Rafale is not enough!

- Pratik Badgujar

  3 Minute Read

It is 29th July 2020 today and India has received her first batch of 5 out of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft purchased from France. This inclusion of Rafale will boost the combat capabilities of the Indian Air Force (IAF) significantly.

Frankly speaking, I am not much happy at the moment. After all, we have just purchased Rafale and not developed ourselves. I understand that purchasing war equipment is not like buying groceries. A lot of diplomatic touches are required to convince a country to sell its war equipment to us and hence completing a military purchase is a victory of Indian Diplomacy in some sense.

Rafale was first inducted in French Navy in 2000 and was inducted in its Air Force in 2008. So, by that standard, we are still at least 12 years behind the French Air Force. In these 12 years, French defense companies/military research must have certainly advanced further.

India produces the largest number of engineers in the world. The number of engineers passing out of Indian universities is around 15 lakh per year. Considering the size of Indian GDP the demand for engineers is about 1.5-2 lakh. Anyways, in spite of producing 10 times the requirement, we are compelled to buy war equipment from other countries. Isn’t it something to be at least cognizant about, if not ashamed?

However, in all the hullabaloo about having Rafale, I have a very important question-

Why didn’t we develop our own technology for designing and manufacturing our own defense equipment? Did we even try to develop our own fighter aircraft in all previous years?

In the past, there have been many incidences where Indian scientists and engineers proved their might and quite literally surprised the world with their prowess. Here are two such examples:

Supercomputer PARAM

In the 1980s India strongly felt the need to have supercomputer for weather forecasting calculations. India wanted to purchase one from the USA but the USA blatantly denied giving supercomputer to India.

Considering the importance of supercomputer, The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) was created in 1987-88. C-DAC was given a target to make a supercomputer in 3 years. C-DAC unveiled the PARAM 8000 supercomputer in 1991. Not just that, PARAM 8600 was also unveiled in 1992/1993. Not just these supercomputers were one of the best at the time, they were also the cheapest. These machines demonstrated to the world Indian technological prowess and led to export success.

Cryogenic Engines:

Similar to supercomputers, India was denied access to cryogenic technology. Cryogenic technology-based engines form the core of all rocket launch vehicles. Russia was and is considered our true friend but even Russia denied us selling or sharing cryogenic technology. ISRO and DRDO then jointly developed the technology on their own and now because of that development ISRO is one of the leading space agencies in the world. Not just this, the cryogenic engines led to the development of Agni missiles. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam had a very important role in developing cryogenic engines and that’s why he is often called ‘Missile Man of India’.

These two examples prove that given the right support from the government, Indian engineers and scientists are no less than their international counterparts. It is true that developing a fighter plane takes years of effort and that's why we should immediately increase our focus on the indigenous development of crucial war tech.

Finally, I would like to quote Dr. Kalam’s words from his book ‘Wings of fire’. These words must be etched in the mind and soul of every Indian -

"Strength respects Strength"

(What do you think about this article, do you agree or you disagree absolutely? Do let us know by commenting below. You can also write an e-mail to us at simplewords48@gmail.com )

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