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| September 2009 Issue |
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A Step Before the Leap
Putting India’s ATV project in perspective
By Admiral Arun Prakash (retd) |
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Following close in the wake of India’s nuclear submarine launch, former Navy Chief Sureesh Mehta’s observations about the yawning gap between the militaries of China and India created a minor flutter in the media. But his candid admission revealed no secrets. In fact, his remarks should serve to focus attention on the contrasting approaches of the two nations.
We seem to have pinned all our hopes on high GDP growth triggering a Biblical ‘loaves and fish’ miracle in India. The Chinese, on the other hand, adopting a multi-track approach, have ensured balance growth of their nation by pursuing all constituents of Comprehensive National Power: economic, technological, diplomatic, social, cultural, and of course, military.
It is in situations of asymmetry such as this, as Pakistan has repeatedly demonstrated to us, that a nuclear deterrent comes in handy if brandished noisily. Since that is not our style, let us at least dust off the cobwebs, mental and actual, and take stock of where our own nuclear deterrent stands after the launch of the Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) on 26 July 2009.
Obsessive Secrecy
The ATV project has been probably one of India’s worst kept secrets. A Google search for ‘ATV Submarine’ would, on any day, would throw up between 100,000 to 200,000 results ranging from news snippets, blog discussions and Wikipedia articles to learned analyses on the Federation of American Scientists website. Every aspect of the project has been discussed threadbare in cyber-space by self-appointed experts, amateur
security analysts and plain nuts; sprinkled with inputs from retired... |
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scientists and an occasional press release by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
The ministry of defence (MoD) and Naval HQ have been content to maintain stoic silence about the ATV in the face of this tell-tale evidence and using, as a last resort, the ‘neither confirm nor deny’ line to fend off the inquisitive media. Perhaps, there was a method in all this secrecy and we did manage to befuddle everyone who tried to garner the truth from the heap of disinformation and half-truths available in the public domain on the ATV.
But the trouble with excessive secrecy is that while it may or may not deceive the enemy, it can certainly obfuscate the truth and lead you to the wrong conclusions; often with deleterious consequences. Now that the submarine is out of the closet, we need to discuss some aspects of this project which has a vital bearing on national security.
Project Management Paradigm
India must be unique amongst nations that undertake major expenditure on defence R&D in that both timelines and cost ceilings are infinitely flexible and neither accountability nor responsibility for delays, or even failure, are ever affixed. Subjective in-house ‘peer reviews’ can never be a substitute for hardnosed audits and progress-checks by independent experts, as well as end-users. The dismal story of projects like the Kaveri turbo-jet engine, the Light Combat Aircraft, the Arjun battle tank and the Trishul surface-to-air missile could have been very different, had they not been wrapped in furtive secrecy and been subjected, instead, to periodic scrutiny and oversight.
Of all the DRDO projects, to date, perhaps it is only the ATV which has forged ahead steadily, and, even after allowing for time and cost overruns as well as other shortcoming, can be called an outstanding success story. While we will dwell on some of the issues later, it can be stated up-front that this major achievement is mainly attributable to three factors, which should provide salutary lessons for the other two Services.
• The high level of synergy and co-ordination attained by the IN, DRDO and Department of Atomic Energy (DAE).
• The tremendous good sense displayed by DRDO in placing the navy in the driving seat, resulting in the intimate participation of the end-user in the project.
• The sustained and non-invasive support provided by successive secretaries of DRDO to the project.
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