By Dr Santanu Mandal
From high-tech weaponry to advanced weapon systems, the last two decades have seen India’s defence forces increasingly equip themselves with modern technologies,and rapidly advance their technological capabilities. India has the largest defence budget, behind only the USA and China. However, it is also the largest defence importer in the world, which impacts its current account deficits. To overcome this, the Govt. of India, through its Defence Production Policy of 2018 (DPrP-2018) set the goal to become one of the top five global producers of Aerospace and Defence Manufacturing.
Like other sectors, defence has also embraced the role of technology from materials science and sourcing to high-tech applications and systems. The iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) programme launched in April 2018, creates an ecosystem that fosters innovation and technology development by engaging across large and small industries, research and academic institutes and start-ups to adopt technology and advance the defence capabilities.
Another initiative, Aatmanirbhar Bharat, was started to encourage home-grown technology development to build a self-reliant India, and has become a national movement today. The resulting drive towards self-reliance as a nation has created opportunity across the industry. The Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) accordingly prioritises the indigenisation of sourcing, manufacture, research and development, as well as software and other high-tech applications.
Industry is responding to the call of Aatmanirbhar Bharat to offer solutions to various defence organisations and build a self-reliant India. While various Defence R&D units and Public Sector Units played a pivotal role in developing indigenous technologies and launching products as per the market requirements, the private sector as well has realigned their business models to tap into this sector as a business opportunity and help the country achieve these strategic goals.
Making India self-reliant in materials and manufacturing
India has been significantly relying on imports for military materials, the critical metal and non-metal raw materials and specialised compounds used in armour, ammunition, aerospace, and naval applications. India imports approximately $2 billion annually, relying on countries such as China, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Russia, Brazil, Australia and the U.S. With the supply chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ever-present threat of geo-political unrest, looking to become self-reliant is critical. A self-reliant defence system is not only crucial for the economy of a country but also important from a strategic national security point of view.
Indian companies like CUMI have been contributing to the aerospace and defence industry value chain by producing and supplying revolutionary new materials for indigenous manufacturing with a competitive advantage. Providing end-to-end solutions right from mining to research and manufacturing, these companies also make products and components used in various purposes in defence.
Since the components used in the defence manufacturing sector must accomplish specific temperatures, resistance and loads, a great deal of importance is given to material science research and development. At CUMI, our expertise in materials also extends to several defence purposes through indigenous and fully integrated operations across the value chain including mining, power generation, fusion, manufacturing, marketing and distribution. Our lightweight ceramic, engineered with alumina and silicon carbide is used to provide ballistics protection in bullet-proof gear for armed forces, and in armoured vehicles. Ceramics are also used in green energy, sensors for Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), and even in missiles. CUMI recently signed a Licensing Agreement for Transfer of Technology (LAToT) with DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI) Laboratory for technology to manufacture “Ceramic Radomes (GELCAST Process) Technology” used in missile systems. Since missiles undergo extremely high surface temperatures while traveling through the atmosphere, ceramic is considered as the optimal radome material.
Lightweight composites like carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) have high tensile strength making them ideal for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). With over five decades of experience in design, manufacturing and testing of composites, CUMI’s Composites Manufacturing Division has brought cutting-edge technology across the board from payload holders to landing gear, with solutions that include CFRP tubes, sheets and customised composite structural parts for UAVs.
CUMI’s research team has also helped develop various grades of graphene – the strongest, thinnest material known to man, known as the ‘Wonder Material’, at just one atom thick – to create graphene-integrated innovative solutions.
Impact of Aatmanirbhar Bharat on defence exports
With several Government policy initiatives and reforms in the last five years to encourage indigenous design, development and manufacturing, the defence manufacturing sector has contributed immensely to improve the current account deficits and developing indigenous technologies. According to the Press Information Bureau, India’s defence exports grew by 334% in the past five years, exporting to 75 nations due to collaborative efforts. In 2022, India signed a $375 Million worth deal with the Philippines to export its indigenous BrahMos missile system. This was a major boost to India’s defence exports plan. And it also brought focus on the development of missile technology in India, which is a niche technology especially if one talks about the super-sonic (>Mach 1) and hypersonic (>Mach 5) technologies that would require light-weight engineering materials for structural & functional application.
In 2021-22, India’s defence exports stood at an impressive $1.5 Billion, with a target to become a $5 Billion worth industry by 2024-25. With this huge push by the Indian Government for indigenisation and procurement of defence products from domestic resources, the expenditure on defence procurement from foreign sources has reduced from 46% to 36% in the last 5 years.
Self-reliance – a must for national security and development
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in their 2022 year-end review emphasized that Atmanirbharat i.e. self-reliance in defence is a must for development and national security – from this it is evident that the focus is on building a youthful and tech-savvy military to meet the future challenges. This is a shot in the arm for Indian tech start-ups, manufacturing companies and materials suppliers, who have a critical role to play in positioning India as a global player in defence manufacturing.
The author is Senior General Manager & Head of the DSIR-approved R&D unit of Industrial Ceramics Division of CUMI, India and currently leads the R&D-programme in Technical & Advanced Ceramics & Composites.
