The government published, on 28 August, a new list of 780 components and sub-systems that will come under a phased import ban between December 2023 and December 2028, with the latest indigenisation push covering items used in fighter planes, trainer aircraft, helicopters, submarines and tanks.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh approved the latest list to cut down imports by defence public sector undertakings and achieve Aatmanirbharta (self-reliance) in the defence manufacturing sector, the ministry said in a statement.
This is the third list of “important line replacement units (LRUs)/sub-systems/ components” placed under an import ban. It comes on the back of two similar lists published by the government in December 2021 and March 2022.
“These lists contain 2,500 items which are already indigenised and 458 items which will be indigenised within the given timelines. Out of 458, 167 items have been indigenised so far,” the defence ministry said.
The indigenous development of these sub-systems and components will bolster the economy, reduce the import dependence of DPSUs, help harness design capabilities of the domestic defence industry and position India as a leader in these technologies, it added.
The components and sub-systems sought to be produced locally include several items for Sukhoi-30 and Jaguar fighters, light combat aircraft and Dornier-228 planes; multiple systems for submarines, and equipment for T-90 and Arjun tanks.
To be sure, India has published three other lists imposing a phased import ban on 310 different types of weapons and platforms, including lightweight tanks, naval utility helicopters, artillery guns, missiles, destroyers, ship-borne cruise missiles, light combat aircraft, light transport aircraft, long-range land-attack cruise missiles, basic trainer aircraft and multi-barrel rocket launchers.
The latest list has been put out by the defence ministry at a time when the global backlash against Russia over its Ukraine invasion has raised questions about the fate of new projects with that country, procurement of spares for existing Russian-origin weapons, and maintenance and servicing of legacy equipment operated by the three services.
The earlier list, published in March, included sub-systems that India imports from Russia for weapons and platforms, including T-90 and T-72 tanks, BMP-II infantry combat vehicles, warships and submarines, and anti-tank missiles.
The government has taken several steps in recent years to boost self-reliance, including raising foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence manufacturing, creating a separate budget for buying locally made military hardware and notifying lists of weapons, equipment and sub-systems that cannot be imported.
India is making planned, steady and focused progress to achieve Aatmanirbharta in the defence sector and several projects have been sanctioned for the local industry, former director general of military operations Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia (retd) earlier said.
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Thanks to a number of measures and incentives, import ban, the iDEX programme, as well as Make-2 and DRDO programmes included, India is developing defence technologies that are on the cutting edge for the first time, sometimes exceeding the best the world has seen so far.
For the first time, the Indian defence industry is participating in the global supply chain in a significant way. It is supplying to leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) worldwide, which is a testament to Indian products’ quality and workmanship. This is evident from the fact that nearly 50 percent of the Indian defence exports from the Indian defence industry are going to leading OEMs in the USA. The US Sealift Command, which has started sending naval ships to Indian shipyards, has found the capability of Indian shipyards to meet the highest standards in the world.
India is also working towards greater innovation and manufacturing prowess when it comes to drones. The focus is on creating some global firsts in this field as well.
With indigenous weapons and platforms, a new dimension is added to their capabilities. They have an advantage over the adversary since indigenously developed niche capabilities can remain unknown to the enemy- something that is not possible with imported off-the-shelf equipment.
The rapid success achieved in development of military equipment is also in part to the credit of public-private partnership (PPP).
The three positive indigenisation lists issued by the Department of Military Affairs during the last two years are examples of the Armed Forces’ conviction in the capability of the domestic industrial ecosystem. These lists prescribe the 310 platforms and equipment services they have chosen to procure from the Indian industry as part of a roadmap that meets their requirements. Moreover, contracts worth Rs 2.2 lakh crores and projects worth Rs 5.07 lakh crores are in different stages of procurement by the three Services.
There are several instances where the equipment manufactured by an Indian vendor has exceeded in quality compared to the global version of the same equipment. A case in point is K9 Vajra, which provides several value-added services like predictive maintenance using IoT, which provides higher availability of the platform, a feature which was not available in earlier versions of the same equipment.
The government and services have provided extensive impetus for such solutions, and to such firms. Defence minister Rajnath Singh recently launched 75 artificial intelligence applications. The Indian Navy has recently decided to launch 75 challenges under iDEX for developing new and emerging capabilities- some of which are not offered by any country to India.
