Modernizing Armed Forces-A New Approach

Modernizing our Armed Forces is an essential requirement but we have always been dependent on what is available in the market outside and which was developed to suit the requirements of that country or the buyers of the commodity and not necessarily what our armed forces require vis a vis the threat posed to us by Pakistan and China and in future may be Taliban/ Al Qaida.

In order to modernize the armed forces we need to develop our own and not be dependent on what is available outside. No country will sell its front line equipment which he is using but will always offer you the downgraded or older version. To modernize the armed forces we need to have persons developing the equipment of what they require by being with them, experiencing their problems, work to develop solutions to overcome these problems and test them in actual conditions.

At present the armed forces specify their requirements in technical terms. This requires that first they understand the problem, think towards he solution and after working out the solution convert them in technical term and specify them to the scientist who have no inking as to what was the problem. There is a communication gap from the lower formation to higher to specifying them in quantitative terms and scientists understanding the problem by just studying the requirements. Majority of the times one just goes through with what is available in the market, modify the specification with the thinking that this modified requirements will solve the problem. But sadly this does not happen and the developed equipment is not what armed forces had in mind and most of the time the problem is addressed only partially and the armed forces are forced to accept t as the development has consumed a lot of money. Typical examples are HF 24, Tejas, Arjun tank, etc. The problem is further complicated as the PSU’s are the only developer and supplier and have no competition from other private players. Compare this to a small country like Israel which has very strong private players in the defence production sector or USA where everything is in private sector.

A long term solution to overcome this issue is to develop from the grass route level the people who work with army and see the actual conditions, understand their problems and then have the intellectual and innovative skills to develop the solutions into equipment necessary to overcome the problem, test them in actual conditions and see their successful induction. A tall order but it can be done by not the QR set by armed forces which are set to develop good officers and men but not innovative and out of box thinking minds. To develop such minds we need to pick them up at very young age, expose them, train them and educate them in armed forces environment by giving them free everything and ensuring that the persons who graduate from these institutes are giving the prestige and honour they deserve as they will be the cream of innovative minds.

1.       Establish a separate department in Defence Ministry with brilliant officers from armed forces, scientists, educators and talent hunters with suitable budget.

2.       Their job will be to visit the schools and colleges especially the students in the age group of 14 to 18 years between 10 and 12 standard only and identify the boys/girls with innovative minds and out of box thinkers by developing suitable tests in association with psychologists, interviews and giving them problems which will involve out of box thinking.

3.       These students should not be confined to only science and engineering but can be from any discipline including medical, economics, etc.

4.       Identify what the student is good at and what he wants to do in future and encourage them to pursue that field.

5.       These students will undergo the rigor required for armed forces but will study to become scientists, engineers, economists or medical professionals, etc.

6.       For this either we need to create institute with the most brilliant minds to teach them and develop and sharpen their innovative and out of box thinking skills. Or a tie up can be created till these are established and fully functional with the premier institutes of India to train them with this special emphasis on out of box or innovative thinking.

7.       After graduating these candidates will be required to stay with armed forces for two to four years tenure where they will take up the problems faced by armed forces and develop .equipment to mitigate or remove these difficulties. After their tenure is over they can remain in the armed forces if they wish to or return to civilian life where they can set up enterprises to develop and supply their solution to armed forces and oversee their induction in the armed forces. Even during the training period the project works will consist of problems faced by armed forces with a view to suggest innovative solution for them.

8.       Help by way of finance or land and other clearances can be provided to set up their enterprises in once they return to civil life if they so desire.

9.       This will help in creation of a strong bond between armed forces and industry, better understanding of issues faced by armed forces and development of indigenous forces for our armed forces and will create a healthy competition between PSU and private sector.

10.   The training, education and stay should be free and should come out of special funds. To make it more attractive they can be treated as apprentice and given a stipend. They should be evaluated by seeing their response to problems and issues and not confined to examinations. These tests can be regular and at random also and candidates not coming up to required standard to be weeded out by sending them to normal schools. The aim should be to test their innovative and out of box thinking skills and how far they have advanced in this direction. It should be expected that such type of training and evaluation will have a high dropout rate but it is required that we have out of box thinkers and innovative minds even though they may be few.

11.   Maintain a strong bond and relationship with graduates of this training by involving them in discussions, evaluations, development and also in planning with regular get together and help.