DRDO: Trimming the fat

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DRDO: Trimming the fat
Sandeep Unnithan

From his spacious fifth floor office in the sandstone-fronted headquarters of the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), its chief Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat can see both the South Block and the Sena Bhavan. One is the seat of the political executive and the other is occupied by his sole customer, the armed forces. Now, he objectively regards his new mandate from the Government to transform his organisation. "It's not a censure, it is re-Engineering," the fast-talking missile scientist explains. It is a challenge that could make his last project, shooting down incoming enemy ballistic missiles on the fringes of space, seem like a child's play.

Arjun tanks during trials at Mahajan firing ranges in Rajasthan in March




The heart of the matter is this: India is heavily import-dependent. Over 70 per cent of the requirements for its armed forces come from foreign arms firms. Over the next decade, the armed forces will import weapons and equipment worth an estimated $100 billion (Rs 5 lakh crore) and half of this or nearly $50 billion (Rs 2.5 lakh crore)-almost two entire Indian defence budgets-will be spent by the IAF to buy heavy lift aircraft and multi-role combat jets.
This import dependence comes despite having one of the world's largest government-run military-industrial complexes: 40 ordnance factories and eight defence public sector units and the DRDO on which the Government spends over Rs 8,000 crore annually.
The reason: a huge institutional gap between the DRDO, services and production agencies who make up the troika of designer, manufacturer and user. The armed forces say they resort to imports because the DRDO and the PSUs are unable to deliver on time. Fifteen years ago, the DRDO agreed to develop secure communication links between the IAF jets and ground stations. Last year, after not getting even a prototype, the IAF pulled the plug on the project and floated a requirement for importing the systems. "They promise us the moon but don't even get us to the treetops," fumes a senior IAF official.

This month, the Ministry of Defence initiated a long-delayed series of reforms to address the concerns of the armed forces and restructure the organisation that provides everything from pre-cooked biryani to ballistic missiles. The reforms which follow the recommendations of the RRC committee headed by Professor P. Rama Rao, former secretary, Department of Science and Technology, promise to make the DRDO more accountable, more focused on defence technology and more importantly, provide an oversight of the armed forces.

Instead of the DRDO's present system of a single director-general (DG) with various chief controllers reporting to him, the new system will upgrade the DG to a chairman with seven DGs, each heading various departments like land systems and aeronautics, reporting to him. All the 51 laboratories will be distributed into functionality based clusters of Labs called 'centres' headed by DGs. For instance, the DG of land systems will be responsible for developing the army's Future Main Battle Tank and have all the laboratories associated with the project - the Vehicles Research Development Establishment and the Combat Vehicles Research Development Establishment-working with him.

The DGs have been given autonomy, financial powers - the DRDO is working the quantum-and will be held accountable in case of delays. Several laboratories deemed non-core areas will be done away with-the Defence Research Laboratory which manufactures mosquito repellants and water purifiers will be merged with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research while the Defence Food Research Laboratory which manufactures pre-cooked meals will be integrated with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

 

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Akash missile




The Arjun battle tank, the Akash missile and the Kaveri engine programmes have been given new lease of life. One of the most important recommendations is the creation of a 17-member Defence Technology Commission (DTC) along the lines of the Atomic Energy Commission. It is to be headed by the defence minister and will comprise the three service chiefs and secretaries of space, atomic energy commission, defence and defence finance.


Besides monitoring the functioning of the DRDO, the DTC will formulate the policy for enhancing self-reliance, identify the critical technologies for the DRDO to work on, set targets for self-reliance and task the organisation with drawing up long-term integrated perspective plans.
The reforms come at a time when several of the organisation's long-delayed premier projects are finally turning the corner--it's Arjun main battle tank held its own against the army's Russian-made T-90 tanks during desert trials. The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) has concluded with all missiles-Agni, Prithvi, Akash and Nag-successfully inducted. The Arihant, India's first indigenously built nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, was launched last year, and begun harbour trials this month.

Critics argue that the proposed DRDO restructuring is already outdated and 'defence laboratories' are a relic of the former Soviet Union. "The laboratories need to be merged with PSUs like Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) so that design, technology, manufacturing and support become efficient and customer-focused. This will also transform HAL and BEL from mere manufacturing, assembly companies into defence and aerospace technology powerhouses like Brazil's Embraer," says Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

kaveri engine

One private sector CEO terms the DRDO's reforms as "rancid wine in an old bottle with a new label" and questions whether they will actually reduce imports. The organisation actually began as an import substitution agency in 1958 and began a defence product-focused approach only with the IGMDP of 1983. Somewhere along the line, say the armed forces, it became an unwieldy pachyderm with a very high teeth-to-tail ratio.

 

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The defence secretary committee's report of April 2010 which reviewed the RRC noted that the organisation's "highly centralised decision-making process was not conducive for accelerated R&D". From being a key player in the acquisition process, it became a marginal player and now even its "scientific advice in terms of technical inputs and terms of feasibility studies is not being sought".


Yet, the DRDO is only one leg of the designer-manufacturer-user troika. "There is no point just reforming the DRDO, it is the entire defence acquisition system that needs reforms," says Vice-Admiral Raman Puri, former chief of Integrated Defence Staff. In the rest of the world, all service acquisitions flow from national security strategy. So, for instance, if the Pentagon's white paper on defence states that the US must have the capability to fight an expeditionary war, then its acquisitions will be the long-range transports and air-mobile forces. India's Defence Ministry is characterised by an absence of strategic defence planning.
Instead, what we have are the "Raksha Mantri's Directives" which are loosely interpreted. Acquisitions are almost entirely driven by the services and the defence ministry. These take the form of ad-hoc buys or replacement planning: replacing 10 squadrons of ageing MiG-21s with 10 squadrons of new multi-role fighter aircraft. "The reforms are welcome as they usher in armed forces oversight on the DRDO but they should have been combined with other long-pending reforms like greater participation for the private sector," says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal, director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies.
Saraswat tugs at the heart strings of the armed forces when he urges them to buy indigenously-built systems over proven state-of-the-art imported equipment. "The services have also a role to play in the economic and industrial growth of the country."

"I follow a simple philosophy," says one of the armed forces vice-chiefs who clear acquisitions. "If the DRDO can't give me a system in time, I go and import it because I am meant to fight a war. If we are found wanting, it is the armed forces and not the DRDO will be held responsible," he says. Clearly, these reforms are the last chance for the organisation to read the writings on the wall.