While the ‘Make in India’ concept is good, there are some companies which after failing in the tenders are trying to enter the Indian defence market through this concept

WASS, which is recognised worldwide as one of the most important torpedo manufacturers, is of the view that while the ‘Make in India’ concept is good, there are some companies which after failing in the tenders are trying to enter the Indian defence market through this concept, said Antonio Budroni, Regional delegate of WASS. He cautioned that if this is allowed, India would end up getting defence equipments which are not in compliance with the requirements as per tenders floated.

Budroni said that as a result, the complete Indian acquisition procedure will be jeopardised, along with its reputation in the defence market. In fact, companies that invested huge amounts of money to qualify all the tests and verification that the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) imposes in a tender will see their work thrown out, because the product from a loser company is coming back in the form of the ‘so-called’ ‘Make in India’ programme.

Budroni also brought out that WASS, which is present in India since 1976, has had industrial relationship with Indian companies well before the ‘Make in India’ programme. Work share with the public sector undertakings (PSUs) of more than 50 per cent is in place since 2005. Indian suppliers are enumerated as its vendors since 2000. A number of proposals for collaboration with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) have been delivered in recent past to build a common product, developed for the world market.

WASS is the resultant winner in the Scorpene class submarine tender for heavy weight torpedoes (HWTs), the only one that passed all the tests, requirements and field evaluations, said Budroni. The tender includes, also as a first step, transfer of technology (ToT) of 30 per cent of the product. The Black Shark torpedo is the most advanced HWT torpedo proven at sea available in the market. It is fully integrated on-board most of the submarines of various classes in the world, especially, in the Scorpene class which is already operational in several navies.

Budroni reiterated that it is keen to obtain this contract to start indigenisation of the Black Shark torpedo, transferring during the period very high key technologies in India through the already selected Indian vendors who are already supplying high technology torpedo components for the WASS worldwide market.

Budroni said that it is hard to believe that a country like India will lose such an opportunity to get the most reliable and performing torpedo that will become indigenous through the WASS-India relationship.