With 55% videshi parts even after close to 40 years( first sanctioned in 1974) in the making the Arjun MBT
It still has very few qualities of the great warrior.
its a monstrosity, and in local parlance a Jugaad that is the reason it has not been fully inducted in the Armoured Regiments.
Let us face it from Radars to AEWCS most of our so called defence indigenous heavy duty stuff has imported parts ranging from 5% to 67%(respectively)
When you read such reports, please do the following - note the Indian media has probably the worst journalists in the world with no idea of basic research, and second - understand that our own bias is coming in play, both of an earlier generation which rarely saw any worthwhile Indian product & second, the tendency (of many Indians) to automatically assume that anything from the Govt civilians is from sarkari " babus" and hence worthless.
When you keep these issues in mind, and choose to apply your own research, you will realize how much BS is targeted at DRDO & their products & with what diligence these people, despite these asinine personal attacks on their competence, continue with their work.
They are every bit as patriotic as any of us for instance. I have seen a 50+ year old Bengali gentleman working in a DRDO lab get emotional & keep using the term "mother India" in every other statement, when asked why he works, and he in the process of his work had narrow shaves when the chemicals he was working on exploded. My generation would rarely if ever show such emotion & many would not put nation before professional advancement.
So this is the attitude that makes sure a R Aggarwal, Agni program director, does not even attend his own fathers funeral, because an Agni test is scheduled. This is the attitude that has an APJ Kalam tell his team that all failures are his, when the first Agni motor exploded IIRC, and then give the credit to his team when it was successful.
A DRDO working under sanctions can task a hitherto inexperience lab under CSIR to develop a state of the art FBW system, and have it deliver. So much so that they can develop brand new techniques to expand AoA envelopes even when they have to face strict constraints (read no leeway) in terms of weight gain of the platfrom and no platform redesign. And they do so, moving iteratively to 22 deg and IAF mandated 24 deg.
So if there is a certain design choice, it was made by committed, intelligent people working within constraints. Not some jugaad, "desi mentality" as is commonly thought.
So, take a look at that import content bit you threw out quoted verbatim from Times of India, excerpted from a std committee of defence report, which an idiot journalist called Rajat Pandit used to DRDO bashing, did not even bother thinking about.
DRDO said import % in radar programs ranges from 5% to 67% with the 67% for the AEW&C program. The AEW&C is a complete project with a radar mounted on an Embraer aircraft which India does not produce, since it never funded anything similar. Ergo the 67% as the aircraft cost dominates the overall platform!
The radar is from LRDE with crucial components from Indian firms, the ESM/Eletcronics are from Indian firms supported by DRDO, and all pale before the overall cost of the Embraer aircraft itself.
So is this a negligible achievement?? Which other country has managed to, in the span of a decade, move from a cancelled conventional radar program to a modern AESA radar and have it integrated with a laundry list of additional features on a commercial jet, while developing it from scratch?
Similarly, the Arjun's import percentage - again, this is by value. Indian DPP similarly, uses cost as a metric, mentions 50% by value. Here the argument gets lopsided again. Indian components are cheaper than those from abroad. So even if DRDO produces x LRU> y imported LRU, cost wise will favour the latter. Further, by deliberately ordering penny piecemeal orders (124 Arjun 1, 118-248 est MK2), the basic breakeven of producing imported items indigenousLy with license deals cannot be done.
The Army's sheer hypocrisy in this one case (and I mention this case because the other formations of the IA, eg arty/signals/eme/infantry have done a yeoman job in doing the reverse and placing logically decent numbers of orders for items like Pinaka, Samyukta, etc) vs the orders for the T-90 whose critical deficiencies - malfunctioning FCS with improper TI, engine overheating issues, poor ergonomics, bad ammunition placement.. show how lopsided the treatment was.
A 100% imported T-90 is preferable to a 55% by value imported Arjun! Which will never be given the orders necessary to make it even 80% local - MTU for instance offered to transfer engine tech for a production run of only 500 odd engines!
Meanwhile Arjun is made to run through all sorts of tests, with requirements ever increasing.
The Army asks for more & more from the Arjun - the T-90 is exempt. The Arjun FCS is tested for donkeys years till it meets 90% Pk as even 70% (far superior to the T-72) is not acceptable. Meanwhile, the T-90 is imported en masse with even the TI not working under heat, its ballistic computer unable to accept Indian rounds, TOT for gun barrel and armor is denied (which is to be now replaced with Arjun derived armor including ERA).
Arjun ammo is canisterised in MK1 to delay sympathetic detonation of rounds. Army is not satisfied and wants even better protection in MK2 which is now demoed, with full blow off panels. Each round is stored in a heavy steel module, but that is not enough. Meanwhile T-90 comes with live rounds stored all across the fighting compartment & drivers compartment and that is ok.
Arjun goes through heavy flak for engines failing in extended trials. DRDO/MTU design new radiators and demo them. Army remains silent, meanwhile T-90 in first trials (acceptance) in India failed its engine trials (one expired much before rated life). No complaints, lets order more.
Bottomline, please realize one thing - the people on the "other side" working on these products are not idiots & they are as patriotic as you are. They are doing the best they can under circumstances which in many other nations would be deemed as farcical - eg the penny piecemeal order system the IA excels in. The way forward is for the IA to work with them, not to sit outside, carp & constantly import subpar equipment which rarely if ever performs to specs, but then in classic camel & the Arab fashion supplants a WIP local item which falls out of fashion.
If you wish 100% indigenization, spend some time with industry folks & see the costs involved. You want every electronics gizmo to be made in India? Please look up the costs for a modern day thermal imager related FPA fab. And the opex costs, plus the costs required to constantly upgrade it. Nations like the US, France, Israel are willing to invest in such capabilities & will persist.
In India, you have wine dreams and a farthing purse, and yet expect the world of local industry and manufacture. Its a bit farcical to be honest & its high time gentlemen woke up & smelt the reality. And one last thing, the DRDO et al treat service requirements as sancrosanct & will bend over backwards to accomodate the services. They dont have other customers & hence are extremely dependent on you. On the other hand, the pvt sector which guys often tout as a panacea, will not always put up with such idiosyncratic rubbish.
They need to be brought into manufacturing to improve production over the sclerotic hit and miss stuff by OFB eg in small arms. But in terms of R&D and fulfilling all such complex programs, lets just say, the profit motive dictates a lot. Even in the much touted Avro replacement program floated several years back with great hopes by the IAF, there has been zilch progress as no pvt firm will touch something like this with a pair of tongs unless much bigger orders are guaranteed.
So, kindly look at the issue dispassionately & you will understand what these oft quoted "indigenization is x%" reports are. The latest DPP with pvt involvement, BTW envisages 50%, and mind you much of that 50% will be licensed and built locally judging by pvt offerings in the arty fracas for the IA.
When you have a painfully built up worldclass capability, you nurture it, and move it forward (IAI is Govt owned btw), you don't throw it away saying "ah, that "could be better". Thats what the russians did post FSU breakup and they took 2 decades to recover.
which is not fair.
