Jointness in the Indian Armed Forces....Ideas, News, and Discussions.

Trololo

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This thread will be used to post news about jointness in the Indian Armed Forces, and also brainstorm about ways to achieve them.
 

Trololo

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Jointness has the following goals in the Indian context:

1> Clear view of the battle space to all 3 services.
2> Rapid decision making from political executive down to man on the ground (of any service)
3> Elimination of redundant tasks which consume time, money, and effort (common air defense command, logistics command, etc)
4> Cost reduction by using common assets
5> Seamless information sharing across the three services
6> Reduction in hit taken by one service due to coercive action by another on the enemy (example: Indian army soldiers can expect less casualties because of top notch well coordinated CAS operations by IAF during combined ops)
7> Breakup of silos within services....using the three arms of the military to fight like one machine.
8> Rapid mobilisation capabilities of all three services to attack even before the enemy realises what's going on.

================================================

Here are some of my thoughts on this spread out across multiple posts:

A> Common weapons:

Common weapons must be used wherever possible to save costs, improve inter operability, and amass numbers. Some use cases are mentioned below. All are within the grasp of currently available Indian technology or those within 5-7 years from now.


1> Development of a common family of LGB kits for Naval fighters, Air Force fighters, and armed drones. The LGB kit must be centred around the HSLD Bomb. This will be our go to precision guided munition.
2> Development of an AASM-Hammer like kit family for all combat aircraft and armed drones of IAF and Navy that features more exotic tech like GPS/GLONASS/IRNSS, INS, GAGAN, DSMAC, TERCOM etc. This will be also be based on the HSLD and meant for future Balakot type ops.
3> Development of a standard air to ground subsonic cruise missile for airforce and navy in the class of the SCALP missile.
4> Development of a standard air to ground supersonic cruise missile for airforce and navy. (Brahmos-NG is the answer to this I think)
5> Operationalisation of the entire Astra family of missiles across all airforce and navy fighter jets.
6> Nirbhay induction across army, navy, and IAF.
7> Brahmos-2 hypersonic missile induction across army, navy, and IAF.
8> Induction of SANT and Helina en masse across Apaches and LCHs of both Navy and Airforce, as well as all armed UAVs in A2G roles. Cap the import of Hellfires after a certain number as backup. Pay the Americans extra to mount these on the Apache.
9> Introduction of a common infantry borne loitering munition that can be used by regular army and spec ops people from all services.

I am avoiding small arms because that is very service specific.
 

Trololo

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Jointness has the following goals in the Indian context:

1> Clear view of the battle space to all 3 services.
2> Rapid decision making from political executive down to man on the ground (of any service)
3> Elimination of redundant tasks which consume time, money, and effort (common air defense command, logistics command, etc)
4> Cost reduction by using common assets
5> Seamless information sharing across the three services
6> Reduction in hit taken by one service due to coercive action by another on the enemy (example: Indian army soldiers can expect less casualties because of top notch well coordinated CAS operations by IAF during combined ops)
7> Breakup of silos within services....using the three arms of the military to fight like one machine.
8> Rapid mobilisation capabilities of all three services to attack even before the enemy realises what's going on.

================================================

Here are some of my thoughts on this spread out across multiple posts:

A> Common weapons:

Common weapons must be used wherever possible to save costs, improve inter operability, and amass numbers. Some use cases are mentioned below. All are within the grasp of currently available Indian technology or those within 5-7 years from now.


1> Development of a common family of LGB kits for Naval fighters, Air Force fighters, and armed drones. The LGB kit must be centred around the HSLD Bomb. This will be our go to precision guided munition.
2> Development of an AASM-Hammer like kit family for all combat aircraft and armed drones of IAF and Navy that features more exotic tech like GPS/GLONASS/IRNSS, INS, GAGAN, DSMAC, TERCOM etc. This will be also be based on the HSLD and meant for future Balakot type ops.
3> Development of a standard air to ground subsonic cruise missile for airforce and navy in the class of the SCALP missile.
4> Development of a standard air to ground supersonic cruise missile for airforce and navy. (Brahmos-NG is the answer to this I think)
5> Operationalisation of the entire Astra family of missiles across all airforce and navy fighter jets.
6> Nirbhay induction across army, navy, and IAF.
7> Brahmos-2 hypersonic missile induction across army, navy, and IAF.
8> Induction of SANT and Helina en masse across Apaches and LCHs of both Navy and Airforce, as well as all armed UAVs in A2G roles. Cap the import of Hellfires after a certain number as backup. Pay the Americans extra to mount these on the Apache.
9> Introduction of a common infantry borne loitering munition that can be used by regular army and spec ops people from all services.

I am avoiding small arms because that is very service specific.
B> Common Platforms and Systems:

1> Induction of a common MALE UAV platform to support various mission payloads of various users. For example a Rustom-2 with a different payload for navy, army, and airforce. Core airframe parts and ground stations should be cheap and made en masse.
2> Induction fo a common HALE UAV platform along the above lines.
3> Induction of a common SDR system across the three services. Basically an FAC infantryman or SF operator of Para, Garuds, or Marcos should be able to call in airstrikes from an IAF or IN aircraft using his standard manpack SDR without any glitch.
4> Development of a common airborne datalink across the three services for intra aircraft comms. An IA Apache should be easily able to share video feed and target location to IAF or IN fighters in the air for example. Or a pair of MWF and another pair of MiG 29K should be able to seamlessly share data and information amongst each other.
5> Development of a large number of military satellites for various purposes. Uses can be SAR, visual images, comms, ELINT, etc. An application can be where say operators in INS Kolkata sitting in the middle of an ocean can control and get data feed from a UAV in Arunachal over a satellite data link.
6> Development of a standard utility helicopter platform for all 3 services, which can be modified by each force. Dhruv and IMRH fulfil this criterion.
7> Development of a common light utility fixed wing platform for applications ranging from light transport to sea patrol near the coast. Currently Dornier fulfils this role between IAF and IN, and later NAL Saras should do so.
 

Trololo

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B> Common Platforms and Systems:

1> Induction of a common MALE UAV platform to support various mission payloads of various users. For example a Rustom-2 with a different payload for navy, army, and airforce. Core airframe parts and ground stations should be cheap and made en masse.
2> Induction fo a common HALE UAV platform along the above lines.
3> Induction of a common SDR system across the three services. Basically an FAC infantryman or SF operator of Para, Garuds, or Marcos should be able to call in airstrikes from an IAF or IN aircraft using his standard manpack SDR without any glitch.
4> Development of a common airborne datalink across the three services for intra aircraft comms. An IA Apache should be easily able to share video feed and target location to IAF or IN fighters in the air for example. Or a pair of MWF and another pair of MiG 29K should be able to seamlessly share data and information amongst each other.
5> Development of a large number of military satellites for various purposes. Uses can be SAR, visual images, comms, ELINT, etc. An application can be where say operators in INS Kolkata sitting in the middle of an ocean can control and get data feed from a UAV in Arunachal over a satellite data link.
6> Development of a standard utility helicopter platform for all 3 services, which can be modified by each force. Dhruv and IMRH fulfil this criterion.
7> Development of a common light utility fixed wing platform for applications ranging from light transport to sea patrol near the coast. Currently Dornier fulfils this role between IAF and IN, and later NAL Saras should do so.
C> Common Logistics Items:

1> A common truck chassis in 4x4, 6x6, and 8x8 configuration for various applications of the 3 forces with required modifications per service as demanded. This can change, however, on special needs like a TEL for example.
2> Common staff cars, officer cars, for peaceful post areas. That way a large number of cars can be bought for a heavy discount.
3> Common base repair depots for similar items. For example: a> BRD Ozhar to take care of all IAF and IN MiG 29s. Nodal army workshop in each state can maintain own and nearby navy's or IAF's support vehicles like trucks, jeeps, etc.
4> Common orders for food and perishables for the 3 services together, which can then be dispatched to the respective service's area of operations. For example, provisions being ordered for a 45 day sail of INS Vikramaditya's Carrier Battle Group can be ordered together with provisions for the upcoming Pak facing Western Theatre Command. Because a lot of items like meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, spices, cereal, milk, grains, etc will remain common, expect big discount from whole sale businesses.
 

Trololo

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C> Common Logistics Items:

1> A common truck chassis in 4x4, 6x6, and 8x8 configuration for various applications of the 3 forces with required modifications per service as demanded. This can change, however, on special needs like a TEL for example.
2> Common staff cars, officer cars, for peaceful post areas. That way a large number of cars can be bought for a heavy discount.
3> Common base repair depots for similar items. For example: a> BRD Ozhar to take care of all IAF and IN MiG 29s. Nodal army workshop in each state can maintain own and nearby navy's or IAF's support vehicles like trucks, jeeps, etc.
4> Common orders for food and perishables for the 3 services together, which can then be dispatched to the respective service's area of operations. For example, provisions being ordered for a 45 day sail of INS Vikramaditya's Carrier Battle Group can be ordered together with provisions for the upcoming Pak facing Western Theatre Command. Because a lot of items like meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, spices, cereal, milk, grains, etc will remain common, expect big discount from whole sale businesses.
D> Common IT hardware and Software Procurement:

1> Revamp the C-DAC by making it more efficient and project centric. Fund the C-DAC from MoD to create military specific hardware and software, with project oversight by armed forces specialists and civilian software specialists.

2> The average mid range computers that are needed across the 3 services for routine work should run a Military BOSS Linux version. BOSS out of the box runs Ubuntu applications as well, which means there should be Plug N Play support for external items like speakers, webcams, microphones, etc. C-DAC should churn out a secure, hardened, and stable desktop version of BOSS with adequate support, paid for and maintained out of MoD funds, to service the 3 armed forces. The OS should be certified only for certain hardware combinations for mid-range to high-end desktops (to prevent maintenance and versioning nightmare like Android's fragmentation problem), and at the end of the OS lifecycle new computers need to be purchased. This will ensure bulk hardware purchase for cheap, steady software support, commonality in user experience and troubleshooting, and freedom from foreign software platforms like Windows. Desktops can be custom built by each service to the specifications set by C-DAC, and laptops meeting the specs can be bought outright and the OS replaced. The higher end desktops running Military BOSS Linux can be used for applications like ground control stations of drones, satellite image analysis, etc.

3> Navy is the most technologically advanced service in India. It needs to take the lead in the unification of IT systems in the Indian military. Continuing from Point-2 above, the Navy should guide the adoption of Indian made software and services across the Indian Armed Forces. For example, secure distributed cloud infrastructure for each service, built on top of C-DAC developed racks, can be set up by them. This infrastructure can then be used to host clouds for the army, navy, and IAF as needed. Similarly productivity and conference apps can be replaced by Zoho's suite of tools for example. This means commonality of large hardware and software infrastructure, bulk licensing of common tools, and hence deep discounts.

4> Indian Armed Forces must use common Indian Telecom and Network gear for internal use. That means removing data nodes and comms switches made by Cisco or Fujitsu and replacing them with those by Tejas Networks in a phased manner. Due feed back to be given to the Indian vendor so that they can continuously keep improving their products. In the long run this will ensure that an Indian vendor base is created for such needs and the three services have common hardware to make maintenance and usage cheap and easy for them.
 

vishnugupt

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This is a reply to people who often says
* Order 36 more Rafale quickly
* Borrow ful manufacturing facility from LM under ToT
* If you can buy iPhone then why can't armed forces import
* They know better than anyone else do
* Import lobby excuses
* Why PSUs are not selling their products if Armed forces has been rejecting them
* People who justify endless trial for local products
* People who want to deliver in numbers from PSUs even before placing an order
* Indigenous product are costly and maintenance nightmare
* People who call indigenous products half matured or not meeting requirements from day one .
* How armed forces deliberately causing death to local products.
* How stubborn our armed forces are for any needful change.

These are replies people had given here whenever we talk about importance of indigenization.
 

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