THE PAST AND THE FUTURE PROSPERITY OF THE INDIAN AEROSPACE ECOSYSTEM

The recent flight-test of the latest Chinese claimed 6 th generation aircraft prototype made various nervousness among the social media handlers , defense channel accounts and also even aviation experts about being potentially outclassed and outmatch by leaving significant capability and technology gap between the China and Indian Aerospace and defense capabilities ! Personally China need to be deserved a applaud on their handwork , dedication , commitment , vision , Financial funding and strategic planning to make once their Pre economic aerospace Era into a rising and well developed ecosystem. Its necessary that we need to take lessons , accept the failure and prepare for potential scenario where our guards are not down against the challenges .

The Indian aerospace ecosystem have significantly gained attention and necessary potential came from last few years around 5-7 years ! Remember , The actual groundwork or roadmap to develop and procure the indigenous aircrafts came into the light initially few years back not decades ! Decades back then , Then government , Airforce , Govt-Originations , Bureaucrats Or the policy makers have no idea or confidence that India will built or required the need to make indigenous fighters ! At that time , the threat which the government and air force assumed and prepared only for Pakistan as its main adversary where that nation did not have aspirations to have the way the Chinese had a taught and even barely China was not officially decaled as long term adversary and made plans accordingly. The role of Airforce was to conduct necessary required strikes and attempt for aa swift operations rather than long duration and preparation for strategic support for the forces during that era ! One need to understand that Political threats , Objectives , Doctrine , purpose was significantly reduce and wad only meant for a adversary who did not have significant aerospace ecosystem or threat of long duration wars ! From this air force the fighting aviation arm did not foresee the requirement of having great strategic industry and aerospace to hold and play a workhouse for long runs and this made government to procure for foreign aircrafts rather than investing expensive aerospace facilities and development centers as national economy conditions did not permit them to establish for long run!

HAL , ADA , ADE and other government run Defense establishments did not have that idea or had an idea to develop cutting edge technologies , Testing facilities, Research centers or supply chain because as there was no need to develop a future proof ambitioned ecosystem as leadership and Airforce did not even care about future potential possible threats and foresee of potential benefits of having indigenous ecosystem ! Even today these government organizations are slow to adopt modern technologies and manufacturing techniques for potential future considerations , Yes they are adopting , But the adopting range of duration is slow , There are significant small production facilities which the can only manufacture 2 -3 squadrons of aircrafts as per the given timeline for current requirements and incase only a squadrons for air force as the scale is dependent on orders received !, There is no proper HR policy to support , nurture and create aerospace leaders for the growth of the country . This is more like a collective failure not an individual entity or organization ! Everyone is responsible because unfortunately we could not even deliver in timeline !

Thanks to now the leadership , There is dedicated planning segment under MOD , We have a strong commitment from air force leadership , The rise of Indian aerospace startups and MSMES , providing funding as key element despite keeping delays in our mind , There is strong and growth opportunity for next generation aerospace deemed leaders and the defense security ! We need to or required to check the Dark spots both in industry and Mod ! Even there is need to overhaul the mod procurement and policy development or mostly these overhauling must be done in government funded aerospace ecosystems ! Policy makers must be given or brought from India's leading thinktanks , societies to develop and protract the original and future proofed requirement and planning , Provide specialize funds apart from IDEX to potential future scalable startups and encourage them to focus on key areas ! Develop and nurture the talent acquisition of students , academia , Well technical and aspirational officers from defense and government AGENCIES, Must focus on building the Testing facilities ! Make leaders not Managers but importance to need to be given for Managing the unexpected outcomes and leading the future the expected the potential growth graph !

The only thing which can make us progressive towards the future by taking lessons from Chinese aerospace ecosystem as a case study ! Remove the unwanted negativity and blame game for the policy and developers who did not commit in the past and let us think future and collaborate and maintain quo with industry , required policy makers and support and most important is to develop patience and pestilence , By caring more or giving importance for testing and R and D funding allocation and with right people with right talent !