atmanirbharta defence

Will Modi’s State Visit to the US Bring News on Deal for Predator Drones?

While negotiations over the Predator had proceeded since 2016, the purchase had still not received Acceptance of Necessity clearance by the Ministry of Defence. Another stumbling block could be the Indian Navy’s insistence to incorporate 60% indigenous content into the weapon system under the atmanirbharta initiative.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US next month has fuelled speculation in security circles concerning the possible announcement of materiel buys and enhanced defence cooperation between Washington and New Delhi during his June 22 visit.

The most obvious, and possibly the only outright US buy on the anvil for India were 18 weaponised General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) Sea Guardian/Predator high altitude long endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for an estimated $1.5-2 billion.

Pared down from an earlier requirement of 30 UAVs – priced at around $3-4 billion – these 18 armed drones would eventually be acquired via the US Foreign Military Sales route, and divided equally between India’s three services, to meet their respective operational needs, an official source said. If confirmed, India would be the first non-NATO state to receive armed UAVs for possible deployment along its restive northern and western borders and in the strategic Indian Ocean Region.

In recent years, Indian military planners have stressed the need for Predator UAVs to counter China’s and Pakistan’s Wing Loong II medium altitude long endurance (MALE) UAVs, powered by turbocharged engines. The Chinese-designed UAV, provided to Pakistan, has an operational envelope of 20 hours and is capable of attaining speeds of 370 kmph.

In contrast, two non-weaponised Sea Guardian maritime variants with an endurance of over 30 hours in all types of weather, had been leased by the Indian Navy (IN) in 2020 – initially for a year, but later extended by another three years, to 2024 – to supplement the force’s surveillance operations over the Indian Ocean Region, executed by its Boeing P-8I Neptune long-range maritime multi-mission fleet. The two UAVs – based like the P-8Is off the east coast at INS Rajali in Tamil Nadu – were also the first lot of military equipment to be leased by India under revised provisions incorporated into the Defence Acquisition Procedure, 2020 (DAP-2020).

Industry sources, meanwhile, said senior Pentagon and State Department US officials had ‘jumped through multiple hoops’ to approve the Predator sale to close strategic ally India, as they considered its transfer to be an ‘article of faith’ to further cement bilateral defence ties. “The Pentagon remains sanguine over some kind of announcement to advance the Predator contract during Modi’s visit,” said a senior industry official in Delhi. It’s the only major US materiel acquisition in the pipeline, and if progressed would go a long way in boosting collaborative military confidence on both sides, he added, declining to be identified.

But for India, peculiar hurdles in furthering the Predator deal endure.

The IN, which is the lead service in negotiating the UAV contract, had recently declared that even though it was ‘actively pursuing’ their buy, it wanted manufacturers GA-ASI to incorporate 60% indigenous content into the weapon system under the MoD’s atmanirbharta initiative, aimed at indigenising India’s materiel needs by reducing imports.

We are still pursuing the ‘Acquire Predator drones project’, declared former IN Vice Chief of Staff Vice Admiral S.N. Ghormade in February, “but we are seeing how it can be indigenised and whatever facilities can be built (for it) in India.” He went on to state that procurement agencies were working with indigenous firms and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to ensure that 60% of the UAV’s contents were sourced locally.

Military analysts and a cross-section of senior service officers expressed disbelief and amazement over the intent to ‘indigenise’ the Predator, possibly one of the world’s most advanced hunter-killer UAVs, as such superior levels of technological expertise were simply not available locally. One senior IN officer said that ever since the MoD had first issued its letter of request (LoR) to the US in June 2016 for the Predators, the UAVs were conceived of exclusively as an ‘outright purchase’, with no hint whatsoever of incorporating any local content into it.

Such an eventuality would doubtlessly encompass domestically-sourced components and sub-systems integration onto the UAVs, which GA-ASI had reportedly not considered in talks with the IN and other Indian officials over the past seven years. “The question of incorporating indigenous content into the UAVs arises only if they were made in India,” said a former MoD official. It does not apply to off-the-shelf materiel, he declared, refusing to be named and added that such a condition would doubtlessly ‘bamboozle and flummox’ US suppliers.

The MoD had initiated the Predator procurement days after India’s induction into the 35-nation Missile Technology Control Regime that entitled Delhi to formally receive such weaponry. Furthermore, India signing the long-pending Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement with the US in October 2020 to facilitate the bilateral exchange of geospatial data, satellite imagery and sensor data, too had smoothed Delhi’s way towards first leasing the two UAVs for the navy and later acquiring the armed version.

Nonetheless, while negotiations over the Predator had proceeded apace since 2016, official sources said its purchase had still not received Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) clearance by the MoD’s Defence Acquisition Council. The AoN is one of the initial steps in India’s byzantine DAP-2020 before the concerned acquisition is progressed over the succeeding 11-12 time-consuming steps.

A file photo of Narendra Modi and Joe Biden. Photo: The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

More announcements

In the meantime, media reports indicated that the joint production and manufacture of combat aircraft engines, infantry combat vehicles, howitzers and precision ordnance for them, all of which were discussed recently in Washington at the 17th meeting of the US-India Defence Policy Group (DPG), too could be announced during Modi’s US visit.

The government’s Press Information Bureau declared that both sides reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral defence ties at the May 17 DPG meeting, co-chaired by defence secretary Giridhar Aramane and US Under Secretary of Defence Colin Kahl, and deliberated on ways to develop this (somewhat moribund) co-operation further. They also decided to launch INDUS-X, ahead of Modi’s arrival, under the aegis of the initiative on Critical Emerging Technologies (iCET) agreed upon by the two sides in February, to foster partnerships between their respective defence innovation ecosystems.

The iCET, for its part, was merely a ‘warmed up’ Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) launched by the US and India in Delhi in 2012 after four years of negotiations, but one which had failed miserably in even remotely achieving its goal of furthering defence co-operation between the two newly emergent strategic allies, shorn of bureaucratic hiccups from either side. The Initiative was aimed at ‘altering’ the ‘transactional nature’ of the defence relationship into a ‘collaborative venture’ as the US had sold India $20 billion worth of military equipment since 2002.

Primarily, the DTTI encompassed four ‘pathfinder’ projects like the joint development of Mobile Electric Hybrid Power Systems and Integrated Protection Ensemble Increment 2 clothing for protection against chemical and biological exposure with the DRDO. Two additional DTTI programmes – AeroVironment RQ 11 Raven hand-launched unmanned aerial vehicles and roll-on/roll-off intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) modules for the Indian Air Force (IAF)’s 12 Lockheed Martin C-130J-30 transport aircraft – had elicited a lukewarm response from local vendors and were quietly withdrawn.

Thereafter, in June 2015 India and the US extended their 10-year bilateral Defence Framework Agreement to mid-2025 to further strategic and military ties, but also to provide the framework for progressing the DTTI and its supposed ‘transformative’ potential. And, a year later in mid-2016 DTTI added the Digital Helmet Mounted Display and the Joint Biological Tactical Detection System projects to its list, but the two prospective endeavours progressed little beyond the discussion stage. Several proposals under DTTI accomplished little or nothing, before lapsing into oblivion.

The iCET, for its part, comprised six broad areas of cooperation on the ashes of the DDTI, involving co-development and co-production in critical emerging technologies in defence, space and next-generation telecommunications – including 6G networks. Artificial intelligence and semiconductor know-how, in addition to other vital sundry areas of engineering, science and biotechnology too were included.

Perhaps some of these enterprises would be announced during Modi’s visit, but all eyes will, doubtlessly, be on the more tangible Predator deal – in keeping with the US dictum of “Ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”, better known by its ANSTAL acronym.

Why Indian Army Is Buying Machine Pistols Under Emergency Provision

Even though the DRDO claimed in 2021 to have successfully developed a 9×19 mm machine pistol for use by the military, paramilitaries and police forces, the Army has raised a tender to indigenously source 5,000 of them.

Chandigarh: A slew of domestic vendors have submitted their technical and commercial bids in response to an Indian Army (IA)’s tender, or request for proposal (RfP), to indigenously source 5,000 9×19 mm machine pistols as an ‘Emergency Procurement’ via the Fast Track Procedure (FTP) of the Defence Acquisition Procedure, 2020 (DAP 2020), for an estimated $6 million.

The majority of the 10-odd manufacturers who responded to the RfP’s January 9 deadline were in tie-ups with overseas small arms original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), a provision admissible under DAP 2020’s ‘Buy Indian’ category through which the pistols were being acquired.

The competing firms include Punj Lloyd Rave (PLR)/Adani Defence, which has a collaborative agreement with Israel Weapon Industries, ICOMM of Hyderabad that is linked to Caracal of the UAE and Delhi-based Jindal Defence and Aerospace, which has a joint venture with Brazil’s Taurus Armas, agreed in 2020.

The public sector Small Arms Factory in Kanpur – part of the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board – Optic Electronics based in Noida that is working with Switzerland’s B&T AG (formerly Brugger & Thomet AG) and the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group’s Jai Armaments, were some of the other vendors vying for the IA’s machine pistol contract.

These pistols were intended for employment mainly by Infantry battalion Ghatak (Killer) commando platoons and to a limited extent by tank, artillery and helicopter crews, and their delivery via the FTP route needed to be completed within 3-12 months of the deal being inked. The 20-odd strong, lightly armed and mobile Ghatak platoons were tasked by their respective battalion and brigade commanders to execute special reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines and to conduct other special operations at the tactical level. These could include raids on enemy artillery positions, airfields and supply dumps and directing artillery and air attacks in hostile territory.

Trials – or ‘demonstrations’ as per FTP norms – for the rival machine pistols are expected to take place over the next few months at the IA’s Infantry School at Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, following which the vendors would be shortlisted, based on their respective weapon systems performance. Thereafter, commercial bids of the selected bidders would be opened and based on the L1, or lowest price quoted, negotiations would be initiated, following which the contract would then be signed.

The 75-page RfP, issued last December by the IA’s Infantry Directorate, requires the pistols measuring 650 mm in length in extended condition, to weigh no more than 2.5 kg and be able to fire in-service, locally-sourced ammunition, at the rate of 600 rounds per minute to an ‘effective range’ of 100 m.

Mounted with Picatinny Rails to affix sights and other ancillaries, the pistols, equipped with red dot reflex sights, were as per the RfP required to register 8/10 hits in a 15×15 cm grouping when fired in single shot mode from a fixed mount at a target 50 m distant. And, when similarly fired in short bursts of two to three rounds each, the pistol needed to score 18/30 hits within a 30×30 cm cluster.

Required to operate in temperatures varying between -20°C and 45°C “without degradation in performance”, the pistol was expected to have a service life of 10 years, or 10,000 rounds, whichever came earlier, the RfP stated. And though developed with OEM assistance and component input, the pistols would be required to include an indigenous 60% content, which in the eventuality of them being locally designed, would reduce to 50%.

Elaborating on the qualified vendors’ responsibilities, the RfP outlined that these would include providing instruction to users and maintenance crews and delivering product support, including the Manufacture of the Recommended List of Spares (MRLS) for a decade after the pistols had been delivered.

What happened to DRDO’s indigenous pistol?

Industry officials, however, questioned the issuance of this tender, as in early 2021 the government-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) claimed to have successfully developed a 9×19 mm machine pistol, in just four months, for use by the military, paramilitaries and police forces.

In an official statement at the time, the DRDO had stated that the prototype pistol, named Asmi (Pride/ Self-Respect) had been jointly designed by its Armament Research Development Establishment in Pune and the Infantry School. It had declared that the pistol, with an empty weight of under 2 kg, featured an 8-inch barrel and a 33-round magazine of in-service 9 mm ammunition.

The DRDO-designed machine pistol also sported an upper receiver made from aircraft-grade aluminium and a lower receiver fabricated from carbon fibre. Furthermore, the DRDO maintained that it had used the 3D printing process to design and prototype the pistol’s various parts, including its trigger components. Moreover, it added that each pistol’s production cost would be around Rs 50,000 and though five vendors were reportedly shortlisted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) around mid-2021 for Asmi’s limited series production, little had since emerged on its status.

The Asmi rifle developed by DRDO. Photo: PIB

“Given the government’s onus on atmanirbharta or self-reliance in the defence sector and the hype surrounding this initiative, why is the IA seeking a new machine pistol, when one seemingly credible one had already been successfully developed indigenously by the DRDO?” queried a retired two-star infantry officer. Such incongruity is questionable, he declared, requesting anonymity, but added that perhaps Asmi, like numerous other small arms previously designed by the DRDO had not lived up to the IA’s operational standards, necessitating thereby the new pistol buy under the emergency proviso.

Other veteran infantry officers said acquiring just 5,000 new machine pistols would merely impose additional logistic requirements upon the army at a time when it was under pressure to streamline its equipment profile and right-size its expenditure, as it struggled with depleting annual financial outlays that adversely impacted its continually-delayed modernisation.

Earlier, in a move to replace its legacy 9 mm 1A1/2 sub-machine guns that were local, licence-built variants of the UK’s L2A3 Sterling model dating back to WW2, the IA had acquired 1,500 MP9 pistols supplied by B&T AG around 2015-16, followed by two repeat orders soon after for 400-500 more.

The Swiss small arms vendor, working in collaboration with the aforementioned Optic Electronics in Noida, had also provided the army with four base and 40 field workshops to sustain the MP9s, which were believed to be performing effectively. However, an entirely new machine pistol, as planned in the projected emergency procurement, would compel the IA to set up yet more such workshop facilities in the prevailing milieu of frugality, industry officials said.

The IA faces a largescale shortage of efficient small arms.

Last November, the MoD issued an RfP to indigenous manufacturers for 425,213 5.56×45 mm close-quarter battle carbines, and earlier this month a facility in Korwa, near Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, that was inaugurated in 2019, finally started the licensed manufacture of Russian Kalashnikov Ak-203 7.62×39 mm assault rifles. The first batch of 5,000 Ak-203s, of an eventual 750,000 units, produced by the Indo-Russian Private Limited joint venture is scheduled for delivery to the IA in March as replacements for the DRDO designed 5.56×45 mm Indian Small Arms Systems (INSAS) assault rifle, which was declared ‘operationally inefficient’ by the force in 2010.

Perhaps Asmi too has been similarly deemed in this category, and the emergency procurement of machine pistols invoked to meet the army’s urgent operational requirements for this weapon system.