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Rakesh Sharma

Rakesh Sharma

From outer space to cyber space, India's first astronaut lands on the web to blog about Indian Defence issues

Rakesh Sharma

  • Latest Post

    PIPE DREAMS

    August 06, 2009, 4:2 AM

    I am greatly amused by the way we have managed to convince ourselves that we are well on the way to becoming a global superpower. Of course one has been hearing this refrain from various foreign media sources and visiting Heads of State - the latest addition to the list being Hillary Clinton, as she swings through our country.

    What does it take to become a super power: billions of dollars in reserve, double digit GDP growth? A strong Navy, an impressive missile defense system, backed up by a credible second strike capability? A military- industrial combine that has the potential to cater to our ever growing defense needs and also adequate spare capacity to capture the arms export market? Or, perhaps, a workable health and social security system that will scale up in the years to come, despite a doubling of population?

    It takes a lot to keep from being discouraged because it takes all of the above and some more to become a world power. Thing is, world powers are recognized as such only if their 'state of being' is of a certain standard and, it is here that we falter. Take a look at how our Nation goes about its own business before we take a call on whether we have the right stuff to lead the world - after all that is what is expected of any reigning super power. The list is just suggestive of the malaise - a pointer - and by no means, is it exhaustive.

    An embarrassingl

  • Previous Posts

    Corruption: The Ticking Time Bomb

    July 07, 2009, 6:2 AM
    Recently I had the occasion to reminisce about my career in the Air Force. The milestone that prompted this introspection was the 39th Anniversary of my batch's commissioning into the Bhartiya Vayu Sena. I recalled with pride that glorious day last month, when Air Chief Marshal PC Lal, the then Chief of the Air Staff, pinned the Air Force flying badge - 'Wings' - onto my chest while I stood ram rod straight to receive this ultimate symbol of acceptance by the flying fraternity - a rite of passage, so to speak; a badge of honour and commitment. I remember that event clearly, like it happened yesterday!

    Let me be upfront about this: I joined the Air Force at that time, not because I wanted to belong to an Organisation run by highly rated professionals but for another, very selfish reason - to get a shot at flying fast jets. As years went by and now, as I look back, I know that I got a lot, lot more from that Service than I could have ever imagined or even anticipated. I am what I am thanks to the Indian Air Force.

    Sure, I got to fly the fast jets of the day right through my 31 year long flying career - Hunter, Marut, Gnat, the Mig series, Jaguar, Mirage, F-16, F-18 etc., but, I also got much more than that. I got to meet and befriend an exceptional bunch of people who always seemed to put the interest of others, ahead of their own. This bunch, somehow, managed to find time and more importantly
  • MISSING LINK: THE (BROKEN) INNOVATION VALUE CHAIN

    May 28, 2009, 6:8 AM

    In my previous post I had remarked that innovation is half the story; proving an innovative concept is the other half.

    The Aerospace and Defence (A&D) sector needs products that are well designed, efficient, cost-effective, long lasting, upgradeable, easy to operate while, at the same time, be cheap and easy to maintain. The specs are quite exhaustive and the product, very challenging to design and produce. Unlike a missile, an aircraft, a tank and, to a lesser extent, a battleship needs to be developed with user interfaces that allow the man-machine combination to become potent and lethal.

    And so there are two elements that go to make up a successful weapon - the basic product design itself and the systems' man-machine interface. While the former is mostly about design philosophy and sophisticated trade- offs between conflicting requirements, the latter is a lot more 'iffy' and deals with subjective issues like look, feel, comfort, workload management, intuitive interfaces etc... Put differently, the former is the Science and the latter, the Art of weapon system Design and Development (D&D). These subjective parameters are what make a good design, great. They bestow the elusive 'X' factor to a particular weapon system. Favourite weapon systems operated by the Army, Navy and the Air Force, have all possessed this 'X' factor. Not surprisingly, the Science of weapon D&D is relatively easier to master than the Art.

  • THE (BROKEN) INNOVATION VALUE CHAIN

    May 13, 2009, 7:1 AM

    From an Aerospace and Defence standpoint, our country got into a tight embrace with the Russian Bear around 1965. Nothing wrong with that. There are many marriages of convenience and this one, was particularly well suited. We did not have the foreign exchange to buy military hardware from the West and the then Soviet Union could not produce the kind of quality that would have its Defence products compete against established suppliers to the international arms bazaar. Also, one does not sell arms to the enemy bloc.

    This arrangement with Soviet Russia was both good and bad for us. Good, because our proximity to the then USSR provided a counterweight to the USA-Pakistan combine, thus stabilizing the balance of power somewhat and bad, because this arrangement came with a heavy price tag. While the embrace lasted, we saw that our license production slowed down when the supply chain was made to slow down. To illustrate, the supply of something as simple as a particular type of glue dried up whenever we tried to step out of line diplomatically or strove to establish an independent foreign policy stance. Without the glue, the canopy could not be affixed to the frame and without the canopy the aircraft could not take to the air. Ditto, for ships and tanks. The 'bad' also operated at a deeper level. We had to be content with hardware that the Soviets made available or deigned to share the technology of. More often than not, this was based on their assessment of what was required to maintain the status quo with respect to our western neighbor and not ,what our military commanders wanted on the basis of their reading of the threat environment devel

  • THE GOVERNANCE OF BUSINESS

    April 25, 2009, 7:38 PM

    I came across the following article in the February 2009 issue of the National Maritime Foundation's monthly e-news letter.


    It read: "India is among the world's 'slowest' ship-building nations and private sector involvement was therefore necessary in building warships to strengthen the Navy's 'bluewater' capabilities", Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjit Singh said today.

    It went on, "Even after 60 years, India still remains one of the slowest ship-builders of the world. We have a 4,500 km coastline. Why can't we find places along this coast where 5,000 to 10,000 tonne ships can be built?" Pointing out that most PSU shipyards had space constraints; he said that while the private sector shipyards had hundreds of acres, the PSUs were confined to a few hundred. "We are asked to build state-of-the-art ships in the PSUs, but it is not possible to do that with the present space constraints. So the need for modernization.……."

    Are we hearing the Minister right? It does sound bizarre to me. Which Ministry is responsible for manufacturing warships to augment our Navy's 'bluewater' capability? It is the Minister's own Ministry. Who shou