Cosmo_R wrote:Karan M wrote:
Things change, when people at the top change and suddenly artificial bottlenecks disappear.
Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise used to press buttons sitting on his Barcalounger. They were not connected to anything except empty commands (raise the shields, fire the photon torpedoes). Modi & co can try their hardest but without putting the PSUs into full bore competition with domestic and foreign suppliers, we're not going to get them to raise their game.
As the prior examples showed, Modi & co are already getting PSUs to up their game. And the pvt sector has so far not stepped up (for LCA Mk2). On the other hand, they have not recieved substantial orders as well, so both will take time.
The prospect of imminent death has the has the effect of focusing the mind. For PSUs the the prospect is to deliver on spec and on budget or die just as it would/should be for a startup. If it's a social/ideology issue, we are in trouble.
For all Govt organizations now, the simple expectation is that they deliver, the central ones that is. However, that also means Modi and co, will reciprocate with resources too. Its a 2 way street.
In all simplicity, its about diving our deputed soldiers the means to execute diplomacy by other means. Shame on us if we sacrifice them for R&D and local/indigenous products that don't arrive in time to employ in war.
Its pointless to bring words like shame into a discussion based on facts and not emotion. So far, few of the fancy imports we sign up for either arrive on time or work as advertised.
Buying local is important for strategic independence and also products which can be fixed, not sit in a corner like American WLRs or Israeli Popeyes or Russian Kh-31s gathering dust.
Having watched the stupidity/cupidity for some 50 years Defence PSUs are about patronage employment not about giving the armed forces the tools they need to succeed.
The blame lies squarely on the ruling mafiosi who subverted a system set up for national goals for narrow personal aims. The Defense PSUs BTW haven't exactly been around in their full form for 50 years. HAL yes, but mostly a license assembly shop per New Delhis aims. The real expansion began post '71 when India had to go scouting for arms dealers to sell it ammunition. So the need was genuine and came out of operational necessity.
Most of our PSUs etc began local programs in the 1980s, and that has been a key factor for items such as the Delhi class, the Agnis and the other not so minor items which are surprisingly enough, not available via import.
No developed or aspiring nation has this confusion between goals and tools.
Goals and tools are set by those in power.
Those in power are elected by the electorate. You get what you vote for.
A nation which oscillates between Gandhian non violence to sudden impulse purchases of arms when available at friendship prices or because certain vested interests benefit, will be "confused".
Its confused because its leaders were voted in by people who were/are confused or were desperate, which ensures that the wrong leaders come in and arms imports become a good way to get lifafas and over time everyone gets addicted to them. Tatra come to mind.
End result is a local MIC is ignored, PSUs are subverted, and even well meaning Govts have to depend on imports in the "interim".
The only real successes have been hard won, which include programs like the Tejas.
Not hand me downs like the F-16 which will have come with export controls galore or vapor ware like the Gripen NG which features a ready radar, with GaN no less, which is yet to be developed.
Still figuring out what is the gain in supporting such acquisitions when they neither add to the local technical base (unless screwdrivering panels = mastering AESA) or bring us any real strategic gains (until and unless getting black boxes of which we have no surety of what's inside = strategic autonomy).
A private screwdriver is as good as a PSU one. That's about it.
About offsets and even the Rafale and the lurid claims of them transferring stealth coatings, AESA tech, missile tech - will see it to believe it.
