India developed Jet engine by make in India program.
India to develop jet engines for aircrafts
While the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas is at present integrated with an imported engine, in future it is proposed to develop indigenous engines for powering aircraft such as LCA variants and Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) in association with an International Engine House, the Government informed the Parliament on Monday.
“LCA Tejas, Flight Operational Clearance (FOC) configuration demands higher thrust than the intended engine requirement. Hence the Kaveri in the present architecture cannot be integrated. In order to induct with LCA Tejas, a modified engine version is required,” Minister of State for Defence Ajay Bhatt said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. The technological capabilities built through the Kaveri engine project will be utilised, he stated on the proposed engine development in future.
The LCA FOC variant and the Mk1A are powered by the GE-F404 engines while the LCA-Mk2 and AMCA in future will initially be powered by a more powerful GE-F414 engines.
The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) had sanctioned the indigenous Kaveri engine project in 1989. The project which ran for 30 years with an expenditure of ₹2035.56 crore saw the development of nine full prototype engines and four core engines. A total of 3217 hours of engine testing was conducted and the engine has also completed altitude tests and Flying Test Bed (FTB) trials.
Stating that this is the first time that an indigenously developed military gas turbine engine was flight tested, Mr. Bhatt said that Kaveri engine project has achieved higher Technology Readiness Level (TRL) in many critical technology domains and those technologies are being used in the various engine development programmes of the country. “Further the engines are used as test vehicles for validating next generation technologies.”
Indigenous helicopters
To another question on the induction of the indigenous Light Utility Helicopters (LUH) developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Mr. Bhatt said that the Initial Operational Clearance to LUH has been granted. Four Limited Series Production (LSP) of the indigenous Light Utility Helicopters (LUH) would be manufactured by 2022-23 and eight LSP LUHs by 2023-24, Mr. Bhatt said.
The numbers would be split equally between the Army and Air Force. The LSP would be followed by manufacture of Series Production helicopters by HAL, he added. The LUH along with the K2-229T light utility helicopter from Russia is meant to replace the ageing Cheetah and Chetak helicopters in service.
India's new threat: 4th Gen Warfare
Whenever there is mention of a threat to national security, people think of our defence forces in their glorious battle dress – protecting the country on our borders against external attacks and winning the war for us. In the days of Cold War, the two superpowers tried to outdo each other militarily and their race for superiority in the use of missiles produced the ultimate deterrence - the system termed as Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) built by the US.
Even as the open warfare was kept in check, there were attempts to cause ideological subversion and foment armed insurgency to weaken the adversary. It is, however, the rise of the phenomenon of 'covert' offensives witnessed in the post-Cold War period – after the success of the anti-Soviet armed campaign in Afghanistan had resulted in the dismemberment of USSR ending the Cold War – that brought in the era of 'asymmetric' warfare.
Use of terrorism for covert offensives across geographical boundaries helped replace open attacks with 'proxy wars' – with India becoming the biggest victim of cross-border terror instigated by Pakistan in Kashmir and elsewhere. 26/11 became India's 9/11 as Pakistan's ISI used terrorists to carry out an unprecedented covertly planned attack on Mumbai from the sea front.
This war by stealth has set apart the distinct dimensions of 'defence' and 'security,' calling for new measures to cope with the advancement of weaponry in one case, and the technology used by terrorists in the other. The Sino-Pak axis has aggravated the threat of Pak-sponsored proxy war against India as cross-border terrorism was now sustained by the use of drones – a product of Chinese technology – for surreptitious dropping of arms and ammunition in the Kashmir Valley and drugs in the bordering areas of Punjab. Emergence of social media as an instrument of combat and use of internet for spreading 'radicalisation' and facilitating recruitment of potential terrorists have made the work of the adversary easier and the task of countering it so much more difficult.
An entirely new extension of 'proxy war' aimed at 'winning the war by other means' is the use of civil rights fora to run down a democratically elected government by building narratives for influencing the unsuspecting people against the ruling dispensation. Majoritarianism, authoritarianism and treatment of minorities are 'issues' that could be easily built on vague grounds for creating the impression that Constitutional mandate is not being followed by the ruling regime.
Influencing the political outcome through non-governmental bodies linked to lobbies at home and abroad is a new age phenomenon – it uses 'human' channels that supplemented what was being attempted through 'technology' on the internet.
The significance of the recent address of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval at the 'passing out' function for new IPS officers at the National Police Academy in Hyderabad can be grasped in this context. He pointed out that civil society was the new frontier of war as it can be manipulated to hurt a nation's interests. He aptly described it as 'fourth generation' warfare – it certainly represented the finer realms of 'proxy war.' Those who are to safeguard internal security – and police is often the first responder there – need to be made fully aware of this challenge that goes beyond the conventional law and order. The success of the adversary in creating an underground network of agents and operators that needs to be thwarted. In vulnerable border states such as J&K, Punjab, Arunachal, Mizoram, Nagaland and Manipur, a greater proportion of state police personnel should be seconded to intelligence function. Even policemen in uniform should be sensitised to take note of activities of fora that are playing 'politics by proxy' in collaboration with external lobbies. This should be done without prejudice to legitimate media activity and philanthropic missions, and action should be initiated only where there is a clear violation of the country's laws.
In essence, the three contemporary features of India's internal security scenario are the adversary's attempts to use radicalisation for trapping vulnerable elements into becoming a part of the underground terror network, accentuate the majority-minority divide to feed communal militancy, and float civil society platforms to run down India on issues of governance.
Intellectualised debates have been sponsored on matters ranging from putting a question mark on Indian identity to advocating a place for China in Indo-Pak talks on Kashmir, because of the Chinese claim on the territory of that state. The challenge on internal security front is to draw in the police as a responder without permitting any scope for politicisation of the same.
Army to Buy GPS-Guided Munitions to Hit Target Instead of Target Area, Cut Collateral Damage
The Indian Army has sought to buy 1,966 rounds of 155mm Terminally Guided Munitions, capable of carrying out precision strikes on identified targets, from Indian vendors. At present, the Army’s Regiment of Artillery does not have any such munition.
The regular ammunition for artillery guns in the Army’s inventory has a lesser accuracy than the Terminally Guided Munitions, which can hit a target with higher precision, thus reducing chances of collateral damage in the target area.
However, in 2019, the Army had inducted Excalibur artillery ammunition from the United States for its 155mm Howitzers. The artillery shell uses GPS guidance for accuracy. The Army also has precision-guided kits in its inventory, which is used with the regular ammunition of conventional artillery guns to strike a target with higher precision.
An Expression of Interest (EoI) floated by the Army on Friday stated that the 1,966 rounds of 155mm Terminally Guided Munitions (TGM), along with the support equipment which it seeks to buy, will enhance the capabilities of the artillery guns in its inventory, adding that they will be bought under the Make II category of the Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020.
Stating that the indigenous ammunition will be a low-cost option, the Army has also said that its requirement will increase manifold in the future, with the majority of artillery regiments switching to 155mm guns as part of the ongoing artillery modernisation plan.
It further said that Indian vendors meeting the technical, commercial and project requirements will be issued a project sanction order to develop 25 rounds of a prototype of the TGMs first.
Following that, the commercial Request for Proposal will be issued to procure 1,966 rounds of 155mm TGMs, with a minimum 50% Indian component, under the Defence Acquisition Procedure, along with support equipment such as fire control systems, projectile simulator and sectionised projectile.
What will the TGMs do?
As per the EoI, the ammunition should be capable of being guided to the target by GPS or other satellite-based navigation systems when fired and should be able to make requisite corrections to its ballistic flight path as it moves towards the target.
It states that when a target is designated, the designator should be capable of being operated from a static or mobile platform, whether it’s a ground or an aerial platform, such as a helicopter or a UAV. The ammunition, it adds, should be passive and be able to only receive signals, and thus should be resistant to jamming. The EoI adds that they should be able to function in all-weather and have a shelf life of 20 years.
A senior Army officer had said that a TGM, with its precision strike capability, will be able to inflict much damage with fewer rounds as against the regular ammunition which would require more rounds. “In the long term, this will help reduce the maintenance costs of the guns," the officer said.
‘Needs to be seen what tech is used’
Former D-G Artillery Lt Gen (Retd) PR Shankar told News18 that it needs to be seen what technology would be employed to make these ammunitions, especially because no Indian vendor at present makes these or even the basic ammunition for the 155mm guns.
“TGMs are different from the precision-guided kits, the ‘fire and forget’ Excalibur ammunition bought by the Army. No Indian vendor currently makes them," he said. He added that the technology employed to make these would be critical as precision ammunition is a costly affair. “It deteriorates faster and requires high maintenance."
Another senior Army officer said that the TGM that is finally procured should not end up being the Russian laser-guided artillery shell Krasnopol — meant for use by the 155mm Bofors guns — 3,000 of which were bought between 1999 and 2002. The performance of the Krasnopol was sub-optimal, particularly in high altitude areas. This was also admitted by former defence minister AK Antony in Parliament.
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