Indian Military

Dr. Vivek Lall, who was heading Boeing’s Defense, Space and Security unit in India is now leading a new technology venture being set up by Indian industrial giant Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).

Industry sources have informed StratPost that Lall, who joined RIL two weeks back, is reporting directly to the Chairman and Managing Director, Mukesh Ambani. His brief is to stand up the new venture, which will focus on technologies like advanced materials and advanced communications systems, that are likely to have a bouquet of applications in the homeland security, aerospace and defense sectors, not to mention spin-offs into other areas.

Although the immediate intention is not to necessarily produce complete products for these sectors, the underlying idea is to conduct fundamental research and development, and effect partnerships with companies around the world to bring these basic critical technologies to India, along with the associated knowledge and skills.

The purpose of this is to create capabilities in India that would be necessary for any meaningful and genuine indigenous development and manufacture of equipment and services in these sectors.

The purchase of 24 Harpoon Block II anti-ship missiles for the Jaguar aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF), agreed earlier this month after being in the works for the past couple of years, was a milestone as it settled the niggling issue of the parameters of the end use monitoring between the Indian and US governments.

After much political controversy in India, the end use monitoring framework was agreed by both governments in July last year, during the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But it is only with the Harpoon deal that the framework has been tested with both sides agreeing to a compromise that sources in the Indian Ministry of Defense say, will be a model for future such agreements.

The USD 170 million Harpoon sale also attracted certain ‘enhanced’ end use monitoring requirements that impose more stringent conditions to ensure non-proliferation or leakage of technologies and systems. These typically apply to advanced technologies and weapon systems and also include ‘large aircraft with onboard infra red counter measures’.