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

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 28 Jan 2015 18:54

SSridhar, I think ISI would regard the past decade as its golden epoch in India. All that has to be undone now. I just hope NaMo/Doval and co are apprised of the seriousness of the issue. Unlike the vested interests in the media and elsewhere, it looks like the ISI is fairly concerned about the development of advanced capabilities by the DRDO and associated orgs and may well engage in terror attacks since Pakistan is nowhere on the same level. Base security also needs to be upped.

Thakur_B · Post by **Thakur_B** » 28 Jan 2015 18:56

Good to know that at least hawks are being made ahead of schedule by HAL.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 28 Jan 2015 19:05

Depends on kits and spares no. If BAe has fixed that, then HALs issues fixed.

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 28 Jan 2015 19:22

Undone and paid back. No half baked solutions.

Ramu · Post by **Ramu** » 28 Jan 2015 19:30

Karan M wrote:SSridhar, I think ISI would regard the past decade as its golden epoch in India. All that has to be undone now. I just hope NaMo/Doval and co are apprised of the seriousness of the issue. Unlike the vested interests in the media and elsewhere, it looks like the ISI is fairly concerned about the development of advanced capabilities by the DRDO and associated orgs and may well engage in terror attacks since Pakistan is nowhere on the same level. Base security also needs to be upped.

Gazwa e hind on indian media by ISI is actually successful during the last 10 years.

shaun · Post by **shaun** » 28 Jan 2015 19:34

People assigned with missile testing should be well protected , ISI now have name , photos and ranks . Investigation too should be made on people who actually hired that anti national . If he could have been trapped along with his benefactors then there would have been some breakthrough . Anyway investigation should continue and the technocrats assigned with missile projects well protected even from honey traps.

vsunder · Post by **vsunder** » 28 Jan 2015 20:06

I am wondering if there is a connection between Behera and Chander being let go. Clearly security was lax at DRDO and eventually the buck has to stop somewhere. Chander did contribute to the missile program and so GoI is in a quandary. The next guy assumes office with a clean slate and hopefully now deals with the fall out of Behera rather than having the incident exposed as soon as he takes over. Surely Parrikar knew all this and I am convinced had inputs from Doval. Maybe letting go of Chander is a message that security cannot be chalta hai at DRDO and as important a component as delivering products in a time bound manner. Just guessing with the timing of events.

NRao · Post by **NRao** » 28 Jan 2015 20:37

Catching this guy could have something to do with the fall of the old gov in SL?

fanne · Post by **fanne** » 28 Jan 2015 20:45

roger that vsunder sahib

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 28 Jan 2015 20:53

pretty sure this is the tip of the iceberg. forget missile tests, think of how many buildings are close to bases and how many spotters are inside. we really need to weed out ISI guys as a first priority.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 28 Jan 2015 21:43

http://nosint.blogspot.com/2015/01/us-t ... craft.html

?!?!? don't understand if we lack anything here? except perhaps the engines.. and nuke power

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 28 Jan 2015 21:49

vsunder wrote:I am wondering if there is a connection between Behera and Chander being let go. Clearly security was lax at DRDO and eventually the buck has to stop somewhere. Chander did contribute to the missile program and so GoI is in a quandary. The next guy assumes office with a clean slate and hopefully now deals with the fall out of Behera rather than having the incident exposed as soon as he takes over. Surely Parrikar knew all this and I am convinced had inputs from Doval. Maybe letting go of Chander is a message that security cannot be chalta hai at DRDO and as important a component as delivering products in a time bound manner. Just guessing with the timing of events.

I noticed that in th last 3-4 years there was a lot of (never before) positive press for DRDO and I suspected that someone at the top in DRDO was responsible for trying to improve the image of the organization with press releases and some trumpet blowing. These cameramen etc may have been allowed in in some numbers for that purpose, introducing a security risk.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 29 Jan 2015 00:12

KaranM, Now relate the Behera fellow with possible clone in the atomic agency which led to the rash of deaths of key personnel.

Looks like internal security is weakened.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 29 Jan 2015 00:29

so, the deep asset loss was more internal infliction rather the capability to do the same on the neighborhood! wow! that is a serious concern indeed.

srin · Post by **srin** » 29 Jan 2015 00:35

Folks, we should be careful and not tarnish a scientist's reputation through sheer speculation and linking with an ISI mole. We don't know why exactly AC's tenure was shortened (and we may never), but as of this moment, he is still the DRDO chief and the SA to RM.

OTOH, this ISI mole may be the "non-technical reason" why A-5 test got pushed.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 29 Jan 2015 00:41

Srin sir, agree. My understanding is AC did not agree with NaMos under 35 policy + no extension to seniors and pushed back & paid the price.

This issue OTOH is beyond Chander sir.

I can fully believe we have far too many holes in our sec-net after UPA's "TSP pasand" policies. Only question is whether we can plug them fast enough.

Its also ironic when a couple of folks on this forum spend all their time running down our scientific establishment for their own agenda, and the "other side" is busy plotting activities against them.

Media running campaigns. Mention of the Chandigarh club by ex RAW officer RSN Singh. Its war at multiple levels & I only hope our technical industry is not a soft target for real world attacks given the psywar has been running against them for a long time.

Given NaMos micromanaging style, I'd wager (and hope) he has been apprised and takes these things seriously.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 29 Jan 2015 03:04

Karan: > My understanding is AC did not agree with NaMos under 35 policy + no extension to seniors and pushed back & paid the price.

It could be even deeper. IOW, there might have been irreconcilable differences on the broad direction of DRDO/Defence R&D.

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 29 Jan 2015 11:19

Thakur_B wrote:IRDE is looking for 1280X1024 MWIR digital IDDCA (INTEGRATED DETECTOR DEWAR COOLER ASSEMBLY) alongwith proximity electronics. I wonder what is that for? That is a very high resolution array. IRST maybe ?

IRDE is designing MREO Payload Sensor Assembly for UAVs to be housed in a stabilized belly mounted gimbal (being designed by ADE). This is for the thermal imager in the same. They have quadrupled the resolution from the original design (640X512).

Sagar G · Post by **Sagar G** » 29 Jan 2015 19:10

vsunder wrote:I am wondering if there is a connection between Behera and Chander being let go. Clearly security was lax at DRDO and eventually the buck has to stop somewhere. Chander did contribute to the missile program and so GoI is in a quandary. The next guy assumes office with a clean slate and hopefully now deals with the fall out of Behera rather than having the incident exposed as soon as he takes over. Surely Parrikar knew all this and I am convinced had inputs from Doval. Maybe letting go of Chander is a message that security cannot be chalta hai at DRDO and as important a component as delivering products in a time bound manner. Just guessing with the timing of events.

If that would have been the case then the action would have been directed against director of ITR and not Chander. It isn't possible for a man sitting in Delhi to be responsible for security of labs spread all over the country. The security of DRDO labs lies with different agency. People here want our scientists to focus on technical research or be responsible for security ??? Having said this it doesn't mean that they have a no hands approach towards security.

I bet the handler has been caught and only the news of the traitor has been released to the public. I hope he is charged with sections which will result in him being hanged, that will send a good message.

We need to state it clearly in public that any attack on our strategic assets will be treated as an attack on our country and will result in a nuke retaliation on Pak. We surely need to better protect our scientists.

Thakur_B · Post by **Thakur_B** » 29 Jan 2015 19:12

indranilroy wrote:
Thakur_B wrote:IRDE is looking for 1280X1024 MWIR digital IDDCA (INTEGRATED DETECTOR DEWAR COOLER ASSEMBLY) alongwith proximity electronics. I wonder what is that for? That is a very high resolution array. IRST maybe ?
IRDE is designing MREO Payload Sensor Assembly for UAVs to be housed in a stabilized belly mounted gimbal (being designed by ADE). This is for the thermal imager in the same. They have quadrupled the resolution from the original design (640X512).

Interesting. That is Litening 4 level resolution in the EO payload. IB4 the regular whiners show up saying this is hobbyist level technology

Sagar G · Post by **Sagar G** » 29 Jan 2015 19:15

shiv wrote:I noticed that in th last 3-4 years there was a lot of (never before) positive press for DRDO and I suspected that someone at the top in DRDO was responsible for trying to improve the image of the organization with press releases and some trumpet blowing. These cameramen etc may have been allowed in in some numbers for that purpose, introducing a security risk.

DRDO labs have cameramen on payroll working for the respective lab though I find it very odd that a cameraman was hired on contract and that too for a super sensitive site like ITR.

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 29 Jan 2015 19:35

indranilroy wrote:
Thakur_B wrote:IRDE is looking for 1280X1024 MWIR digital IDDCA (INTEGRATED DETECTOR DEWAR COOLER ASSEMBLY) alongwith proximity electronics. I wonder what is that for? That is a very high resolution array. IRST maybe ?
IRDE is designing MREO Payload Sensor Assembly for UAVs to be housed in a stabilized belly mounted gimbal (being designed by ADE). This is for the thermal imager in the same. They have quadrupled the resolution from the original design (640X512).

Correction: It is for the LREO (Long Range Electro Optical) Payload Sensor assembly. Explains the need to up the resolution from the MREO assembly described in the link above.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 29 Jan 2015 22:20

SagarG, I think the focus on the contract aspect is misdirected. The focus should be on all employees
(contract, non-contract) in such sensitive facilities. Do they have periodic check of security clearances? All aspects.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 29 Jan 2015 22:49

matrimc wrote:Karan: > My understanding is AC did not agree with NaMos under 35 policy + no extension to seniors and pushed back & paid the price.

It could be even deeper. IOW, there might have been irreconcilable differences on the broad direction of DRDO/Defence R&D.

Matrimc saar, this issue is probably again going to detract from the thread again so will reply to you in GD.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 30 Jan 2015 01:01

Mixes up fibreglass as composite (subset as vs complete) but some interesting data

http://www.business-standard.com/articl ... 924_1.html

“The fibreglass (composite) content in the defence industry will alone be Rs 20,000 crore from the total Rs 200,000 crore worth spending in the development of indigenous defence systems in the next 10 years,” said Avinash Chander, chief of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), today.

In his inaugural address at the international conference on reinforced plastics here, Chander said the DRDO was working on raising the utilisation of fibreglass material components in the next version of light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas equipped with Mark-II engine, from the “present 65 per cent to up to 80 per cent”.

“The wings for the aircraft are now totally being made out of fibreglass structures. We are going to look at having the entire fuselage made out of them. Once we achieve this, we want the domestic industry to manufacture the secondary (internal) structures in the aircraft,” he said.

......

Noting the use of fibreglass has been an integral part of the country's Agni series of missiles, he said research was happening to make use of them in the manufacture of submarines, unmanned aerial vehicles and light-weight radars.

Indranil · Post by **Indranil** » 30 Jan 2015 05:18

Lessons were learnt in the ouster of Dr. Avinash Chander. The same were not repeated with Sujata Singh.

1. Sushma Swaraj tweeted that she had talked to "personally" talked to her.
2. Singh was offered a graceful exit, giving her an alternate job. She was given the time to write to her colleagues that she is taking up "voluntary retirement".

In this case, the problem was that MEA was not towing Modi's line to the tee with respect to Israel, Denmark and Japan. Wonder if the same is the case with Dr. Chander.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 30 Jan 2015 06:02

Karan M wrote:Matrimc saar, this issue is probably again going to detract from the thread again so will reply to you in GD.

No problem. TBH there is no need. Just posted something I heard. It is not a 100% kind of thing, FWIW.

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 30 Jan 2015 06:13

nope, i think AC case is different. i know, we should not be guessing. we have to wait for more details.. of course you can abstract the reason most likely to be not falling in line with modi's agenda

in my thoughts - more like, non operational state of some key program for the defence - arjun, lca, etc. it could be also to drive how to save $15-20b on Rafale., that can go into AMCA and GTRE restructuring.

deejay · Post by **deejay** » 31 Jan 2015 14:54

Mr. T Suvarna Raju has been given additional charge of Chairman HAL in an interview with Anantha Krishnan, interview posted on Tarmak007.

http://tarmak007.blogspot.in/2015/01/ch ... takes.html

Mr. T. Suvarna Raju who has a distinction of being granted the first patent in HAL in January 2002 has been entrusted Addition Charge as Chairman, HAL. He took over from Dr. R.K. Tyagi here today. “Given the high expectation built around the Company, my priorities would be to concentrate on operational excellence, and build the company as technology powerhouse”, says he. He is committed to set the HAL as one of the best examples that align with “Make-in-India” endeavour of the Government of India and he believes that doing so may be a challenging job in the aviation filed, however not impossible because he strongly believes that “the Best of Technologies can never be bought, it can only be developed”. “I would like HAL to grow as knowledge based organization”, he emphasises.
Born in a humble village of P. Vemavaram of Tanuku (West Godavari) district in Andhra Pradesh (A.P.), Mr. Raju, an Engineering Gratudate, joined HAL on June 26, 1980 as Management Trainee. Unfazed by the extreme work hours and challenging goals, Raju not only continued to deliver and meet his professional goals and targets, but also continued perusing is academic interests. Raju, attended prestigious Indian Institute of Technology at Chennai. Raju was selected and attended the elitist National Defence College. Raju also undertook academic program at National Law School of India University relating to Intellectual Property Rights. He obtained his Masters in Business Administration as well as Masters of Philosophy in Deference and strategic Studies.
The combination of professional responsibilities and academic exposures provided Raju an edge in leading a number of new initiatives and out of box solutions. Under the leadership of Raju, INDIA achieved self-reliance producing 25kN turbofan engines. Raju led drafting of HAL’s first R & D policy, HAL has now applied for an unprecedented 1000 patents in last two years. He also conceptualised, prepared and implemented a number of automation and real-time systems. Raju is recognized for his achievements time to time. One of the feather in has cap is the Dr. Biren Roy Trust Award by the Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI) for his unstinted efforts in planning and establishment of new technologies at HAL.
Under his leadership Raju heralded a new era in research and development programmes that covered LCA, LUH, LCH, IJT, HTT-40, Jaguar DARIN-III, Mirage Upgrade etc., Significant milestones have been achieved on R&D front with delivery of first series production LCA-Tejas aircraft and ground test vehicle run of LUH. He implemented the concurrent engineering to facilitate the development and production of new aircraft. He also developed the concept of performance based logistics for military aircraft.
Mr. Raju has been instrumental in taking various path breaking measures to make R&D set up of HAL more competitive. He was responsible for drafting of first ever R&D policy of the Company that has shaped various policy initiatives in last few years. With his leadership, all the design centres were brought under the ambit of Committee of Institutional Network (COIN) to synergize the learning across the organization. The policy has enabled creation of a corpus for the R&D by keeping aside 10% of Operating Profit after Tax.
He also contributed towards success of Jaguar production and overhaul facilities establishment at HAL. He has the distinction of having experience in Design & Development, Manufacturing, Maintenance and Upgrade of various types of platforms. Mr Raju was instrumental in establishing production line of Hawk Mk 132 aircraft and its record delivery. He managed the Mirage 2000 aircraft maintenance project which has the distinction of on time deliveries without any cost over-run.
Mr. Raju has been member of various High Level Teams formed by Ministry of Defence (MoD) for assessing the Techno-economic viability of acquisitions. He has been a member of various studies constituted by Indian Defence services and has received commendations for his professional involvement and contributions.
Currently, Mr. Raju is the Chairman of the Bangalore Chapter of AeSI and is the first Member Secretary of Design Development Management Board (DDMB) established by Ministry of Defence (MOD). He is also Member Secretary, National Aeronautics Co-ordination Group.

]

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 31 Jan 2015 15:30

shiv wrote:
vsunder wrote:I am wondering if there is a connection between Behera and Chander being let go. Clearly security was lax at DRDO and eventually the buck has to stop somewhere. Chander did contribute to the missile program and so GoI is in a quandary. The next guy assumes office with a clean slate and hopefully now deals with the fall out of Behera rather than having the incident exposed as soon as he takes over. Surely Parrikar knew all this and I am convinced had inputs from Doval. Maybe letting go of Chander is a message that security cannot be chalta hai at DRDO and as important a component as delivering products in a time bound manner. Just guessing with the timing of events.
I noticed that in th last 3-4 years there was a lot of (never before) positive press for DRDO and I suspected that someone at the top in DRDO was responsible for trying to improve the image of the organization with press releases and some trumpet blowing. These cameramen etc may have been allowed in in some numbers for that purpose, introducing a security risk.

they could as easily have floated an ad asking for cameramen to be employed on a regular basis, which would also have had the advantage of the mandatory background check by agencies.

arshyam · Post by **arshyam** » 31 Jan 2015 23:42

Mathur gets additional charge of defence research - The Hindu

Defence Secretary R.K. Mathur has been given additional charge of Secretary, Department of Defence Research and Development, for a period of three months.

He will take charge on January 31 when Dr. Avinash Chander demits office after the government curtailed his extended contract, which otherwise would have ended in May 2016.

Dr. Chander has held the positions of Director-General, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Secretary, Department of Research and Development.

Hmm, not really a split of responsibilities as was speculated earlier. The Def Sec now will wear two hats, while a new R&D Sec is found.

Does anyone know who is/are going to hold the other 2 posts held by Dr. Chander? (DG, DRDO and SA to RM)

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 01 Feb 2015 00:48

LRDE is also developing an AD FCR for the Army. Given FCR function, perhaps a replacement for the Flycatcher series?

Atulya FCR.

This is apart from the MMSR - MultiMode Surveillance Radar, which will likely include WLR functions.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 02 Feb 2015 02:19

http://www.defenseworld.net/news/12055/ ... M6bXy7g_Ko

Indian DRDO’s Quality Directorate Monitoring New Carbine Development
Source : Pinaki Bhattcharya ~ Dated : Sunday, February 1, 2015

The Indian Defence Research and Development Organization(DRDO), long pilloried for delivering late and producing tardy products, has set up a Directorate of Quality, Reliability and Safety.

The relatively new directorate is tasked to maintain conformity with staff qualitative requirements of the three Services; observation and testing at the trials; and other quality assessments. It was set up in late 2013 but details of its existence was not known until recently.

It has been monitoring from the design stage the Joint Venture Protective Carbine, which is a new carbine the DRDO has decided to make for the Indian Army. While it is early days yet, the armed forces have not yet given their verdict on the functioning of the directorate.

The rather unusually named Joint Venture Protective Carbine (JVPC) is also called the Modern Sub-Machine Carbine and is at the user trial stage, according to a news agency report. DRDO’s history in the small arms business has been mixed with several R & D projects but few in the army’s hands. Even the highly rated INSAS rifle was criticised by the army for being prone to jamming and its magazine developing cracks.

The quality directorate functions as an independent entity and is actually a spin-off from a body that already existed in the DRDO dedicated to the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) and other missile programmes.

Besides inspecting for quality assurance, and reliability and safety issues, the personnel deputed with the directorate also lend expert advice to remove glitches, till the product or processes are delivered for user trials.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 02 Feb 2015 02:22

http://www.business-standard.com/articl ... 776_1.html

DRDO takes only 5 yrs from drawing board to delivery: Avinash Chander

Interview with Outgoing DRDO chief
Business Standard | New Delhi
February 1, 2015 Last Updated at 23:38 IST
The day after he relinquished charge as chief of the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), Avinash Chander had a freewheeling chat with Business Standard. He, however, declined to address questions about the government's controversial termination of his contract only days after renewing it for 18 months. Edited excerpts:

What lies ahead for you?

I have a cooling-off period of one year, in which I will not be accepting employment in any field relating to defence. However, I could get a job where there is no linkage with DRDO - teaching in a university, for example. Hopefully, I will contribute somewhere. The 'Make in India' initiative offers opportunities for people with experience and knowledge.

It is noteworthy that the government has not chosen a successor to you.

Not really. They will probably set up a search committee who will find my successor. Until then, the defence secretary will temporarily fill the post.

There has long been a proposal to trifurcate the three important posts that the DRDO chief holds - head of DRDO, scientific advisor to the Raksha Mantri, and secretary (defence R&D). Do you believe your successor might hold only one or two of those posts?

I don't believe a change is warranted. This is a bogey that has been going around - that the DRDO is over-centralised since the chief holds too many posts.

The Rama Rao Committee (on DRDO re-organisation) strongly recommended the three posts remain vested in a single person. The Naresh Chandra committee had recommended separation but not trifurcation. The government will have to take a call.

The other two scientific departments (space and atomic energy) have no such separation. The space commission chairman also heads ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). There is no separate advisor for space matters.

One cannot segregate tightly-linked functions - one person running the organisation, another advising the minister, and a third doing administration. There will naturally be points of difference between them. Is the (defence) ministry prepared and equipped to then choose?

The DRDO has been criticised for delays and poor quality.

The DRDO's performance is being invariably judged by events of a decade ago. When people talk of delays, they cite the light combat aircraft and the Arjun tank, both of which have been delivered. We need to get out of those historical references and realise the current position, which is that the military has ordered Rs 1.7 lakh-crore worth of DRDO-developed equipment.

Today, DRDO takes only four or five years to move a system from drawing board to delivery. Take software defined radio, which involves cutting-edge technology. Within three-and-a-half years, our Defence Electronics Applications Laboratory, Dehradun, developed the system and offered it to the user, who finds its performance better than his demands.

Likewise, our Electronics Research and Development Establishment, Bangalore has developed better, and cheaper, radars than many imported systems. The Weapon Locating Radar and Ashlesha (low-level radar for mountains) for example.

Shouldn't the military be pushing these projects?

Yes, they should be demanding and pushing for the products. The forces and the DRDO must jointly plan future equipping: what must be indigenised, what should be imported; what is the short-term perspective and the long-term need. How can we involve the private sector? For example, in the Advanced Towed Artillery Gun system, the DRDO is cooperating with the private sector. Similarly, the Astra class of air-to-air missiles can easily be built by the private sector. So, we are looking for a production partner in the private sector.

The private sector can also build combat-ready systems like the Akash surface-to-air missile (SAM), since they are much freer to develop export markets. Our DPSUs (defence public sector units) are not structured to do that. They have been too inward-looking and order-oriented.

The problems of export permissions remain. Defence exports have been hindered by our "peace-loving" foreign policy rhetoric.

That is in our own hands. What is so indefensible about defence export? We don't intend to violate the Missile Technology Control Regime or some other regime. Deploying ethics in this matter is very peculiar. If it is moral to import weaponry, how can it be immoral to export it?

India's shift from international weapons sanctions to a position where the world is trying to sell us weaponry is a big change for the DRDO.

For the DRDO, this is a driver for change. It will have to come out of its comfort zone of developing weaponry that is already available on the international market. It will have to shift to cutting-edge technologies.

The DRDO has demonstrated its readiness to move to a higher technology plane. The Astra missile, for example, is a world-class air-to-air missile in terms of its range, accuracy and capabilities. It is comparable or better than most of the missiles international vendors are offering us.

But are the users happy with these DRDO products?

The air force is extremely happy with the Astra. After the missile is tested next month on a live target, it will go onto a fast track. Similarly, the army says that with the supply of DRDO's Akash and Akash-2 surface-to-air missile, they are dropping the planned import of a short-range surface-to-air-missile (SR-SAM). What remains to be done is to demonstrate to the services that these products can be built in large numbers, in good quality, and without delay. The production agencies must give them that confidence.

Transferring R&D into production has always been a bottleneck.

Precisely. DRDO has been advocating that a production agency must be guaranteed a big order, even while a weapons system is being developed. Of course, that order will be placed only if the weapon is developed successfully. But a firm order will encourage the private sector to invest and to participate in the development. It will also bring down the induction time cycle; we have been advocating that the first prototype itself should be built by the production agency.

But selecting your production agency gets mired in procedure. The ministry of defence (MoD) does not want to nominate a particular company...

We make the rules, don't we? Somewhere, the government has to take a decision. There are no more than 5-10 private companies are capable of participating in development and building in large numbers. They can all be asked to quote. Even nominating a particular company should not be a problem, providing you are distributing orders to all of them - one to the Tatas, one to Larsen & Toubro, etc - and you are open about it. Once these companies establish themselves, start making them compete. Then it becomes survival of the fittest.[

Do you see any signs this is happening?

There is a much stronger impetus in MoD to make this happen. The procedures are being simplified to make it easier to participate and there is a dialogue with the industry. It will certainly happen because there is no other way.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 02 Feb 2015 02:27

KaranM, Have you heard about DMD? I don't know what it stands for but its about machinery used for defence equipment. I guess not the weapons systems but what goes to support it.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 02 Feb 2015 02:33

Yes sir.. its an org dedicated for the SBC/N-sub program. IIRC run by the Navy. Its Defence Material Department.

Karan M · Post by **Karan M** » 02 Feb 2015 02:35

Found a link
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/analysis ... kly-531152'

Top government sources indicate it is likely to happen over the next few months.

Like all professionals, the team that brought Arihant to this stage is now focused on the next two submarines in the series being built in the same shipyard. Their aim is to take the indigenous content of the next two nuclear submarines from the 40 to 60 and then to 70 per cent by the time the third submarine is ready for commissioning possibly by 2017. The combined team that has built Arihant is however proud of the fact that its digital control systems are designed completely locally which means no dependence on foreign vendors in this critical aspect.

According to Commodore Ranjit Rai, a former Director, Naval Operations and Naval Intelligence, this project has seen a huge collaborative effort.

Writing in a defence magazine some years ago, he had observed: "A large planning and design office called Akanksha (Hope) in New Delhi, has directed the ATV programme under the current Director General, retired Vice Admiral D S P Verma. Facilities at Vishakapatnam have been built by the DRDO, industry and the Indian Navy with BARC's collaboration with funds and monitoring from the PMO.

"Two Admirals with technical expertise have headed the two large supporting complexes. One is the sprawling Defence Material Department (DMD) at Hyderabad, which collaborates with DRDO labs and BHEL for the heat exchanger turbine propulsion system, and MIDHANI for special steel requirements and other contractors. The large Submarine Building Centre (SBC), tucked behind high walls and barbed wires in the heart of Vishakapatnam, is where the hull was put together in sections provided from engineering and refinery reactor maker L&T. This company is investing heavily in ship building, and already has facilities at Hazira in Gujarat and Mazagon Docks in Mumbai (Bombay).

"Walchandnagar Industries provided the gear box and shafting as it does to Indian Navy's Leanders. Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), another state-run company, is fitting out the USHUS sonar, radars and the Combat Management System along with Tata Power Ltd which has a tieup with BAE Systems for the control pedestal. KSB pumps and Jindal pipes have also played a significant role. The submarine is coated with rubber anechoic tiles supplied by a rubber vulcanising firm in Mysore to provide stealth qualities."

BARC, which steered the critical nuclear reactor installation programme in 1975, also manufactures and stores India's fission and fusion atomic bombs. It has provided training to Navy's technical officers in submarine nuclear technology.

"The ATV project has also set up a small submarine reactor training complex at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), Kalpakkam, near Chennai with facilities to test the 80 MW-plus pressure water reactors before insertion into submarine hulls. The reactor is normally sealed into a 600-ton titanium shell of about 10 metres in diameter.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 02 Feb 2015 04:40

Karan: Thanks for posting Dr. AC interview. He is the genuine article.

sum · Post by **sum** » 02 Feb 2015 05:33

Karan M wrote:Yes sir.. its an org dedicated for the SBC/N-sub program. IIRC run by the Navy. Its Defence Material Department.

^^ My dad was posted there for a long time and they have a large office in Hyd with no nameboard, drab govt style construction etc.

The joke among the employees there was that any newcomer who couldnt locate the office needed to ask anyone on the street where "Secret Navy Office" was and they would point to this building!

( and it was true upto a point!)

geeth · Post by **geeth** » 02 Feb 2015 09:45

KaranM, Have you heard about DMD? I don't know what it stands for but its about machinery used for defence equipment. I guess not the weapons systems but what goes to support it.

Yes, headed by a Rear Admiral from sub Tech branch..Present one is my BM.