several t's heavier than planed, it's not a minor difference and can effect the operational requirements of the customer, which can be seen at LCA too. So unless DRDO is able to provide products that fits to the operational requirements of the forces, they can't order higher numbers.

A rather stark point was raised by "the man" in-charge of projects in a branch of the forces this side of the border in a conversation to me recently. The requirement for indigenous development cannot got to the lengths of paranoia since there is no point in reinventing the wheel if there is already one available to you now at the same cost. Local development has to be done on a need by need basis and not just for the heck of it.

But that's sadly not the way of DRDO and even HAL today, they want to develop what they want, not what is needed. It would be great if they look at what is needed, develop things simple and efficient, or would focus on PR when they have achieved something, not in this stage when they are behind in so many crucial developments.

@sancho ,Turkish Army placed an order of a thousand Altay MBTs even before formal commencement of development!!That's how things work around the world.

:D Not really, they total order might go for 1000, but the orders will be in 250 units over time:

Turkey plans to initially build a batch of 250 tanks, with scores of follow-on orders.
Japan Deal Scrapped, Turkey Looking for Tank Engine | Defense News | defensenews.com

So the world works just as India works, but if Arjun would be more useful for IA by fulfilling the operational requirements, it would not only ordered in 124 units and would not only have he a total estimated order of hardly 250 to 500 units (including varients).

Btw, I purposley ignored your personal attacks and ranting in the post yesterday, but now it's getting overboard. Either you can discuss properly, or you don't but any post with similar attacks will be reported!

After having read the thread to this point, I think the problem lies with production line.

The production issue comes later and is not even DRDOs problem, but first they need a produced fully developed according to the needs and requirements of the forces. LCA MK1 is still below the requirements of IAF, but they take it and HAL will now produce it, but it's DRDO's responsibility to get the fighter to FOC level, before it can properly be inducted in operational service! DRDO is only trying to distract from their failures by diverting the blame to the forces now, just as they blamed HAL for manufacturing of the LCA prototypes earlier, but as long as the bulk of the problem is based on development problems, they simply can't shy away from being accountable for the problems and the new government must take this problem seriously by taking on DRDO and not giving them free hand to do and to claim what they want!
 
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Yaar, you are back with our old arguments. You have already made your point regarding your view of % of indigenous content. I disagree that you must have everything done in house when you can source it cheaper and the supply chain is reliable.
Why have the same argument again unless you have better data now.

what sort of data do u want man??
there is a reason arjun is not being inducted in large numbers and no,,,it is not corruption.

There are indeed problems in the platform and apart from rajastan desert area it cannot be used anywhere due to the weight,,,it just cannot.
Now u will say we will build up the infrastructure for that but army is not interested in making different wagons etc for 2 different tanks when it has already decided than t-90s will be its back bone for the forseable future,,,we simply don't have that much money mate.

The problem is also that we even in this defence forum are considering arjun as an indigenous product when in reality it isn't............so unless there is compelling performance improvement after being 15-20 tonnes heavier than t-90s army will not order more arjuns no matter what anyone says here.


where we went wrong

Drdo should have focussed on the subsystems of the tank first trying to develop indigenous stuff to fit on to older t-72 and t-90 thus gaining some experience,,,,u have to start somewhere and not just start developing a tank out of nothing just like tejas!!

Can we modernize even t-72 without russian help??no
Can we fix su-30 mki issues of mfd displays and software problems without russia?no
Has tejas been inducted??no
Can we make the seekers of pdv ourselves??no
Can we male radome of tejas ourselves??no
Can we make a simple radar for tejas??no
Can we make a simple mfd without tying up with a foreign vendor??no
Do we have a facility to make advanced chipsets in india??no
Can we make an advanced aesa without importing t/r modules??no

Is kaveri dead??absolutely
Is ijt dead??absolutely

We have committed mistakes like no other country,,,drdo/hal/ofb have taken us for a ride for a long time now,,,i am unwilling to see that trend continue otherwise we are fucked in the future.

Thats the only reason i support fdi in defence as i am convinced drdo/hal/ofb combo can deliver nothing cutting edge


Now if someone is hurt on my writing,,,please don't use stupid words to counter me and thing why are we where we are??
If israel being a country of 7 million can do 1000 times better than us then whats wrong??

1)we indians are dumb
2)drdo/hal/ofb has been responsible for half this mess
So there are only 2 options,,,,,and i refuse to believe indians are dumb but if u guys are still supporting drdo/hal/ofb then u are ultimately agreeing to the fact that we are dumb and can do no better.



decide for urself

That are wheeled and tracked tank destroyers, that are meant to be an addition to the MBTs that will be used in these areas and not an alternative, but that also shows the limitations of mobility in these areas.



No, that has nothing to do with marketing, but with bragging around!

Who got PR by using IAF's EMB 145 for "flight" displays at the airshow, DRDO or Embraer? The latter of course and they will be very happy about it, since they didn't paid a single dollar for it. That's wasted money, when a simple info booth with mockup systems of DRDO would had got them far more at far lower costs, but that obviously is less to brag about right?
Same goes for LCA, since it doesn't got FOC yet, which makes induction only possible in 3 to 4 years, so more than enough time to do your work first and then market it. What's even funnier is, to present it at shows in the Gulf region, when we know that we can't sell a single LCA to them, unless we change the Israeli systems with indigenous, French, or Russian once.
So what kind of marketing is that? Advertising one product of a different company, while your own systems are not developed yet and advertising another product that you can't sell to most customers at the air show.




Again the point was not about the tank itself, but about statement of the DRDO chief that the forces would not take their products for minor differences and that he wants performance comparisions of DRDO and foreign products. But when you develop a tank that is several t's heavier than planed, it's not a minor difference and can effect the operational requirements of the customer, which can be seen at LCA too. So unless DRDO is able to provide products that fits to the operational requirements of the forces, they can't order higher numbers.



But that's sadly not the way of DRDO and even HAL today, they want to develop what they want, not what is needed. It would be great if they look at what is needed, develop things simple and efficient, or would focus on PR when they have achieved something, not in this stage when they are behind in so many crucial developments.



:D Not really, they total order might go for 1000, but the orders will be in 250 units over time:


Japan Deal Scrapped, Turkey Looking for Tank Engine | Defense News | defensenews.com

So the world works just as India works, but if Arjun would be more useful for IA by fulfilling the operational requirements, it would not only ordered in 124 units and would not only have he a total estimated order of hardly 250 to 500 units (including varients).

Btw, I purposley ignored your personal attacks and ranting in the post yesterday, but now it's getting overboard. Either you can discuss properly, or you don't but any post with similar attacks will be reported!



The production issue comes later and is not even DRDOs problem, but first they need a produced fully developed according to the needs and requirements of the forces. LCA MK1 is still below the requirements of IAF, but they take it and HAL will now produce it, but it's DRDO's responsibility to get the fighter to FOC level, before it can properly be inducted in operational service! DRDO is only trying to distract from their failures by diverting the blame to the forces now, just as they blamed HAL for manufacturing of the LCA prototypes earlier, but as long as the bulk of the problem is based on development problems, they simply can't shy away from being accountable for the problems and the new government must take this problem seriously by taking on DRDO and not giving them free hand to do and to claim what they want!

I wrote this last year that foc and ultimately production of lca will suffer and HAL/DRDO combo were bluffing and fooling everyone into believing that forces are responsible for slow induction when anyone with even an iota of brain knows that we are no where near a functional point defence fighter.

All the tejas mk1 will be used(40) for mainly training purposes,,thats how the things are and still people on this forum think otherwise??

I agree i don't know whats the solution but the problem is right in front of us
 
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Old article,,,2 years old but pretty relevant even today as not much has changed.

Some mistakes are there like we make fire control system of arjun mk2 now,,,it mentions mk1 as mk2 was not out then.


DRDO India's lumbering dinosaur

India has emerged as the largest arms importer in the world. More than 70% of the needs of the Indian armed forces are imported and Indian weapons purchases account for about 9% of the global arms trade. Each time a weapon system is imported, the costs are astronomical and we get trapped into expensive service contracts, ammunition purchase, potential possible arms embargos etc. During the years 2007-2012 contracts for approximately 50 Billion dollars worth of weapons have been signed.

DRDO was established in 1958 to indigenize defense weapon production. Yet after more than 34 years, it has embarrassingly little to show for itself. The CAG reports that 70% of the products that DRDO produces are rejected by the armed forces. Others are delayed for decades. Some of the more notable delays are

# Arjun-Main Battle Tank- 40 year development. End product is 50% overweight and the heart of the system, the fire control system has been developed by Elbit systems in Israel

# LCA-Tejas- 30 year development. Still in flight tests. Only the control system and airframe are indigenous. All other components including the ejection seat are imported.

# Nag-Anti tank missile- 30 year delay. Failed user trials as late as last month

# Trishul-Anti aircraft missile, abandoned in 2008 after 20 years

# Kaveri engine- 16 year delay with cost escalation of 800%. Still not airworthy . Delays in the engine have compounded delays of the LCA program.

# Even the most basic items such as artillery guns and howitzers have not been produced by DRDO.

# We import even the ammunition for our tanks at exorbitant prices as was pointed out by Retd Gen V.K. Singh

# BEML has been unable to indigenously manufacture a truck and continues to import them from TATRA after 3 decades. Indigenization is confined to replacing tires, bolts & nuts.

# It now appears that India will start importing assault rifles to replace the standard issue INSAS rifle. It is important to remember that assault rifles such as the AK-47 are even assembled in bazaars and road-side shops in Afghanistan. We will probably end up importing even bullets and cartridges next.

# The so called shining examples of DRDO success namely the Agni and Prithvi range of missiles have of late failed a series of user trials. Their low reliability (50% probability of successful strike coupled with hours of pre-launch preparations) causes the very credibility of our nuclear deterrent to be questioned. A recent India today articles highlights these same issues.

# Its premier UAV the Nishant is not aerodynamic, takes hours to deploy and the army has been compelled to accept a dozen.

Despite its unclassified salary budget of over 10,000 Crores there is very little for DRDO to be proud about, other than instant food packets and portable toilets.

This article will now try to analyze what ails this organization and proceed to highlight the consequences of failure and suggest some remedial action.

Causes for Failure
01. Aiming ridiculously high and failing : A typical missile requirement would state that the user wants a missile that is shorter, lighter, lesser cross-section and has a higher payload than any other missile in its class. This is the equivalent of wanting a bride who is tall and short, fair and dark, fat and thin. Instead of having the courage of conviction to say that the requirements cannot be achieved, DRDO agrees to such requirements and fails miserably.

The latest fancy is to develop reusable missiles, which will return after dropping their payload. No one points out that such technology already exists and is called an aircraft

02. Imprecise project definitions : Some DRDO project documents call for development of indigenous technology in a particular field. After attempting and failing to develop this technology, DRDO surreptitiously orders the components from private companies who in turn may or may not be importing them.

They cleverly exploit the difference between indigenous and in-house.

03. Lack of accountability and peer review : DRDO’s progress in various fronts is judged by Professors from the IIT’s, IISc etc. However these very people receive funds from DRDO for their research. This creates a climate of patronage where no one speaks out. Every milestone is declared a success, but the project fails to deliver.

The head of DRDO serves as the chief scientific advisor to the Government, and has a clear conflict of interest.

04. Overstaffed : DRDO’s colossal employee size overshadows the size of R&D teams in Saab, Boeing, Lockheed, Sukhoi and MIG combined. Even if a few good scientists are present, they get inundated in an ocean of mediocrity. It is worth mentioning that HAL designed her first jet fighter in the 1960’s in just 3 years with the German Engineer Kurt Tank and a team of a dozen Indians. The old adage that a thousand monkeys on a typewriter cannot churn out Shakespeare comes to mind.

05. Lack of Skilled scientists : Most DRDO scientists are recruited through an exam called SET (scientist entrance test). There isn’t even a test for Aerospace. So the Aerospace engineer aspiring to join DRDO would be forced to take a mechanical engineering test where he would be tested on roof trusses and welding joints. Important subjects like fluid mechanics or control theory are not even tested.

06. Inability to attract and retain talent : DRDO pay scales are so low and bureaucratic procedures are such a hassle that even the few Indian scientists who return out of patriotism for their country after having worked in defense R&D labs overseas quit in disgust. Many DRDO labs do not even have internet access for ‘security reasons’. Having intellectually walled themselves in, they have no knowledge of the advances taking part around the world. Considering the state of affairs we would be doing the greatest disservice to our enemies if we were to give them access to the crude ‘technology’ developed by DRDO.

07. No practical experience : When DRDO is asked to design a weapon, the ‘scientists’ assigned to the task have never even seen the weapon up close or in action. There is no program by which they can embed themselves with the army unit, see the weapon in action, understand it and suggest improvements or modifications. As a result the first few designs are amateurish and laughable at best

08. Penny wise and pound foolish : Importing a weapon to take it apart, study it and reverse engineer it like the Chinese would be declared an unjustifiable expense. Despite its massive 10000Cr budget scientists from different labs wouldn’t be trusted to use their own vehicles to attend a meeting. Instead they must book an ‘approved’ taxi days in advance. The taxi would invariably be late and meetings start hours late. Clearly the bureaucracy doesn’t value the time of its scientists.

09. Lack of peer review : Most of the mathematical basis for the ‘research’ conducted is dubious. Worldwide peer reviewed journals are the best way to discuss and criticize research. DRDO has a bunch of in-house journals where the same set of ‘scientists’ publish, review and pat each other on the back.

10. No transmission or dissemination of knowledge : One DRDO lab has no clue as to what the other is trying to do, so they end up trying to solve the same problem over and over again. There have been a few success stories such as the design of the control law for the LCA. But the program has taken so long, that the scientists involved would retire and new scientists recruited for another program would have to relearn everything from scratch. Therefore the next aircraft program would take just as long as the LCA.

Consequences of failure
The government has a vested interest in letting this state of rot continue. DRDO is given a chance to develop various weapon systems, knowing fully well that it will fail after trying for decades.

This is then used to justify imports and the usual coterie of arms dealers make a killing selling obsolete arms to the armed forces at exorbitant prices. The ultimate price is paid by our brave troops who do not have the best weapons at their disposal.

Remedial Action
# Shut down DRDO. If this is not possible, since there are guaranteed jobs for government employees, reduce it’s funding to zero. Stop hiring and let it die a natural death.

# Researches on small arms, grenades, RPG’s etc are best left to the engineering corps of our army who work with these weapons everyday. Task these engineers with replicating and improving armaments that we currently import.

# Judiciously select about a dozen scientists from DRDO who are technically competent. If necessary conduct an exam to test them on the fundamentals of the fields they are specializing in.

# For Large items such as aircraft, we need to pay and get the best engineers from Sukhoi, Lockheed etc so that they may train a dedicated and knowledgeable team of a dozen engineers.

# There should be no place for reservation or any limit on pay to this elite team of engineers. In fact we would be hard pressed to find a dozen such people.

# Encourage the private sector to design and develop weapon systems. They should be allowed to design and manufacture complete weapon systems and line replaceable units. Our private sector needs to stop imagining that R&D consists of BPO’s, call centers and Nanos.

DRDO India's lumbering dinosaur

Please debate on this
 
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Ha ha,I'm confused as to who the real dinosaur is here - the DRDO or this fucking b@stard above.For a doctor,this above useless swine does seem to have too much of time to spare!!
Are you sure Mr B@stardo,that you are a doctor and not a sweeper or a shoe polisher??
 
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Ha ha,I'm confused as to who the real dinosaur is here - the DRDO or this fucking b@stard above.For a doctor,this above useless swine does seem to have too much of time to spare!!
Are you sure Mr B@stardo,that you are a doctor and not a sweeper or a shoe polisher??

better than a disillusioned drdo/hal lover masturbating on the pics of avinash chander and co.
carry on,,,i will not disturb u.
 
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# The so called shining examples of DRDO success namely the Agni and Prithvi range of missiles have of late failed a series of user trials. Their low reliability (50% probability of successful strike coupled with hours of pre-launch preparations) causes the very credibility of our nuclear deterrent to be questioned. A recent India today articles highlights these same issues.

# Arjun-Main Battle Tank- 40 year development. End product is 50% overweight and the heart of the system, the fire control system has been developed by Elbit systems in Israel
# LCA-Tejas- 30 year development. Still in flight tests. Only the control system and airframe are indigenous. All other components including the ejection seat are imported.

Can we modernize even t-72 without russian help??no
Can we fix su-30 mki issues of mfd displays and software problems without russia?no
Has tejas been inducted??no
Can we make the seekers of pdv ourselves??no
Can we male radome of tejas ourselves??no
Can we make a simple radar for tejas??no
Can we make a simple mfd without tying up with a foreign vendor??no
Do we have a facility to make advanced chipsets in india??no
Can we make an advanced aesa without importing t/r modules??no

What kind of BS is this ?
 
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better than a disillusioned drdo/hal lover masturbating on the pics of avinash chander and co.
carry on,,,i will not disturb u.

Ha ha,it's funny to watch an imbecile moron trying to speak grown up words!!Nice try though,but I think you confused me with yourself.I mean I'm not a gay like you to masturbate over a man's photo!!
Yeah,that's the smart thing to do,don't disturb me.Because you are out matched here.But I'll continue to abuse you,it's damn funny you know,Mr B@stardo??
 
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n Gaza border, are installed remote weapons stations (female only units), which help to prevent terrorist attacks.

"Deployed along the border Samson remote controlled weapon stations mounting machine guns and Spike and Lahat laser-guided missiles are guarding this hot border line. The systems' role was described as 'instrumental' in Israeli efforts to eliminate Hamas operatives approaching the border. Sentry-Tech units are remotely operated from the operational command center by observers that are monitoring the border line.

As targets are detected and within range of weapon stations positions, the weapons fire towards the designated targets.

The first prototype Sentry-Tech system was tested in 2004. After a successful evaluation, Rafael was contracted to build multiple systems to equip the Gaza border line. Sentry-Tech utilizes Rafael's Mini-Samson weapon station installed in fixed installation in Pillboxes or relocateable tower systems. Each unit mounts a 7,62 or 0.5" machine gun, shielded from enemy fire and the elements by an environmentally protective bulletproof canopy. The system is primarily operated by remote control but can also be operated manually when required. The system mounts the observation equipment and communications link to the sector's operations command center. Sentry-Tech empowers the observers with precision attack lethality, dramatically increases their ability to close kill chains, engaging targets immediately as they are exposed. In addition to the use of direct fire machine guns, observers can also employ precision guided missiles, such as Spike LR optically guided missiles and Lahat laser guided weapons.

Read more at
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