“Delay is the price for high-tech systems”, says Vice Admiral Satish Soni, who heads Eastern Naval Command - Broadsword by Ajai Shukla - Strategy. Economics. Stuff.

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Wednesday, 17 September 2014













Q.         Can you explain with a practical example?












  1. The capability gap is a reality - the navy is well aware of the reasons and most of them are not of its own making but is a result of the collective tardiness of the entire defence establishment with the DRDO being at the forefront.
    One could understand that a weapon system could not be ready if a ship was delivered on time but when the ship itself takes 7-10 years to build and is still not fully equipped with the weapons and sensors it is designed for certainly calls for some introspection within the system.
    The CinC has said that Kamorta as an ASW frigate not having a surface-to-surface missile can be accepted but can the MoD justify the commissioning of an ASW ship without either a Towed Array sonar or a suitable ASW helicopter. Similarly, is Kolkatta battle-ready to go into a multi-threat scenario against a comparable adversary ?
    I wish the CinCs would accept the shortcomings and highlight the reasons for these rather than be seen to be covering up for the systemic deficiencies in the entire system where the navy is the least responsible amongst all the others - the DRDO, the Deptt of Def Production for accepting the shoddy performance of the shipyards it controls, the DPSUs( shipyards and the likes of BEL etc), the DoD for its tardy decision-making, the MoD ( Fin) raising observations on file that do nothing but cause delay while they think their efficiency is being reflected in their file notings etc etc.

  2. One politician like Antony is more than sufficient to throw the system out of gear. Among all the forces navy suffered the most under his boastful longest tenure. Whole of country suffered like anything under Sonia mal governance. Really it was nightmarish .

  3. DRDO blames IN for delay in ALTAS
    "He said the evaluation of advanced light towed array sonars (ALTAS) — for detecting and tracking enemy submarines — was stuck for want of a test ship."


  4. only 6... spade a spade... way to go...

  5. drdo could have chartered a commercial psv , osv for the requirement from trade . lack of cordination , outof box thinking , no acountabilty , or anybody responsible with big egos with navy result in silly delays like a ship not
    availble. what stops drdo from having a custom based capabilty required 3000 ton ship being built by any shipyard for tests trials both on the east , west and south coasts of india

  6. @17 September 2014 21:25...
    AJT Hawk finalization... AJT HAL production line... 20 Surya kiran AJT... file subversion... antony... st.antony...

  7. Sir,
    Next time you meet any DRDO high ranking official or related to naval lab ask them if they have Do 228 as aerial test bed why don't they get one ship for testing, as for hydrological purpose they have one or two ship which are maintained by navy.
    If they face problem they should mention it instead of blaming some other "DRDO blames IN for delay in ALTAS".
    They are highly successful till mounted sonars, some give credit to "Arogyaswami Paulraj" for success. He left India in 1991 since then new sonar (towed array development started in 2000s and mihir) has not been successful .

  8. Navy getting ship for testing torpedos, target vehicle, towed sonar and unmanned water vehicle under
    "Four 3,500 t Multi Purpose Support Vessels (MPVs)"


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