If I understand you right, the Army made a decision to procure a decade back. The procurement process took a decade - can we say procurement abortion of a process here? - and in the meantime, we built up quite an artillery industry domestically. And yet, the army continued to negotiate for the Israeli guns. And now, ignoring the domestic surplus of new artillery systems developed within the country, they want to purchase the Israeli guns.
That makes it all right. I beg pardon for abusing the army... Well, actually, I won't.
The abuse is well deserved because we have world class artillery developed in house. One can enter into a store, peruse the merchandise and walk away without spending a paise. It's the buyer's prerogative to buy or not to buy. At a time when the defense budget is allowed to grow by a pittance when capital expenses thanks to foreign purchases are soaring, when there are domestic alternatives that are better by far, going ahead with the foreign purchase is a crime that has no defense. Period. End. Dot.
India expects the Staff to not be dinosaurs about decisions. As circumstances change, as local MIC develops weapon systems that fit our defense needs, the Army needs to stop their foreign contracts and shift procurement to the domestic alternative. That way lies strategic independence. Shouting Geronimo and jumping to buy foreign systems because we wasted a decade to downlist a vendor and negotiate a contract is not acceptable. Not now. Not ever. The Army must buy Indian. Make in India doesn't mean screwdriver girl. It means support and inculcate R&D into our MIC's DNA, establish and nurture domestic value chain for our MIC, build the skilled labor to design and produce the next generation of the weapon system to the umpteenth generation, and using those weapons to their utmost potential in defense of the realm. Period. End. Dot.
Srutayus wrote:This is a legacy procurement process that started in 2011-2012 that has slowly wound its way through the MoD.
The difference now is the presence of potential indigenous alternatives. Note though that the Kalyani product has not been through the testing cycle yet, and the ATAGS has some months left for user validation.
Hope they do with this what happened with the Spike. But that also means that we will repose faith on systems not fully certified yet: the Kalyani- Bharat-52, the ATAGS and the OFB 52 cal.
By all means advocate for the indigenous products. But do not abuse the Army before understanding the context.