Summer 2020. As the country nervously regarded the steady ingress of the Covid-19 pandemic, the sudden Chinese aggression on the arid and cold high-altitude plateau of Ladakh dealt a twin blow to the Indian military. A different two-front threat confronted them: not Pakistan and China, for which they had been preparing, but Covid and China. At a time when the military had to chip in with logistics to fight the pandemic, the Chinese stealthily struck at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), inching forward on Indian held territory.
With a steady build-up of troops, armour and heavy equipment on the Chinese side, the Indian war machinery swung into action—jumbo C-17 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) made quick sorties to Ladakh from its base in Hindon near Delhi, air-dropping heavy military equipment, men and material, ensuring there was no shortage of supplies to troops in Ladakh, which over the next few months had swelled to over 50,000. Alongside helping safeguard the border, the aircraft flew around the globe, bringing in large oxygen tankers as thousands of people sick with Covid gasped for breath. Even Indian Navy ships were part of Covid relief operations, as the country faced its biggest military threat in years at the border with China.
For defence minister Rajnath Singh, the three forces and high-ranking officials of the defence ministry, the twin challenge of an aggressive China and a raging pandemic was unprecedented. It could not have been war-gamed.
However, the brief clashes, the eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation and the near-stasis—despite 15 rounds of talks—ever since in Ladakh have given impetus to the push for self-reliance in defence along the lines of the government’s mantra of aatmanirbharta.Among various defence projects aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing, the indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant is the prominent big-ticket platform. The ship completed its maiden sea voyage in August 2021 and will be commissioned by August 15 this year.
The thrust on self-reliance has been complemented with decisions like the ministry of defence barring imports of 310 defence platforms and weapon systems, beginning from August 2020. In addition, the ministry’s ban on the import of 2,851 items that were being procured from abroad will save up to Rs 3,000 crore each year, according to its estimates. The purpose of the embargo on defence imports is, of course, aimed at strengthening domestic manufacturing. The new defence policy aims at Rs 35,000 crore defence exports in five years (2025) and doubling domestic procurement worth Rs 1.4 lakh crore of equipment.
COVER STORY | The challenges ahead
With self-reliance being the refrain, the defence budget for 2022-23 has earmarked 25 per cent of research and development expenditure exclusively for Indian companies, start-ups and academia. However, the key strategic partnership model aimed at bolstering domestic manufacturing of defence equipment in joint ventures with foreign players faces hurdles. The projects under the model included helicopters, submarines, fighter aircraft and tanks, but negotiations over transfer of technology are dragging on for over five years since the plan was announced.