Vips wrote:Buying a 100% private gun made by an Indian company would expose the DRDO for what they are (they even made a hash of upgrading the original Bofors gun inspite of having all the technical blue prints).
Indian Army will procure from Bharat Forge, Tata Systems (ATAGS) and L&T (Light tanks -Korean K Series rebadged "Zoravar") so long as it is touted as "DRDO -Pvt Sector joint venture".
Not quite so simple Sirjee,
The DRDO has all the blueprints for the Tejas incl. the GE404 and Kaveri engines but they're unable to produce it in-house.
Why? Sometimes you know what to make but you may not know 'how' to make it. That delta in knowledge is Metallurgy & Materials Science ('meta').
20 years ago, I graduated with a BTech in 'meta' and I visited my old department a few months back where my batchmates are now professors. A few observations:
1. Based on JEE rank, there was a clear preference for undergraduate degrees in the following departments CompSci --> Elec --> Mech --> Chem --> Others. People go where economic prospects are better. I believe this is still true today
2. All it takes to do path breaking R&D in CompSci is a notebook and a PC. What it takes in 'meta' is top notch starter materials, fabrication facilities, testing facilities, not to mention metrology. All these cost money and even today my old department is not on par with what UT Austin was 20 years ago
3. People switch their research to what is feasible...a lot of people I knew shifted to computational material science where again, you need good PCs as opposed to directional solidification of engine blades
You cannot replicate the Bofors gun barrel based on blueprints - period. You have to go through the exercise of designing, prototyping, and high volume manufacturing of the Arjun 120mm rifled barrel and thoroughly understand the process before you go replicating Bofors gun barrels