There’s a humorous statement by the guitarist Frank Zappa that a country can’t be real unless it has its own beer and airline. Now what differentiates real from real-deal? The pursuit of strategic autonomy, soft power projection, and safeguarding sovereignty, which requires walking the extra mile collectively to develop social cohesion and a state-of-the-art domestic defence -industrial base.
India’s rapid transition and turnaround from the much derided and sclerotic ‘Hindu Rate of Growth’, coined by the economist Raj Krishna, to among the fastest growing economies, world’s third largest in both purchasing power parity and net GDP, is a tale of Himalayan grit and resolve. High time to gear it towards building bootstrapped domestic defence champions and world-class industrial bases.
The recent Twitter/X storm on the Kaveri Engine, an indigenous aircraft turbofan engine project dating back to the 80s, shows the clarion call for defence indigenisation in the country.
The tempo and momentum is building up, but indigenization should not be conflated with import substitution or military Keynesianism, which look deceptively beautiful, but require sweeping industrialization that the Soviet Union embarked upon to compete in the Arms Race and the Cold War. That needs more than just money, material, and infra.
Safran Advantage?
As per a report by Moneycontrol, India is eyeing a partnership with France’s Safran to power HAL’s next-gen Tejas MK2. This is a step in the right direction. Indigenization and learning the best practices and tech adoption from abroad should go hand-in-hand.
The French fighter, Rafale, a part of Indian Airforce squadrons, is powered by a Snemca engine by the defence conglomerate Safran, which made the world’s first rotary engine in 1909.
Known for high-performance and reliability, Safran has collaborations with all of the biggest aerospace companies across the world such as Dassault, Boeing, and Airbus. CFM56, the world’s best-selling commercial engine, was developed jointly by Safran and GE.
It is estimated that over 50% of the aircrafts in the world use Russian-made turbofan engines.
NPO Saturn, the Moscow headquartered company that builds most of these, is a subsidiary of state-owned United Engines Corporation. NPO, which traces its roots to pre-revolution Russia in 1916, also has an enduring partnership with Safran.
PowerJet, which produces engines for Sukhoi Superjet 100, is 50-50 joint venture between the two with factories in Villarose, France, and Rybinsk Russia.
Innovative Defence Ecosystem
Aircraft engine manufacturing is a closed, niche ecosystem, where the biggest players have a legacy of around 100+ years. For instance, the engines of American F-22 raptors and F-35 stealth are manufactured by Pratt & Whitney, the world’s second largest aircraft engine maker. The firm, founded in 1925, holds about 35% global market share in aircraft engines.
There’s a sort of competitive collaboration between the big players, despite shifting geopolitical priorities, and contrasting national interests. The growing partnerships and mutual complementarities in this sector underscores this.
There are four prerequisites for state-of-the-art indigenous manufacturing: academia-industry cross-pollination, a conducive ecosystem, feedback mechanism at all levels, and then next the ability to mass produce at scale.
Through a state-led impetus, India can boost defence production following a mission-control approach and incubating domestic champions in defence. ISRO and New Space India Limited’s success in supporting and hand-holding private sector space startups in Earth Observation, remote sensing, and analytics can be expanded.
State behemoths, once considered as bywords of sloth and wastefulness, are leading the charge in defence.
The French classical economist Jean Baptiste Say said, supply creates its own demand. But for that demand to exist, and be catered to, there’s a need to plug the knowledge deficit and create favourable conditions.
With private companies operational at all stages, from components to sub-systems, and weaponry, the Indian defence ecosystem is definitely coming-of-age.
Brahmos is a stellar example of a joint venture partnership in supersonic cruise missiles. Its shining success can be replicated across other domains as well.
