India's R&D in Defence DRDO, PSUs and Private Sector

[Rakesh]

https://twitter.com/drajaykumar_ias/sta ... 2836773889 ---> Defence innovation in months. Impossible? Not for our startups!! @India_iDEX startups creating new defence tech in months.

[csaurabh]

The title is misleading. Tonbo and NSCTPL are not startups (they are MSMEs) , the others I don't know personally.
IDEX terms and conditions are very unsuitable for startups and very few take it up.
Also timeline is hardly in 'months'

[Pratyush]

Still it's a start and a good one at that.

It will be a good finish once routine orders start getting placed

[jaysimha]

MKU is pleased and honored to have received the ToT of Driver Night Sight for T-90 Tanks from IRDE, DRDO, Ministry of Defence, Govt. of India. The event was held at IRDE, Dehradun on 17th Dec during the "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' celebrations.

MKU is fully committed to building world-class products and technologies for empowering our Heros in India and outside!

Source: LinkedIn

[jaysimha]

Dr. Ajay Kumar, Defence Secretary, Government of India posted this in linkedIn

It is conventionally impossible to imagine Defence innovation in months. But not for our startups!!
iDEX startups creating new defence technology in a fraction of time usually associated with defence technologies
And each of these innovations with a paltry assistance from iDEX of less than Rs 1.5 crores.
Kudos to DISC winners for their wonderful work. The startup powerhouse writing new chapters in defence innovation.

[nam]

Startup or not, atleast there is some push to give opportunity to private companies. More importantly highlight the effort, giving out good PR for involving the private sector.

The cat can be red, green,pink or rainbow, as long as it catches the mice.

[jaysimha]

The Defence Committee of Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries & Agriculture (MCCIA) is organising Defence Exhibition & Vendor development series
on
22nd and 23rd MArch 2022
at
Alpha bachat Bhavan Pune.
https://www.themachinemaker.com/news/mc ... uring-1102

[nam]

Some murmur in the social media about alternate way to paying for the contracts. Lets see if we have any concrete steps.

I have been a firm believer of using our banks to pay for the contracts. Allow the companies to take a loan at 0% interest, very friendly terms with the PSU bank, underwritten by GoI, and installment paid by GoI or paid on receiving the contract amount.

Since the bank belongs to GoI, the loan is underwritten by GoI, there cannot be a default!

This will allow a major financing route for companies to quickly production contracts.

Lets see what happens.

[Vayutuvan]

I have been a firm believer of using our banks to pay for the contracts. Allow the companies to take a loan at 0% interest, very friendly terms with the PSU bank, underwritten by GoI, and installment paid by GoI or paid on receiving the contract amount.

Since the bank belongs to GoI, the loan is underwritten by GoI, there cannot be a default!

But the company can go bust. How to protect against that?

[Rakesh]

https://twitter.com/Varun55484761/statu ... zWLgnifk_w ---> This is an under development Electronic Warfare pod. This pod can jam almost all kinds of frequencies from any radar sources. Employs various kinds of EW techniques.

https://twitter.com/i_udit_t/status/149 ... zWLgnifk_w ---> Is it the DARE ASPJ?

https://twitter.com/Indrani1_Roy/status ... zWLgnifk_w ---> No.

[jaysimha]

https://defenceexpotn.in/defence-techno ... de-centre/
Defence & Technology Expo | Revised Schedule | 26-28 May 2022 | Chennai Trade Centre

[jaysimha]

https://www.pmlindia.com/pages/aerospace

Components and Assemblies for Aerospace:
About:
Our AS 9101D certified facility “Hiperm Division” is into the supplies of various critical and non critical components used in the Aviation, Space and Defense industry."

[LakshmanPST]

Didn't know where to post this...
https://twitter.com/hvtiaf_/status/1491 ... Yq_uQ&s=19

Delay is a perception which is created by lobbies. Indian projects are blocked by suppliers, so that imports can be pushed ahead.

Many projects are ahead of schedule, like CATS. We are purposely avoiding international suppliers, because of what they do to our projects (always).

[VinodTK]

IIIT-Hyderabad tracking system to help IAF radar systems

Hyderabad: The target scopes of the Indian Air Force and its ground-based radars are all set to get sharper and identify enemy and friendly aircraft more accurately, thanks to an algorithm developed by the International Institute for Information Technology, Hyderabad for Bharat Electronics Ltd.

The algorithm and software, which has been transitioned to BEL and is currently being tested out in their simulation environment, when integrated with the existing Air Force tracking system during research, was found to be improving accuracy in object identification by radars up to 96 per cent from the existing 91 per cent.
:
:
:

[jaysimha]

General MM Naravane, the chief of army staff, Indian Army will inaugurate the third edition Ahmedabad Design Week at a Karnavati University in Uvarsad, Gandhinagar.

ADW will be inaugurated on Februar 26 and this year’s theme for the event is Design and Innovation in Defense and Aerospace.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/arti ... aign=cppst

[nam]

But the company can go bust. How to protect against that?

Large orders should be given only to large companies like L&T, Tata, BF, etc.

MSME can be taken over by GoI as Gov owned, private operated entities. Similar to what was done with Idea.

[jaysimha]

Range of turbine blade and other products from Aeroc Space Technologies Private Limited (ASTPL) to defence and aerospace industry

https://www.aerocspace.com/default.html

[jaysimha]

Webinar on Defence Systems – Research and Development

Date/ Time: 23-02-2022 9:30AM
By.
Dr. K Rajasekar
senior manager & head of R&D
BEML Palakkad

https://intranet.cb.amrita.edu/events/2 ... evelopment

[jaysimha]

Baba Kalyani, CMD, Bharat Forge speaks to Sansad TV on self-reliance in Defence space, domestic private players supporting the public sector to develop indigenous technologies that will create IP for the country
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR6_1kQcgf8


Mudda Aapka: Boosting The Domestic Defence Industry
रक्षा क्षेत्र-नयी रफ्तार
18 February, 2022

[jaysimha]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9empyYIBfvo

Vigyan Sarvatra Pujyate - Grand Inaugural Ceremony, LIVE from Vigyan Bhavan New Delhi

[jaysimha]

TASL is participating in 'World Defence Show’22' to be held in Riyadh.

[jaysimha]

https://knnindia.co.in/news/newsdetails ... in-defence
21/02/2022
Additional Secretary Jaju addresses MSME Conclave, encourages domestic manufacturing in defence

“351 more items have been listed which can be indigenized and it is now an opportunity for the Indian industry to manufacture them and we are not going to stop here. By month end, we will come up with a further bigger level and this would include not just components but also LRUs which are critical for defence requirement. We will offer these LRUs to industry with procurement assurance to design and develop the products within the county,”

[Vips]

VC fund invests in Mumbai-based MRO firm.

The Maharashtra Defence and Aerospace Venture Fund – an alternate investment fund managed by IDBI Capital Markets & Securities for Maharashtra Industrial Development Corp. (MIDC) – has invested an undisclosed amount in Mumbai-based Aman Aviation & Aerospace Solutions’ maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business.

It is for the first time in the country that a venture capital fund has invested in an MRO firm undertaking servicing of aircraft components. Previous investments have been in large MROs offering airframe maintenance services.

Declining to comment on the size of the deal citing a confidentiality agreement, director Aman Aviation, Aman Johri confirmed the partnership sought to provide innovation-driven one-stop solutions in the areas of civil and defence aviation. The over 15-year-old firm currently manages an advanced MRO facility in Mumbai, with a service arm in Delhi.

“Proactive policy changes and ease of doing business have made MRO an attractive yet crucial sector of focus. A robust MRO set up for commercial airlines can eventually help reduce ticket prices in India. On the defence side, capital investments in MRO will help build greater synergies between the government and private players, as happens all across the globe,” Johri told Business Today.

“By stepping into aerospace MRO, we’re actively looking to tap into our defence offset plans laid out towards favoring a self-reliant and Aatmanirbhar Bharat. We are confident that with this partnership India will truly become a key part of the global defence supply chain in the coming times,” a separate statement from IDBI Capital Markets & Securities quoted vice president Amey Belorkar, as saying.

A recent study done by aviation consultancy Caladrius Aero Consulting has estimated that almost $800 million worth of MRO business is generated annually by commercial airline operators in India. Currently, Indian MRO players serve less than 10 per cent of this market, with a substantial part of the work getting offshored to countries like Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and the UAE. Similarly, in military aviation, nearly $1.2 billion worth of MRO business is available in India in the form of defence offsets or core MRO work of Indian fleets.

In the last few years, the MRO segment has been showcased as having rapid growth potential for potential investors by the government. Civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has even urged Indian carriers to persuade their original equipment manufacturer (OEM) vendors to develop MRO facilities in the country.

[jaysimha]

RossellTechsys wins Boeing Contract to Manufacture Wire Harnesses for the T-7A Red Hawk Platform
ANI PR
24 February, 2022
https://theprint.in/ani-press-releases/ ... rm/845394/

RossellTechsys has also manufactured EWIS parts for the Engineering and Manufacturing Design (EMD) and Flight Test (FT) versions of the T-7A Red Hawk. Rossell, to date, has manufactured over 100,000 EWIS parts for Boeing.

[jaysimha]

BC Instruments India Pvt. Ltd.
DEFENCE and AeroSpace
https://bci-india.com/aerospace/
https://bci-india.com/defense/

[Vips]

BEL to supply of 957 commander sights for T-90 Battle Tanks.

Providing a further boost to the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government in the Defence Sector, the acquisition wing of the Ministry of Defence has on Thursday has signed a contract for Rs 1,075 crore with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for the retro-modification of commander sight of Battle Tanks-T-90. The retro-modification will be carried out in 957 T-90 tanks of the Indian Army.

Commander sight of Battle Tank T-90, India’s premier battle tank, is presently fitted with an image converter (I/c) tube-based sight for night viewing. Based on the requirement projected by the Indian Army, DRDO and BEL have jointly designed and developed an advanced Mid Wave Thermal Image (MWIR) based sight as a replacement for the existing IC-based sight.

The new retro-modified commander sight employs a thermal imager capable of detecting the targets at 8 kms during day and night and a Laser Ranger Finder (LRF) to find the ranges accurately up to 5 Kms, thereby enhancing its capability to engage target at longer ranges. With the corrections from ballistic software and LRF, the commander of T-90 can detect, engage and neutralize the targets with phenomenal accuracy. The indigenously developed sight completed extensive evaluations under field conditions successfully.

The successful indigenous development of thermal imager based commander sight will provide further fillip to indigenous R&D and defence manufacturing.

[jaysimha]

Namaskaram!
Another announcement. We are (again) delighted and humbled to share that Dvizira has won another Defence India Startup Challenges (5) by iDEX - DIO. We will be developing an AI-based system for battlefield spectrum management for the Indian Army.

The future warfare is being connected and augmented. Battlefield is evolving with an exponential number of weapons and systems, all demanding it's own bandwidth. Our futuristic solution will enhance Electronic Warfare capability, to monitor and manage the spectrum, autonomously.

We like to thank Info CDIIC and all stakeholders supporting us grow.

Meet us during Defence Expo 2022, at Gandhinagar.
Follow the page for updates on #progress , #career and more.
Join us and put your skills for a life beyond ordinary.

_______________
We are Dvizira. We stand in the line of defence. We stand with the soldiers.
Jai Hind!

As posted on linkedIN

[Prem Kumar]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 838188.cms

Excellent points made by PM Modi:

1) If you want an element of surprise, you have to build indigenous weapons. Example: SMART
2) We are exporting defence equipment to 75 countries. Exports have grown 6X
3) 70% Capital procurement earmarked for domestic industry. He is walking the talk by cancellation of Athos, Predator etc
4) Version 3 of "positive indigenization list" coming soon

[YashG]

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 838188.cms

Excellent points made by PM Modi:

1) If you want an element of surprise, you have to build indigenous weapons. Example: SMART
2) We are exporting defence equipment to 75 countries. Exports have grown 6X
3) 70% Capital procurement earmarked for domestic industry. He is walking the talk by cancellation of Athos, Predator etc
4) Version 3 of "positive indigenization list" coming soon

- Exports should grow 60X, given how small was our base
- Banning imports is the greatest thing PM did - very amazing, its the best signalling to Indian domestic industry that they will get order - just a matter of time

[kit]

https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news ... -on-russia

Janes data compiled on 24 February shows the country most at risk from diminished Russian supplies is India. The difficulties that New Delhi could face in acquiring such materiel is likely to have a significant impact on the preparedness of the Indian military.

[Karan M]

Thank you IA for dropping the Arjun for the T-90, IAF for ignoring the Tejas and loading up on the Flanker alone. Thanks to you, the MoF and MEA will have a gala time in the years ahead trying to keep the spares and munitions pipeline flowing.

[Atmavik]

Thank you IA for dropping the Arjun for the T-90, IAF for ignoring the Tejas and loading up on the Flanker alone. Thanks to you, the MoF and MEA will have a gala time in the years ahead trying to keep the spares and munitions pipeline flowing.

The current situation might be a blessing in disguise for us to end this Russian dependence

[Vayutuvan]

The current situation might be a blessing in disguise for us to end this Russian dependence

Except that China/Pakis might start something while this Uk thing is ongoing.

[jaysimha]

DRDO News letter
FEBRUARY 2022 | VOLUME 42 | ISSUE 02
https://www.drdo.gov.in/sites/default/f ... Feb_22.pdf

BRAHMOS SUPERSONIC CRUISE MISSILE

SUCCESSFULLY TEST-FIRED LATOT FOR IRDE DEVELOPED PRODUCTS

DRDO HANDS OVER TECHNOLOGY OF EXTREME COLD WEATHER CLOTHING SYSTEM TO FIVE
INDIAN COMPANIES

[kit]

Thank you IA for dropping the Arjun for the T-90, IAF for ignoring the Tejas and loading up on the Flanker alone. Thanks to you, the MoF and MEA will have a gala time in the years ahead trying to keep the spares and munitions pipeline flowing.

The current situation might be a blessing in disguise for us to end this Russian dependence

India needs to build up on R&D facilities and spending substantially and immediately with focus on requirements, the Russian sources are no longer reliable , forget Ukrainian.

Would be interesting to build a list of weapon systems

[Prem Kumar]

Even Germany, with sugar-daddy US around and no direct conflict, has pumped up their Defence budget to 2% of their GDP with an immediate infusion of EUR 100 Billion.

We are in an active conflict situation with 2 hostiles, both nuclear armed. Pegging our GDP at a measly 2.1% is not going to cut it, especially since our Capex is much smaller, due to the need to maintain a large army. Its got to be more than that *plus* has to be spent on domestic suppliers, so that we get more bang for the buck.

[Pratyush]

The current situation might be a blessing in disguise for us to end this Russian dependence

This Russian dependent Bharat has to be replaced by an Atmnirbhar Bharat.

[YashG]

1. Allow MSMEs who have active possibility of getting orders from DPSUs to avail capital investments on low interest rates (200 bps below market rates) based on procurement EOIs from DPSUs. Ofcourse the DPSU + MoD has to then guarantee that they will place required orders, or the NPAs if any will be covered by MoD budgets. Banks will lend easily.

2. Pool in $10 Bn with private participation as an investment arm for infusing into existing MSMEs as well as acquisitions abroad. Make a list of all large Indian owned corporates > 1Bn USD revenues to manadatorily pool in the first $2.5 Bn (25 x $100 mn). (30% debt, 30% Pvt Equity, 40% Govt Equity). You can even make a 2 tier fund with 2nd tier investing into less critical technology programs with overseas money participation allowed.

3. Pass a research mandate for all institute capable of research on a task based collaboration with DPSUs/Def MSMEs. This will fail if you dont identify actors who will do this at individual level instead of doing this as institute level. So create a secret list of researchers and then give them the money to go crazy after new ideas. This can be done through references and past research output. Will take a 5-10 people team, 2-3 months to identify a list of such people. Work on activation procedures in parallel.

4. Create a private sector managed arm for information warfare wing that recruits and manages a whole squadron of hackers/IT professionals - give them a $10bn contract for 5 years for managing, developing IT weapons and for protecting against such information warfare tools - with a good dose of computing talent. Say kind of Indian Palantir (not surveillance), just better maybe"

5. Ofcourse increase MoD budget - leverage a rupee from private sector for every rupee govt. spends in R&D. Procurement is all govt spend.

[Prasad]

All cash-flow related help can come later. First place orders. Companies and banks will find a way to figure things out and govt can be on-hand and aid companies getting funding to kickstart production. Without orders, everything else is immaterial.

[nam]

With the drop in the rouble value.. the Russian kit becomes even more economical! Watch how in the name of "RFP", "competition" etc, our companies are undercut.

All it takes is orders. We have enough tech, enough companies to built what we need. Bar the jet turbine engine we have everything, except orders.

Sakari DPSU are only interested in gov salary, services wants import because the DPSU dont deliver, MoD babus want to keep the DPSU empire running for the perks

In all these circus, GoI is not bothered.. go and beg other nations at the first sign of trouble.