India – the emerging defence manufacturing hub

MUSCAT: India has the second largest armed forces in the world. Ergo the capability to produce defence equipment is an important strategic requirement for India.

India offers huge opportunities for reputed original equipment manufacturers (OEM) from around the globe to forge joint venture partnerships. As the world’s third largest defence spender, the country not only offers a captive domestic market, but also has the infrastructure to double as a manufacturing hub and a base for exports.

India has tremendously enhanced its defence manufacturing capabilities over the years, both in the private and public sector. India is home to around 10,000 micro, small and medium entrepreneurs, who make 80 percent of the components. The major success stories include various flying platforms manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Scorpene class submarines and indigenously designed and developed supersonic BrahMos missiles.

India’s Light Combat Aircraft program (LCA) has matured and evolved over the years as a supersonic, single-seat, single-engine multirole light fighter aircraft. The Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) partnered for the development of LCA, which was officially named Tejas in 2003.

The Tejas Mark-I was awarded Final Operational Clearance (FOC) status by the Indian Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) in February 2019, clearing way for official induction into the Indian Air Force. FOC involves addition key capabilities to the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) aircraft, which are Beyond Visual Range Missile capabilities, Air-to-Air Refuelling, Air-toGround FOC earmarked weapons and general flight envelope expansion.

Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) of the aircraft was given in 2013 and IOC standard aircraft were inducted into IAF No. 45 Squadron in July 2016. The IAF Squadron has since flown over about 1,500 sorties successfully on the aircraft. The Tejas LCA also went to Malaysia and displayed the aircraft’s capabilities at the Langkawi International Maritime Aerospace Expo (LIMA-2019) held in February 2019.

BrahMos missile is another example of success of India’s defence manufacturing capabilities. BrahMos Aerospace has developed the missile, which is a joint venture between Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya and India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). BrahMos is a medium range supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from a submarine, a ship, from an aircraft or on land. It is the fastest supersonic cruise missile in the world, having a speed of Mach 2.8 to 3.0, which is being upgraded to Mach 5.0.

It was recently announced by the CEO of BrahMos Aerospace that BrahMos missile with an enhanced range of up to 500 km is ready. India and Russia are now planning to jointly develop a new generation of BrahMos missiles with a 600 km plus range and an ability to hit protected targets with pinpoint accuracy. The technologies developed by BrahMos Aerospace were not available earlier with India or Russia, which demonstrates the potential of joint research and development and India’s defence manufacturing capabilities.

Through the Make in India initiative, the government has opened the industry for private sector participation to encourage indigenous manufacturing. The government introduced the IDDM programme (Indigenously Designed, Developed and Manufactured) to encourage indigenous design, development and manufacturing of defence equipment. 100 FDI is allowed in the defence manufacturing sector with Up to 49 percent FDI under automatic route and FDI above 49 is permissible through the government route where it is likely to result in access to modern technology.

The Defence Production Policy of 2018 promotes domestic production by the public sector, private sector and MSMEs. India plans to spend S$130 billion on military modernisation over the next five years, which shall give a further boost to the national defence manufacturing capabilities. Per government estimates, the total potential for the defence manufacturing sector is estimated to be $1 trillion by 2025.