At a recent event in Shirdi, Maharashtra, the Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh said, “A nation that manufactures its own weaponry writes its own destiny.” He was inaugurating a defence manufacturing complex of a private sector company. On the same subject, in a recent interview on the, Secretary, Defence Production (MoD), Sanjeev Kumar described rapid strides that India has made toward achieving self-reliance (Atmanirbharta) in the defence sector.

Kumar went further to explain the nuances of self-reliance: “Self-reliance is not just about making products locally; it is about having the design capabilities to modify and adapt weapons to India’s specific needs.”

Speaking on the criticality of self-reliance, CDS Gen Chauhan, in a recent event said, “ …any country that innovates, speeds up production and whose armed forces adapt fast will have strategic advantage.” The CDS added that self-reliance in the defence sector is not just an economic objective but also a strategic necessity.

Seemingly coherent, these three articulations aptly sum up the strategic ambiguity and institutional misalignment on the subject of—self-reliance.

The armed forces would want the self-reliance push to lead to faster invocation cycles and higher scales of production. Inwardly, they are concerned about- capacity to adopt new and emerging tech and the urgent need to absorb changing nature of warfare. Military bureaucracy is busy responding to these changes by rewriting procurement processes and by redesigning command & organizational structures. Institutionally, in terms of self-reliance, they are more worried about- timely deliveries, scales of production and ready availability of weapons and equipment during phases of surge demand.

The Services want proven systems with high performance at the least cost in the least possible time. The origin of the equipment, IP rights, localization of content and up-skilling of domestic manpower are of lesser concern. The reluctant alignment with the self-reliance initiative is based on the assumption of assured delivery, of reasonably latest tech, at scale, during surge demand- which would allow them to function as intended, even in a high intensity combat situation under tech denial regime.

This framing, runs counter to the spirit of self- reliance, as seen by the industry. Domestic private defence industry would want to see scales of assured orders, predictability in QRs, funding, access to testing infrastructure, and above all a fair competition. DPSUs possess sufficient institutional heft and capital to deal with these challenges, however, suffer from institutional inertia, procedural inefficiencies and legacy mindsets. The political leadership is happy measuring degree of self- reliance by observing the percentage of local content. When imports become inescapable, transfer of technology (ToT) is presented as a magic bullet. DPSUs on the other hand find it difficult to absorb the ToT in full and instead prefer settling for ‘assembling’ rather than ‘manufacturing’.

Screwdrivergiri is the derisive term used in Indian defence circles to describe this practice. Taking a cue, the private defence industry has also started offering foreign weapon systems, calling them domestic by simply changing their names/nomenclature. Some prominent examples from recent times include:

• Vayu Astra is the Indianized version of the Israeli SkyStriker loitering munition. Originally Elbit systems of Israel. • Agnikaa loitering munition is the Indian version of Harop , used for SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defences). Originally IAI of Isreal. • SuryAstra is the rechristened version of PULS (Precise & Universal Launching System – Multiple Rocket Launcher). Originally Elbit systems of Israel.

The civilian leadership in the MoD looks at this issue of self-reliance as a matter of projections and numbers. Take for example a recent PIB release. which stated that India’s indigenous defence production hit a record ₹1,27,434 crore in FY 2023-24, a 174% surge from ₹46,429 crore in 2014-15, fueled by Prime Minister........

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