85% of purchases by Army is Indian, says Army chief General Naravane

General MM Naravane #COAS inaugurated the Ahmedabad Design Week 3.0 #ADW2022 at Karnavati University #Gandhinagar. The theme for this year’s event is Design & Innovation in Defence & Aerospace. (1/3)#IndianArmy#InStrideWithTheFuture pic.twitter.com/sJ7IMP708H

— ADG PI – INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) February 26, 2022

“We have recently embarked on a programme for a future infantry combat vehicle, that is a tank, and a future armoured personnel carrier, which forms the mainstay of the mechanised forces. Both these are at the conceptualisation stage. We have just asked for ideas,” he said, asking design students at Karnavati University to participate in this challenge to design combat vehicles that could remain relevant for the next 50 years.

Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi from a webinar held Friday, the Army Chief stressed on “uniqueness” and “surprise element” in indigenous designs. He said the Indian Army is not just looking at high-tech weapon systems but also at low-tech solutions to some of the problems that the troops face in the forward areas.

“We still do not have a system that can help us with potable water in inaccessible areas. We spend large amounts of money in transporting potable water in tankers to the forward areas,” said the Army chief, adding that such a portable system will work wonders for troops at high altitudes.

Talking about future systems that the Indian Army is focusing on, Naravane said, “We run thousands of generators in the forward areas. There is no electricity supply there and each generator requires fossil fuel. To transport the fuel, we need vehicles. To generate one unit of electricity in the forward areas, we spend 15 times of what it costs in peace. Can we have some alternative that can generate electricity in the forward areas, not dependent on fossil fuel?”

He said the future was in miniaturisation, as defence forces “cannot afford to operate large platforms”. “The size of our platforms is limited. The size of our ships and aircraft have to be small by necessity and in this small space you have to pack more and more features. Therefore, miniaturisation is one area we have to proceed with,” he said.

Giving examples of companies like Kodak, Nokia and HMT, the Army chief said, “If we do not change and innovate, we will be consigned to the scrap book of history. There are many examples to prove that. Change is exponential and wars and conflicts have been harbingers of this change. There is always going to be a civil-military fusion in whatever developments take place.”

He pointed out that the Army Design Bureau acts as a facilitator between the designers and the Army and under the Innovation for Defence Excellence (iDEX) and Technology Development Fund of DRDO, financial support is provided to the start-ups and MSMEs.

“We have 26 projects in iDEX and are helping 33 start-ups. Some of things that have borne fruit and are under trial and evaluation right now are see-through armours, drone jammers, unmanned surface vehicles, image analytics and vital ammunitions. These are at the final stages of evaluation,” Naravane said while narrating how a start-up, ideaForge Technology Pvt Ltd, beat established players like Tatas to bag an order for UAVs from the Indian Army.

“In the recent Budget, 25 per cent of the defence R&D budget has been specifically earmarked for private investment. I think this is a first-of-its-kind initiative by the government. About 68 per cent of what we buy — Army, Navy and Airforce — the orders will go to indigenous companies. We are far ahead of this target. As far as the Indian Army is concerned, 85 per cent of whatever we buy is Indian,” he added.