ramana wrote:ks_sachin wrote:
Why not bypass the ofb and get manufacturing done by pvt sector. ARDE can conc on design and dev and surely with the conf that manufacturing quality will be good IA will support and iteratively....
You kidding right? What makes you think suddenly Private Sector will make quality military grade products?
Do you know what efforts are needed in US to get there? The huge QA system to ensure the right products get accepted.
I am willing to bet that it will be same story here also.
The DGQA in Army headquarters needs to clean house and ensure they also have ownership of the end products.
Lot of teamwork is need to ensure quality end product.
What I see now is OFB makes products and QA accepts or rejects with no one caring and product quality.
Well now, thanks to all the DRDO handholding, supplying to large services programs etc, there are a bunch of private firms IMHO who can do the job:
Bharat Forge: Make the barrels & key items for ATAGS, also make arty shells for IA. Arguably the best of the lot in that it will handle the metal & its machining both.
Walchandnagar Industries is another firm with both foundry & significant engineering services ability. If they can make gearboxes for IN ships, they can make an assault rifle.
If SAIL, JSW, Tata etc provide the steel/metal then other firms are also there:
L&T: Pinaka launchers, Arihant, Arjun BLT are just some of their better known programs
Tata SED: More known for Electronics but also a Pinaka & Akash systems supplier. Again, precision manufacturing is something they can do.
Tata ASL: The Hyderabad based arm of the Tata group, deals primarily with aerospace structures. But again, a precision manufacturing capability exists.
Dynamatics: Assemblies for Tejas, Su-30 - especially airframe. Machining a rifle isn't anywhere beyond them
VEM: Make all sorts of complex electromechanical assemblies; have significant in-house design capability
Alpha Design Tech: Set up by ex-head BEL R&D, provides assemblies for Su-30s & also acts as the licensed manufacturer for systems like TISAS for IA's T-72s. So again, machining complex assemblies is something they can pick up.
Apart from that there are a bunch of firms in the private sector who can pick up something like gun manufacturing.
There are firms like Punjj Lloyd which applied for licenses and haven't got any significant orders to do anything tangible. It's loss making while most/all the other firms above are profitable small firms, or subsidiaries of conglomerates.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/p ... 383248.ece
They have set up a plant already to export IWI Tavor etc parts to Israel for re-export.
Even in DPSUs - I am sure BDL, BHEL, would do a far better job of making guns than OFB would ever do. BHEL even supplied guns to the Navy under TOT etc. But they are a much stronger firm than OFB anyday. Even ECIL which deals mostly with electromechanical and electronics stuff for DRDO, could be tapped for guns. They come under DAE but DRDO is one of their biggest customers.
Theres a huge list of so many automotive ancillary & other heavy engineering firms who could make guns. Restricting the gun certification to OFB IMHO was just pure politics and sheer laziness on behalf of our so called political masters from the UPA era.
