E D I T O R I A L
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Defexpo India 2014, the eighth in the series of biennial Land, Naval and Internal Homeland Security Systems Exhibition, will be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from February 6-9, 2014. India’s Ministry of Defence believes that Defexpo India is clearly steering the path of steady growth and has been receiving overwhelming and unprecedented international response with each edition. While this maybe true, however this time let us hope that Defexpo has more deliverables at the end. The reason is that there is no discernable forward motion in defence procurements. While the military is anguished at the inordinate delays in procuring new equipment to replace obsolescent hardware, the industry is frustrated at the less than the pedestrian pace at which the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is moving. The succeeding paragraphs will give an idea of the frustrations of military leadership.Security, both internal and external, is an area of serious concern for the miltary. The aggression on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) by China and the violence on the line of control (LoC) by Pakistan in the past seven to eight months have occupied large media space in recent times. In the case
of LAC, the month of October 2013 saw India and China taking some necessary steps forward in order to end the growing trust deficit on both sides. Of the nine pacts signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese premier Li Keqiang on October 23, 2013, during the Indian Prime Minister’s visit, one of the most important was on maintaining peace and tranquility along the LAC between the two countries. In the context of the violence on LoC, both India and Pakistan on December 24, 2013, decided to ‘re-energise’ existing mechanisms to maintain the ceasefire on the LoC as per the declaration that came at a meeting of the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of the two sides, who held face-to-face talks for the first time in 14 years at the Wagah border. While efforts to maintain peace and tranquility at the border is advisable and beneficial, it is also indicative of the fact that skirmishes along unresolved borders can break out at any time and this constitutes a challenge as well as a threat. In any case media reports as well as statements from the former army chiefs from 2009 onwards indicate that the army considers that it may have to fight on two fronts simultaneously in a future war. Therefore it has to ensure that a two-front capability exists apart from an internal capability to counter-insurgencies and terrorism by non-state actors and that it is operationally prepared for such eventualities. It is in this context that the unhappiness of the military finds expression. Indian army’s modernization and
net-centricity in functioning are under development. These will facilitate availability of the networks at both the sensor and shooter end in real time. SP’s: Will the Indian Army’s present communications allow it the flexibility required for future operational settings both conventional and fourth-generation wars? SO-in-C: I am confident that the Corps of Signals is ready to meet all the challenges of a conventional or futuristic war.
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SP’s: What is your vision for the Corps of Signals? SO-in-C: The vision of the Corps of Signals is to attain and maintain information ascendancy by developing a robust and secure information infrastructure to cater to the network-centric warfare in the digitised battlefield of future times. SP’s: Software defined radio (SDR) is receiving enormous recognition and generating widespread interest in the telecommunication industry and in the military. What is your view on it? SO-in-C: SDR is one of the best technological advancements in the field of electronics and IT which will be adequately harnessed by the armed forces in the near future. It offers a host of benefits such as standard architecture for a wide range of communication products, uniform communication across various users, significant cost reduction, over the air downloads of features and services, advanced networking capabilities, etc. SDR development is an extremely complex process.
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SP’s Land Forces 1/2014
capability building efforts have been tardy and sluggish to say the least and the political leadership, the bureaucracy and the military themselves are all to blame for this indefensible and unpardonable state of affairs as it directly impacts upon the security of the country. Some details in respect of the army are given in the succeeding paragraphs. Indian Army’s modernisation schemes amounting to over `70,000 crore in the Eleventh Plan (2007-12) alone, have not fructified. The revised Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) over the years has done little to accelerate the pace of modernisation. A dispassionate analysis would indicate that the voids in equipment and munitions in the Army to fight a modern war together with the lack of modernisation of equipment in virtually all fighting arms of the Army is alarming and has caused a capability gap vis-à-vis our likely adversaries and this is becoming more pronounced day by day. It is in this context that the letter written by General (Retd) V.K. Singh, the former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), to the Prime Minister on March 12, 2012, which was deliberately leaked to the media, should be viewed. It highlighted that the mission reliability of mechanised vehicles was poor, the artillery was obsolete and inadequate, air defence was antiquated, armour was unreliable due to regular barrel accidents caused by mismatch between indigenous barrels and ammunition, night-fighting devices were insufficient, aviation corps helicopters needed urgent
‘Interoperability between the three services has always been high on the agenda of all commanders’ The proposed SDR will also have the requisite waveforms to integrate with the existing legacy systems. SP’s: Can you give out the mobile and offensive communication needs of the Army and how are these being met? SO-in-C: Tactical battlefield, characterised by high mobility, is intense and dynamic in nature. Current and futuristic needs require robust, reliable, flexible, scalable, secure, seamless and highly available communications at the tactical level. At present the requirement of mobile and offensive communication is being met by combat net radio (CNR) and army radio engineered network (AREN). Fibre network has also reached the forward edge of our operational locations to handle the high bandwidth communication needs of the field formations. SP’s: What are the developments envisaged in combat net radio? SO-in-C: Combat net radio is the cutting edge communication in tactical battle area.
replacements, and holdings of all types of missiles, anti-tank and specialised ammunition was critically low. Thus pointing out the lack of preparedness to fight and win wars on the battlefields of the 21st century Following this it seems that the Defence Ministry had asked Army Headquarters to fast-track acquisitions and the list of essentials was prepared and sent. However, the situation has not improved but in fact has worsened in the last one year. On the one hand, nothing has come so far, on the other hand, missiles and specialised ammunition holdings which have a shelf life, have dipped further. The government has now sanctioned the Twelfth Five Year Defence Plan as a result of the severe criticism over delays in the past. However, for the Army it is a cosmetic paper exercise as even the Eleventh Plan procurements have not materialised. Thus considering the lack of implementation of the Eleventh Plan and the Army’s modernisation process, the procurement of both Eleventh and Twelfth Plans need to be hastened. The defence budget for 201314 grew by 5 per cent over the previous year, with defence capital acquisitions growing by 9 per cent. But, with inflation averaging more than 5 per cent since February, and the rupee depreciating by 14 per cent against the dollar over the same period, that modest nominal budget increase is actually a real budget decrease and considering the austerity measures required to be undertaken with a slowing economy, and the parliamentary elections
The Corps of Signals is always thinking ahead of ways to usher in state-of-the-art communication technologies to empower the soldier. Our focus is to bring about a paradigm shift in exploiting radio technologies with versatile features. SP’s: How is the interoperability being ensured between the Army, the Navy and the Air Force and other concerned civil agencies, in the absence of integrated development of communications? SO-in-C: Interoperability between the three services has always been high on the agenda of all commanders. This has been given due importance through an important strategic network which will connect important tri services locations across India to provide common fabric for communication and information requirements. This project is under implementation and its completion would form the bedrock of interoperability between the three services. SP’s: With both China and Pakistan being so active in the field of cyber warfare what steps are being taken to ensure cyber security in the Army’s communication networks? SO-in-C: In the cyber domain, threats are continuously evolving and the race between security system designers and those who want to exploit weaknesses is ever prevalent. The only viable option is to plug the weaknesses by being proactive. We are constantly evaluating our security threats and plugging the loopholes on almost daily basis. Organisations with requisite resources are
in May this year it is unlikely that any big-ticket item, like artillery howitzers, air defence guns/ missiles, aviation assets, night fighting aids, sensors of various categories or even basic small arms such as new assault rifles and new carbines for the infantry will fructify. In the meanwhile the Cabinet has sanctioned the raising of a Strike Corps for the mountains and the work on it has commenced. However except for manpower it is not understood as to how will the Army equip this operational level formation which, apart from basic weaponry and communications, requires many types of force multipliers to be effective in the mountains. Moreover what is surprising is that this sorry state of affairs in the field of defence preparedness is not even being talked about by the major political parties in their in their attempts to woo voters prior to the elections in 2014. In fact the current weaknesses need wide publicity so that the people themselves put the pressure on the Government of the day. A country like India, which faces innumerable security challenges, needs a political leadership which is alive to the dangers of not being militarily prepared for future conflicts. The current leadership presents a dismal picture and the future leadership seems blissfully unaware of the dangers.
Lt General (Retd) V.K. Kapoor
in place with well-defined charter and standard operating procedures (SOPs). The triad of “people, processes and technologies” is being effectively implemented to achieve the desired end towards securing our networks. SP’s: What are your roles in low intensity conflict like terrorism and insurgencies? SO-in-C: Communications and electronic surveillance provide critical support in handling of counter-insurgency and terrorist operations. These roles have been addressed by the Corps of Signals in the areas where low-intensity conflict and counter-insurgency operations are being prosecuted. We have established an Army owned pilot mobile cellular system which has proved to be a great force multiplier in providing real time information to our ground teams operating in inaccessible areas during the conduct of counter-insurgency operations. Close electronic warfare support is being provided to Special Forces in low-intensity conflict in all the sectors. Electronic warfare system supporting LIC have been tailormade for the specific nature of the conflict with the aim to giving intimate electronic warfare coverage. SP’s: What are the developments for dominating electromagnetic spectrum in future wars? Are we acquiring state-of-the-art equipment in the field of electronic warfare? Are our systems capable of conducting static and mobile operations? SO-in-C: Capability is being acquired to dominate ever wider range or the electromagnetic spectrum over greater stretches