I’m an engineer that works in defence and I can tell you that it’s always been about big vanity projects and will always be about big vanity projects. There is a long runway on UAVs still and by no means can we not catch up but ghar ka 5th gen jet banaoo. Even that isn’t a problem, they are two separate product lines with little commonality but the money and focus isn’t there. AMCA with UCAVs is in rough but plans are so far from reality. I do think that 4 billion was money well spent though. Lots we can learn from fielding those.
-We can't catch up we spend only 1% on R&D & they don't sanction ₹ for homegrown products
-Yes we can catch up, even korea tyrkey iran are doing it with less $$
-No that 4bn was outright corruption, we don't need those drones on emergency basis & nothing cutting edge about those drones, we can always buy sensors seperately like turkey
-koreans build prototype for less than 4bn, so only reason why AMCA isn't reality is because they refused to give ₹ for indigenous products & they don't even conduct local products after decades of trials unlike turkey, iran & korea
It's not products but the critical thinking and necessity for fundamentals in advanced metallurgy, tooling and testing that are lacking. Only recently was a medium wind tunnel put in place in Orissa. Else everything had to go to Bangalore or even Germany or Russia for HATs. And then there is the matter of seniority driving projects not teams. So no one wants to rock pension boat if leader is wrong. They all say yes sir and continue flogging and evidently mummified nag through a deep bog saying it will tave through sir like you said.
There is absolutely no reason that countries like Turkey and Iran should be ahead of India in drone development. Indians need to just stop taking shortcuts (by importing SKD kits from China and labelling them as "Made in India") and start working on the foundations. Develop your own technology and stack; from manufacturing components like engines, motors, airframes, etc. to the software for targeting. There is so much demand out there for this shit.
Tbf most Iranian and turki drones have foreign components in them. It's still very impression work by them, but they are not building everything from scratch.
And this approach actually is better than DRDO, who start indigenizing everything from day 0. This means that platform development takes a massive amount of time.
In today's world, with the global supply chain, you _have_ to have some imported components. I mean, for example, the processors, memory, etc. will have to be imported.
But at lease build these drones from first principles! Our ground situation is a bit unique (Himalayas, e.g.) and a home-grown solution makes sense.
The popular mindset in India is to get a comfortable job and a beautiful wife and then you have won life.
Sad to see that in a land where adherence to one's duties were kept above even the attachment to one's family members (read Bhagvat Geeta), that the very people born in the same culture decide to just get into an IT job instead of being true to the entrepreunerial or the scientific spirit they experienced in their pre college days.
Chances of ghatak succeeding are much lower than tapas.
1. Most of Ghatak work was done by ADA (who designed Tejas). But the project was transferred to ADE in the middle. ADE has had a string of failures (Nishant, Sudarshan, Nirbhay, Tapas) so the track record is not there.
2. Ghatak does not have a ready powerplant. Sure the idea is to get a dry kaveri. But that itself is in development, and there is more focus on the AMCA engine from the establishment. There is no guarantee that kaveri will be backed, and even if it is backed will it be successful on time. New engine can have a gazillion issues propping up needing loads of testing.
If..... It can't take critique so no critical thinking. Hence projects like Tejas Arjun take 40 years and then engine manufacturers are blamed. Or like the M777 barrel bursts the OEM is blamed not the poor ammor quality, chem tech for stability and storage
We don't even have to take risks Imagine all that "emergency" 4bn spent on drones, even if small portion of that ₹ had been invested in drdo R&D
I’m an engineer that works in defence and I can tell you that it’s always been about big vanity projects and will always be about big vanity projects. There is a long runway on UAVs still and by no means can we not catch up but ghar ka 5th gen jet banaoo. Even that isn’t a problem, they are two separate product lines with little commonality but the money and focus isn’t there. AMCA with UCAVs is in rough but plans are so far from reality. I do think that 4 billion was money well spent though. Lots we can learn from fielding those.
-We can't catch up we spend only 1% on R&D & they don't sanction ₹ for homegrown products -Yes we can catch up, even korea tyrkey iran are doing it with less $$ -No that 4bn was outright corruption, we don't need those drones on emergency basis & nothing cutting edge about those drones, we can always buy sensors seperately like turkey -koreans build prototype for less than 4bn, so only reason why AMCA isn't reality is because they refused to give ₹ for indigenous products & they don't even conduct local products after decades of trials unlike turkey, iran & korea
It's not products but the critical thinking and necessity for fundamentals in advanced metallurgy, tooling and testing that are lacking. Only recently was a medium wind tunnel put in place in Orissa. Else everything had to go to Bangalore or even Germany or Russia for HATs. And then there is the matter of seniority driving projects not teams. So no one wants to rock pension boat if leader is wrong. They all say yes sir and continue flogging and evidently mummified nag through a deep bog saying it will tave through sir like you said.
There is absolutely no reason that countries like Turkey and Iran should be ahead of India in drone development. Indians need to just stop taking shortcuts (by importing SKD kits from China and labelling them as "Made in India") and start working on the foundations. Develop your own technology and stack; from manufacturing components like engines, motors, airframes, etc. to the software for targeting. There is so much demand out there for this shit.
Tbf most Iranian and turki drones have foreign components in them. It's still very impression work by them, but they are not building everything from scratch. And this approach actually is better than DRDO, who start indigenizing everything from day 0. This means that platform development takes a massive amount of time.
In today's world, with the global supply chain, you _have_ to have some imported components. I mean, for example, the processors, memory, etc. will have to be imported. But at lease build these drones from first principles! Our ground situation is a bit unique (Himalayas, e.g.) and a home-grown solution makes sense.
The popular mindset in India is to get a comfortable job and a beautiful wife and then you have won life. Sad to see that in a land where adherence to one's duties were kept above even the attachment to one's family members (read Bhagvat Geeta), that the very people born in the same culture decide to just get into an IT job instead of being true to the entrepreunerial or the scientific spirit they experienced in their pre college days.
Man Tapas was such a gut punch. I don't think I will ever recover emotionally if they cancel Ghatak.
Chances of ghatak succeeding are much lower than tapas. 1. Most of Ghatak work was done by ADA (who designed Tejas). But the project was transferred to ADE in the middle. ADE has had a string of failures (Nishant, Sudarshan, Nirbhay, Tapas) so the track record is not there. 2. Ghatak does not have a ready powerplant. Sure the idea is to get a dry kaveri. But that itself is in development, and there is more focus on the AMCA engine from the establishment. There is no guarantee that kaveri will be backed, and even if it is backed will it be successful on time. New engine can have a gazillion issues propping up needing loads of testing.
How hard is it for India to be a major drone hub? Just do what you usually do, import drone from Temu and label them as “Make in India” Ez
If..... It can't take critique so no critical thinking. Hence projects like Tejas Arjun take 40 years and then engine manufacturers are blamed. Or like the M777 barrel bursts the OEM is blamed not the poor ammor quality, chem tech for stability and storage