The terms ‘Indigenisation’ and ‘Self-reliance’ in the context of Indian defence equipment have been talked and written about so much over the last five decades that they no longer arouse any passion either among the armed services personnel or related industrialists.

1. Indigenisation Dilemma –
Components v/s Systems/Assemblies
for old legacy Systems for Naval
Platforms.
(by G. Raj Narayan, MD, Radel Advanced Technology Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru)
www.grajnarayan.com
Published in the compendium of the CII Seminar on ‘Innovation &
Indigenisation – March to self-reliance’ – July 16th-17th, 2015
[This paper is written based on the experiences of a successful MSME, with
strong domain expertise in the defence & aerospace sector, in providing
indigenous solutions both for airborne and ground equipment of the Indian Air
Force and Indian Navy.]

2. The terms ‘Indigenisation’ and ‘Self-reliance’ in the context of Indian defence
equipment have been talked and written about so much over the last five
decades that they no longer arouse any passion either among the armed
services personnel or related industrialists. Many entrepreneurs as well as
seasoned industrialists have lost significant amounts of time and money
hoping to solve some of the problems of the Armed Services. This situation is a
direct result of the absence of a holistic, integrated and focused approach to
‘Self-reliance’ by the defence services as well as the defence ministry. The
problems posed by obsolete and outdated imported equipment still in service
has only aggravated the issue.
Defence and aerospace equipment are unique in many ways.
1. They are specialised for use in fighting and support vehicles for
specialised functions.
2. They use specialised technology and systems.
3. They are very rugged, reliable, power efficient, and compact.
4. There is a veil of secrecy over them and hence not much information is
available in the public domain for indigenisation and reverse engineering.
In addition to the above, the Indian armed services possess a wide variety of
platforms with legacy systems of western as well as Russian (Soviet) origin,
with very little technical documentation provided by the OEMs. The result is
that the user agencies do not even know how they operate and how to repair
them when they fail. Due to the fact that these are specialised systems not
familiar to industry outside the defence domain, there are very few private
sector companies with capability to handle such repairs, let alone indigenise
the system. Even those who are willing to bite the bullet are forced to go
through a very tedious tendering process where one is expected to bid for
something for which even the user agency (Army/Navy/Air Force) does not
have the complete technical specifications! The RFQ (released as per DPM)
states incredibly that “Generation of technical specifications is part of the
development process to be undertaken by the vendor”. On the other hand,
DPSUs have miserably failed to facilitate the growth of the defence
manufacturing ecosystem over the last five decades. It is therefore no surprise
that indigenisation efforts have yielded very little.

3. Where does one start? Components, assemblies, sub-systems or complete
systems?
One of the first questions that any industry would raise relates to the
quantities of requirements and the period of active usage. This is what
determines economic viability. It is seen that all RFQs are vague on this matter
with an overriding clause that states that future requirements can neither be
confirmed nor guaranteed. Such clauses, besides very small quantities of initial
requirements, act as de-motivators for a private industry. The user agency
should therefore be very clear about the actual requirements and also remain
committed to the procurement of a minimum quantity post successful
indigenous development.
Over the last 20 years, most defence and aerospace equipment have been
dominated by electronics and hydraulics content. Even in hydraulic systems,
control functions are performed through electronics. It would therefore be fair
to say that a large part of indigenisation challenges lie in electronic systems.
In the case of mechanical parts and components that involve only machining
and finishing, it is quite feasible to reverse engineer these, except in the case
of specialised materials and alloys. There have been many success stories of
such items. However, in the case of electronics systems, manufacture of
electronic components in small quantities is not at all viable since these are
manufactured on automated processes in huge volumes running into
thousands of pieces per batch. This author has actually received RFQs for the
indigenisation of quantities of two or three resistors, capacitors and transistors
from defence bases, which shows the utterly low level of awareness among
the indigenisation personnel regarding the feasibility or otherwise of such
requirements. Since the electronic component industry in India is presently
almost non-existent, all such components require to be imported from abroad.
However, a large value addition occurs in the design and manufacture of an
electronic sub-assembly or equipment even with the use of imported
components. Since standard components can be sourced from a wide variety
of sources across the world, indigenisation of an entire assembly can still lead
to self-reliance instead of being at the mercy of foreign proprietary OEMs who
provide spares and support at exorbitant cost.

4. In legacy systems dating back 20 or more years (which is the case with most of
our fighting platforms), the level of technology as of that date necessitated a
number of electronic boards and discrete sub-systems for the realisation of a
complete system, be it armaments, communication, navigation or propulsion
related. This is in stark contrast with the present state of technology where a
high level of integration is achieved in more compact systems with a large part
of the integrated functionality achieved through software configuration. The
latter case comprising integrated systems is more difficult to deal with in terms
of reverse engineering compared to the older legacy systems. Hence, the
existence of these obsolete legacy systems with discrete sub-systems is
actually a blessing in disguise, as tackling the legacy systems provides the ideal
opportunity for Indian enterprises, particularly in the private sector, to study
and reverse engineer.
The question of whether indigenisation efforts should start at board level or
system level can only be addressed on a case to case basis. In some cases, it
would be easier and quicker to indigenise just a board or sub-assembly that is
the cause for repetitive failures, while in other instances, it would be more
cost effective to indigenise an entire LRU if its complete functionality is clearly
known. In some cases, especially with small quantities of requirements, it
might even be possible to devise a small piggy-back solution on an existing PCB
assembly. However, such decisions involve a thorough knowledge of the
domain of the product/system. In the case of electronics equipment, a
specialist electronics designer well versed in digital and analogue circuits used
in defence and aerospace systems should necessary be involved. Due to the
lack of such specialists within the Armed Services themselves, it would be ideal
to constitute a small team comprising specialists from private industry having a
proven track record and experience in design and development activity as well
as specialists from DPSUs who possess the system level knowledge and
expertise.
Radel has successfully indigenised three airborne LRUs using a black box
concept to realise a Form, Fit and Function replacement for obsolete OEM
imported equipment. Four more airborne LRUs are under development and
these would be completed within the current year. In all these cases, the
indigenisation has been based on adoption of the latest digital electronics
technology to replace obsolete electromechanical circuits. These were possible
only due to the strong A&D domain expertise along with design capabilities
available within the organisation.

5. It is often found that a laborious, time consuming and expensive process of
indigenisation is adopted when a quicker and cheaper process of repair can be
the better solution. This is true both at the sub-assembly level and the LRU
level. Radel had successfully demonstrated the feasibility of repair of an
electronic starter module of the Jaguar fighter aircraft in 2012. Radel has once
again recently repaired a High Voltage (18kV) power supply module of a
Seaking helicopter for the Indian Navy, through a judicious mix of reverse
engineering, redesign and repair techniques. Radel also designed and
developed a sophisticated ATE for a naval armament control system, which
was executed completely by reverse engineering the electronic modules
forming part of the armament system itself. There exist a large number of such
opportunities where an indigenous and cost effective
design/repair/modification can be quickly implemented, provided a competent
and proven vendor is given a fair opportunity. On the other hand, there have
been many cases where orders have been released to prospective vendors
without the requisite competence and expertise, with the whole exercise
failing to deliver any results besides the loss of a few precious months or years.
Products Designed, Developed and Manufactured by Radel Advanced
Technology Pvt Ltd
Distributor for Jaguar aircraft Auto Selector

6. It is also worth noting that repair & maintenance activities provide an excellent
opportunity for technicians and engineers for familiarisation with technology
and design. This would lead to the capability of not only finding innovative and
cost effective methods of indigenous repair, but also an insight into the
technologies adopted in the product, thus empowering Indian vendors to
graduate to the next step of indigenising either a module or an LRU using
modern technologies. The Armed Services are losing out on this opportunity
since their technicians are only trained to carry out limited overhauls on the
equipment as per specific and brief instructions in the maintenance manuals.
Speed Switch for Dornier aircraft Electronic module of Jaguar
Engine starting system
High Voltage Power Supply for Seaking ATE for Naval Armament system

7. Anything not covered in the manuals are referred back to the foreign OEM for
repairs abroad. It is only when the OEMs cease to support the equipment due
to complete obsolescence that the Armed Services are left high and dry, and
frantically initiate indigenisation efforts. Very often, this also leads to a
precariously critical situation. This situation could be avoided at least to some
extent by permitting private sector indigenisation vendors to dissect and
analyse the vast number of CAT-D/E items available in various bases and
workshops, as part of technology absorption and upgradation, besides
assisting the repair depots with indigenous support.
The technical officers of the Indian Armed Services (Army/Navy/Air Force) at
the maintenance level are so over-burdened with administrative and
management functions that they appear to be completely severed from
technology and engineering aspects of their day-to-day operations. This
situation is a major stumbling block to promotion of indigenous repair and
maintenance capabilities. This can be addressed by conducting technical
refresher courses for the officers as well as creating a new cadre of civilian
engineers who remain attached to the domains in which they are trained. Such
engineers should also be provided periodic opportunities of interacting with
DPSUs and Ordinance factories to get deeper insights into design and
manufacture of defence related items.
In conclusion, it can be summarised that a significantly higher indigenous
content leading to a higher self-reliance capability among the Indian Armed
services can be achieved with a more organised involvement of competent
private sector companies, who will need to be nurtured to grow up the value
chain so as to empower them to participate extensively in the efforts towards
achieving Self-Reliance.

8. About the Author:
G Raj Narayan, is the founder and Managing Director of the Bangalore-based
Radel Group. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Indian
Institute of technology (IIT), Madras. He served as a design engineer at
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. for 10 years during which he worked on various
platforms such as the Kiran, Marut, Avro and HPT-32 projects. Raj Narayan
subsequently turned an entrepreneur and has 46 years of in-depth design
experience in aerospace and electronics engineering and technology.
Radel Advanced Technology (www.radel.co.in) is an ISO 9001:2008 and
CEMILAC certified organisation, with an admirable track record of more than
20 successful indigenisation projects for the Aerospace and Defence sector
over the last 10 years. Radel received an MSME R&D award from the Govt. of
India in 2010.
Guiding the group of talented and dedicated engineers at Radel with his
innovative ideas for indigenization and obsolescence management of defense
systems, Raj Narayan believes it is time India went beyond “technology
transfer” which only ends up in our getting dependent on other nations for
years. Raj Narayan has a vision of the important role that MSMEs can perform
in the defence indigenisation initiative.
@grajnarayan
www.grajnarayan.com