Pradip R Sagar By

NEW DELHI:The Pakistani Army hasn’t got any less aggressive, violating ceasefire agreements and helping terrorists infiltrate the Indian border into Kashmir, but the top brass of the Indian Army seems more obsessed with foreign tours and backing the white horse Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) as the search for creating the perfect soldier continues. Sci-fi versions of an infantryman equipped with cutting-edge hi-tech weaponry and armour in the Terminator fashion has been on the army’s wish list for over a decade. However, its ambitious project of a ‘Smart Soldier’ has not materialised even after 10 years of its announcement.

Pakistani ministers are threatening to nuke India and its Rangers keep pounding border areas with mortar, but miles-long red tape carpeting the corridors of South Block has been constantly tripping up the key project, despite steadily escalating security threats from Pakistan and China. Meanwhile, taxpayers’ money is being spent on research ‘junkets’ and wasteful projects by DRDO. Nearly 4,000 Indian soldiers have been killed in the country after the Kargil operations in 1999, which alone claimed the lives of over 500 soldiers in savage, World War-I style of infantry attacks. The total number of army deaths since the first war with Pakistan is nearly 8,000, including 6,000 deaths counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

To reduce casualties drastically, the army decided to ape the western world’s soldier modernisation programme. It conceived an ambitious project called 'Future Infantry Soldiers As A System' (F-INSAS) in 2005. It was announced with much fanfare by the then chief of army staff General J J Singh in 2007. Its prototype was aimed at providing the infantry soldier with lethality, mobility, survivability, sustainability, communications and situational awareness. The estimated budget of Rs 25,000 crore was earmarked for its first phase. But tenders were falling apart, and DRDO’s notorious performance and delivery record ensured that even rifles could not be given to jawans soon.

Though F-INSAS was primarily to be developed through a military-DRDO-indigenous industry partnership, senior officers like Gen JJ Singh along with other top officials of the Infantry Directorate visited countries like the US, Israel and France to assess foreign world’s respective soldier modernisation programmes during its planning stage. Subsequently, officials have been making foreign visits to study available weapons in the world for the required category and they enjoyed these trips at the expense of the national exchequer.

Fundamentally, the F-INSAS programme involves equipping over 305,000 infantry troops (359 battalions) and around 90,000 Rashtriya Rifles and Assam Rifles soldiers deployed on conventional, counter-insurgency operations or both with a modular, multi-caliber suite of weapons and body armour. It has over 50 items, which are required to be procured or developed indigenously.

Initially, the project, which was divided under four category, i.e. Weapons, Night sight, Equipment and Communication, was working under an independent unit in the Infantry Directorate. But, presently, the independent unit of F-INSAS was dismantled and clubbed under the infantry directorate since 2014.

Though the Infantry Directorate claims to have all items at various stages of procurement, it appears to be ‘unrealistic’ in near future, according to a senior officer of the army headquarters.

Sources indicated the army itself is primarily responsible for the delays as it is unable to formulate the basic qualitative requirements for many of the planned weapons.

“In many cases, the qualitative requirement has not even prepared. And in some cases, it has been made unrealistic. Like the primary assault rifle case, invited bidders failed to meet the requirements asked by the army, which resulted its cancellation after four years of deliberations,” said a defence ministry official.

“F-INSAS programme is long overdue and needs to be fast-forwarded as security threats posed by nuclear rivals Pakistan and China are steadily escalating,” the officer further said.

And to make matter worse, a fortnight back, Indian army cancelled its four-year-old hunt for the primary assault rifle after the rifles produced by the foreign vendors were found to be unsatisfactory and expensive. The army has been battling to replace its two-decade -old indigenous INSAS rifles, which has been a ‘disappointment’. It proposed to buy 66,000 5.56mm assault rifles to replace INSAS. The service has used the INSAS 5.56mm assault rifle since the 1990s despite complaints of technical faltering. Army and para-military forces have even complained that the 5.56mm rounds were of inferior quality, causing the weapons to misfire.

In 2011, the global tender for interchangeable double barrel rifle with a 5.56 primary barrel for anti-terrorist operations and 7.62mm secondary barrel for fighting a conventional war was floated. Colt (US), Beretta (Italy), Ceska (Czech Republic), Israeli Weapon Industry and Sig Sauer (Europe) responded.

“Now, the global tender has been cancelled as all competitors failed to clear trials, army is considering an option of procuring it through ‘make in India’ policy,” an officer said.

In the coming years, Indian infantry soldiers will progressively get equipment like light-weight integrated ballistic helmets with “heads-up display” and miniaturised communication systems; portable visual, chemical and biological sensors; hand-held computer displays, GPS and video links; “smart” vests with sensors to monitor vital body signs; and of course lethal firepower with laser-guided modular weapon systems.

A senior army officer blamed the defence ministry for preferring DRDO to design weapon systems and the wasteful Ordnance Factory Board and defence PSUs to produce them. “With the pace of DRDO and deliverable experience of state PSU and Ordnance Factory Boards, the project was bound to be delayed. And ongoing tussle in the MoD between the private and public players majorly responsible for the failure of the future soldier programme,”an officer said.