By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd) Former Director General of Information Systems, Indian Army

Indian Air Force paratroopers in action

The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is again in the news because of wrong reasons. It is actually ironic that Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and DRDO, both government organisations, are in the news periodically for diagrammatically opposite reasons; ISRO for its stupendous successes heralding India's leap into space and DRDO for hiccupping along and lagging woefully in defence R&D and production.

This is notwithstanding the recent propaganda of DRDO successes, which is face saving exercise for this huge organization, considering products of DRDO can hardly meet even a small percentage of our overall military requirements. It is a shame that even cutting edge requirements of small arms and equipment of the foot soldier cannot be met indigenously. Now media reports have quoted the just released report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which has indicted the poorfunctioning of the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) in Agra and the Ordnance Parachutes Factory (OPF) in Kanpur (both PSUs under the DRDO, for failing to produce requisite combat free fall (CFF) parachutes, despite 10.75 crore in expenses and 13 years of development and trials. CAG has also raised questions about ADRDE, the sole institution in India for development of military-grade parachutes, on its claim of successful trials of combat free fall (CFF) chutes, pointing out that an overwhelming 75 per cent of the chutes had failed field trials.

CAG pointing out this monumental lie needs to be seen in context of the recently released list of DRDO successes released by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar; the bottom line being that DRDO has been duping all along with more gas and little substance. What the media is unaware, and so would be the Defence Minister, is that in this 13 years of development what the DRDO was working upon was only the CFF canopy. It did not include the Automatic Opening Device (AOD) and the oxygen equipment and cylinders which are essential to CFF jumps in operations at an altitude of 10,000 feet and above; undertaking operational CFF jumps into enemy territory will invariably be above 10,000 feet sincehigher the exit, longer the lateral distances that can be traveled. So, the lapse of taking 13 years and spending 10.5 crore for producing just aCFF canopy needs to be seen in the context that this was only one part of the CFF equipment required for operations.

The issue is even more serious since imported CFF parachutes have been in use by the Army and the Air Force since 1975, and in these past 41 years replicating imported CFF equipment would have been easy with Indian Air Force's (IAF) Para Training School where the CFF training is mainly conducted and the ADR&DE both co-located at Agra. It is significant to note that in 1986, a batch of CFF parachuted were imported. However, with a shelf life of 10 years they were finally de-commissioned in 2002, being no longer operationally worthy.

In 2001, the Army placed an order for 1,031 CFF parachutes, of which 410 were to be procured from abroad on a fast track basis for urgent needs. The remaining 621 were to be produced under a project by ADRDE, which started in March 2003. However, in 2006, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) cancelled these imports with the recommendation that these CFF these chutes also be procured internally. Between March and November 2006, ADRDE conducted trials for the CFF chutes it had developed and claimed these had been successful. The defence ministry then placed an order with OPF Kanpur to make 700 of the parachutes in October 2008, at a total cost of 55.35 crore. OPF was to deliver a sample of 40 for further trials. However, according to the CAG report, in 2010, trials of the parachutes found them deficient in quality, with the expert team saying the implications of the flaws was 'seriously life threatening'. Despite this, the MoD went ahead and in July 2011 ordered two consignments of 25 parachutes each. In October 2014, of the first 25 chutes, only seven passed trials. The failure rate of 75 per cent, according to the CAG report, raised serious questions about the claims by ADRDE as well as the manufacturer, OPF. In its indictment, the CAG has made a categorical statement saying, "Despite urgent requirement for CFF parachutes since 2001, the Ministry neither bought them from abroad nor through indigenous sources till December 2012. This resulted in non-availability of parachutes for the Army's immediate operational needs for over a decade."

CAG has also questioned the functioning of both the ADRDE and the OPF. Concurrently in January 2008, the IAF signed a deal with the US government to buy C-130 Hercules aircraft, and with them 600 CFF chutes. Of these, 400 were given to the Army in January 2013. India had to undertake imports of even normal para-dropping parachutes during 1980s ex South Korea because indigenous ones (now in use) were not fit. This, despite paratrooping in vogue in India since British times. 'Make in India' makes eminent sense but the government needs to seriously go after DRDO and its ancillaries for wasting crores of rupees and precious time at the cost of equipping of the military.

Photo Credit: IAF