NEW DELHI : The Defence Forces this year faced stiff challenges of unprovoked firing from Pakistan army and a tense standoff posed by China’s People’s Liberation Army, prompting the Government to fast track the process of modernisation of military services.
The Defence Ministry which was led by three Defence Ministers–A K Antony, Arun Jaitley and the incumbent Manohar Parrikar, took some bold initiatives to bolster the country’s security policies and the much needed momentum was provided to the modernisation process of the Armed Forces. ‘Make in India’ became the buzzword in the corridors of MoD. The Defence Acquisition Council, the apex decision-making body of the Ministry, triggered a scorching pace of acquisition by clearing proposals worth over Rs 1.50 lakh crores for the Services this year alone.
Many of the equipment and platforms, cleared by the Defence Acquisition Council, will be manufactured in the country, either by the public or private sector entities, through collaborations and tie-ups with foreign manufacturing companies. It was also this year when Jammu & Kashmir, especially capital Srinagar, experienced hitherto unknown magnitude of flash floods and thereafter, the state witnessed unprecedented participation of voters in the electoral process in the violence free atmosphere provided by the security forces. Although the Armed Forces and their families stationed in the valley were severely affected by the floods, the brave officers and men put behind their woes and carried out rescue and relief operations on a war footing, thereby, endearing themselves to the people of the state and the nation as a whole. The Army also faced the barrage of ceasefire violation from across the LoC and the International border from Pakistan side while Chinese troops created an eye-ball-to-eye-ball situation in Ladakh.
For speedy indigenisation, the Government increased the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit from 26 to 49 per cent through approval route. The Government also lifted an earlier three year lock-in period for foreign investment in Defence sector. Defence products list for the purpose of industrial licensing was revised and most of the components/parts/raw materials, castings, forgings, production machinery, testing equipment were taken out of purview of industrial licensing. In order to give a boost to private sector participation in defence production, the government also decided to replace the present fleet of 56 AVRO transport of the IAF by reserving the project for the private sector only. The DAC also decided that all the 384 light-utility helicopters needed by the Army and Air Force to replace the existing Cheetah/Chetak fleets will be made in India with foreign collaboration, thereby creating an opportunity for the domestic industry to the tune of Rs 40,000 crore. In a significant decision on October 25, the DAC cleared projects worth over Rs 50,000 crores to build six submarines in India.
The Defence Ministry decided that the acquisition of 22 Apache attack helicopters and 15 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters from the US will continue.
The Government approved the Navy’s proposal to buy 16 multi-role helicopters, which fly from warships and detect enemy submarines. The proposal to purchase of Integrated Anti-Submarine Warfare Suites, which are to be built in India, was also approved.
The Ministry, on December 17 approved proposals for Rs 4,444 crore, including the purchase of four survey vessels at Rs 2,324 crore. It also cleared the upgradation of the Mobile Integrated Electronic Warfare System, Samyukta, at a cost of Rs 1,682 crore. The Government also cleared a Rs 900 crore dedicated mobile communications system for army troops deployed in Ladakh and the Eastern Command.
The Government allocated Rs 1000 crore in this year’s budget for accelerating the development of railway system in border areas. This will facilitate quick mobilisation of troops and weapon systems in border areas and also expedite the modernisation process.
The Government also plans to embark on a major road building exercise to counter security threats both along the China borders as well as in Maoist-affected areas within the country. In order to facilitate this, government relaxed the environment norms to a great extent.
The year saw capacity building in the existing and new strategic areas which includes beginning of sea-trials of indigenously built nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant and the much awaited test flying of LCA (Navy) prototype-I. The LCA programme witnessed yet another milestone on November 8 when Tejas trainer PV6, the two-seater version of Tejas LCA for Air Force, in its first flight took to the skies and became the 16th Tejas variant to have flown as part of the programme. Having absorbed all the major design modifications undertaken during the flights of earlier aircraft, PV6 is the final prototype leading to series of production of trainer and has the capability to deliver all ‘air-to-air’ and ‘air-to-ground’ weapons deliverable by the single seat counterpart. In another landmark event, LCA (Navy) Prototype, the first indigenously designed and developed 4th plus generation combat aircraft designed to operate from the decks of aircraft carriers, took-off majestically from Ski-Jump facility of Shore Based Test Facility (SBTF) at INS Hansa in Goa on December 20.
Year 2014 also witnessed the successful test trials of surface-to-air Akash missile and induction of its Air Force version into IAF, successful launching of 5000 Km range Agni-5, long range cruise missile Nirbhay, user trials of Prithvi-II, supersonic BrahMos and beyond visual range missile Astra. The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) continued on the path of building self-reliance. The production value of DRDO developed systems inducted or cleared for acquisition crossed Rs 1,70,000 crores. The year 2014 witnessed yet another series of accomplishments with enormous potential to further enhance the level of self-reliance in defence technologies.
The 4,000 km range road mobile ballistic missile AGNI-4, was successfully flight tested twice. Among the development flights, the flight test on January 20 paved the way for flight test on December 2, by the armed forces. With Agni 1, 2, 3 and Prithvi already in India’s arsenal, Agni 4 further extends the reach and enhances effective deterrence capability. Besides, practice cum training launches of strategic missiles which are already inducted, such as Agni-1, Agni-2, P-II and Dhanush were carried out by the armed forces. Nirbhay, the 1000 km class long range sub-sonic cruise missile was successfully flight tested on October 17. The flight lasted over one hour and met all the mission objectives with the missile following the predefined trajectory with very high accuracy throughout its path.
The maiden flight of PDV exo-atmospheric interceptor on April 27 was a significant milestone in the direction of developing a two layered Ballistic Missile Defence System.
Throughout the year, all three forces remained engaged in exercises with various countries.
The 4th India-China Joint Training Exercise ‘Hand-in-Hand -2014’ was conducted in November near Pune. The Indo-US Combined Military Training Exercise “Yudh Abhyas- 2014”, was held in September, 2014 at Ranikhet and Chaubattia. The fifth edition of Indo-French joint Air Exercise “Garuda V” began at Air Force Station Jodhpur on June 2, and concluded on June 13.
Indo-Russia Joint Air Force Exercise ‘Avia Indra – 2014’, Phase – I was conducted at Astrakhan, Russia in fourth week of August while the Phase – II of the exercise was conducted at Air Force Station, Halwara, Punjab in November. The 2014 edition of the ‘SIMBEX-14’ series of annual bilateral naval exercises between the Indian Navy (IN) and the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN), was conducted in the Andaman Sea from May 22 to 28.
The Indian Navy participated in the multilateral, humanitarian assistance/disaster relief (HA/DR) exercise, dubbed “Komodo -2014”, which was held at Indonesia from March 28 to April 3. The Indian Navy’s major annual exercise ‘TROPEX’ (Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise) concluded on February 28 . Covering a distance of over five thousand nautical miles, Indian Naval ship Sahyadri, an indigenously built guided missile stealth frigate reached at Pearl Harbour, USA on July 1, 2014 to participate in the multilateral maritime exercise called RIMPAC (Rim of Pacific).
INS Shivalik was deployed for participation in International Fleet Review and Multilateral Maritime Exercise at Qingdao, China from April 20-25.
Ships of the eastern fleet of the Indian Navy, viz. Shivalik, Ranvijay and Shakti reached at Vladivostok, Russia to participate in the joint Indo-Russia Naval Exercise- “INDRA-2014”. Exercise Malabar was conducted in July and it helped Indian, Japanese and US navies to have a common understanding and knowledge of a shared working environment at sea. In a memorable event of 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, embarked on the newly inducted India’s largest aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya, off the coast of Goa, on June 13, which incidentally was his first visit to an operational military formation after assuming office as the office. He dedicated the aircraft carrier to the Nation.
The eighth edition of International Land, Naval and International Security Systems Exhibition started on February 6, 2014 at New Delhi. The exhibition saw the participation of 624 companies from 30 countries. It was concluded on February 10, 2014.
(AGENCIES)
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