India has never been a stranger to terrorist attacks, in fact the nation started grappling with the specter of proxy war and external fundamentalist attacks much before the Western world was exposed to it. However the reality of things is that despite this protracted exposure to terrorism, India’s military establishments and installations are still ill prepared to intuitively defend against this threat.
By Arjun Sreekumar
Industry Analyst – Aerospace, Defense and Security
India has never
been a stranger to terrorist attacks, in fact the nation started grappling with
the specter of proxy war and external fundamentalist attacks much before the
Western world was exposed to it. However the reality of things is that despite
this protracted exposure to terrorism, India’s military establishments and
installations are still ill prepared to intuitively defend against this threat.
This results in higher casualties. The Pathankot air force base attack is a
case in point. The high fatality rate of the Pathankot attack has been
attributed to the lack of a clear cut command structure and inefficient
deployment of forces. This may be true to an extent but amidst all the talk about
a national command doctrine and disorganized dissemination of intelligence, we overlook something basic.
The shifting modus operandi of terrorist attacks
Terrorist
attacks in India are either bomb/IED attacks or full frontal attacks on civilian,
law-enforcement or military establishment. An analysis of attacks over the past
decade points to the fact that only 30 percent of the total attacks were full
frontal attacks. It should be a cause of alarm that over 70 percent of these
full frontal assaults happened in the course of the past three years, pointing
to growing proclivity towards full frontal assaults against defense/civil
establishments. The last attack happened just a few days back in Pampore on 21st
Feb, 2016. The need to secure India's defense assets and soldiers guarding them
has never been more.
Pathankot- A breach that could've been avoided
On 2nd Jan, 2016
the perimeter of the Indian Air Force Base in Pathankot was breached by
terrorists. The targets were successfully neutralized by security forces but at
the cost
of seven of India's security personnel. The success of the operation is
diminished by this. However what makes it worse is that it seems like all the
terrorists had to do to break into the high security installation, housing
hundreds of millions worth of military equipment was just to secure a rope on
the wall and climb over it. It should never have been so easy to breach a
priority military installation. The terrorists should have been dispatched well
before they crossed over the boundary and that too with minimal casualties.
Security
adoption in India's military bases is still stuck in the middle ages. Today,
military installations cannot be secured by doubling the number of patrols or
number of personnel at outposts. One cannot beat asymmetric warfare with quantity.
The spending of
Defense forces on base security and smart technology adoption in the matter is
minimal. If the forces had routed a fraction of the billions they spend on new
equipment purchases to adopting smart and cost-effective security solutions in
military bases, casualties could have been minimized and India need not have to
grieve for the fallen seven. The attackers would've been detected long before
they closed in and forces could've engaged them in a tactically smarter
fashion.
What if Pathankot housed modern security features?
Imagine a
situation where the Pathankot Air Force Base had embraced modern security
features. Infra-red cameras would've detected the terrorists as they
approached. Smart surveillance systems can sense new or lingering objects in
the field of vision, identify it as a threat and prioritize what needs to be
displayed to the viewer in the control room. Had the terrorists disabled the
surveillance system, somehow their presence would've been detected by motion
detectors or laser fences and the possible point of breach could've been
pinpointed. An Automatic Weapon System piloted by an operator in the control
room would have been used to engage and mow down the terrorists before they
climbed over. Early detection also gives operators inside the base time to
secure high value assets. Thesedays terrorists use army fatigues to avoid
detection and infiltrate our installations. Adequate biometric verification
systems at check posts and strategic locations could help in such a case. A
modern security set up could've dissuaded or neutralized attackers.Adoption of
such security technology also accentuates the vulnerability to cyber-attacks
and thus a cyber-security element should also be built into the set up.
Protecting India’s Security Personnel
Now, consider a
worst case scenario where a cyber-attack takes out the surveillance system and
base defenses and the terrorists do break into the perimeter. The terrorists
have to be engaged in the conventional manner. What could improve survivability
of India's personnel?
Here again the
solution lies in technology. The spending on protecting soldiers varies widely
from country to country, usually depending on how much conflict the country is
exposed to. The U.S soldier's combat
kit costs $ 17,500 and comes equipped with modular tactical vests and
ballistic plate inserts. An Indian soldier's combat kit costs a tad more than
an iPhone 6s Plus, the costliest equipment being the primary weapon. In a
country like India where the threat of terrorism is ever looming, security
personnel, especially those guarding strategic locations needs adequate
protection. Survivability of the soldier is greatly enhanced if they are
provided with modular tactical vests with ballistic plate inserts and this
technology must be given as standard issue to security personnel in charge of
guarding high value targets and conflict prone areas. The defense establishment
should peg the value of lives of security personnel commensurate with the value
of assets they guard and invest in them accordingly. India is a country which
can afford to do it.
The Economics of Security
New security
technology adoption by India’s defense forces is in a state of languor because
of the huge spending involved. Cumbersome purchase overruns and procurement
issues being the norm in the establishment, forces focus more on high value
offence equipment purchases. My conservative estimate shows that it will cost
upwards of $10 million to secure a base the size of Pathankot with the
aforementioned technology. With over
seventy air force bases, that’s an investment of over $700 million; also we
haven’t factored in army and navy defense installations. Thefact that many
defense deals have gone awry make it easier for the forces to shove security
technology investment into the back-burner and adopt a semblance of augmented
security through increased manpower deployment. Discounting the moral argument,
it perhaps makes more economic sense to compensate for the life cycle cost of a
few fallen soldiers than invest millions of dollars in new technology.
The solution lies in SME, frugal engineering and
foreign expertise
The good news is
there is a way to get over the defense establishment's nemesis in terms of
security investment. Indian
SMEs prowess in surveillance, security and integration is really high in
terms of innovation and economy. There are myriad establishments in India
delivering customized security solutions in the civilian space, especially to
banks, ATMs and corporate offices. A small and obscure company of innovators in
India has developed a frugally engineered ATM surveillance system which warns people
in different languages if the sensors and camera detect that line of sight are
being blocked on purpose.If the ATM user still does not heed the warnings, a
notification is sent to the nearest police station. The cost of this system is
only a fraction of the cost of its western equivalent. The technology to be
used for securing military installations is quite similar, the components need
to be tweaked a bit to adapt it to military purposes. India's SMEs need to be
leveraged by the military to develop an in-house economical solution.
At the same time
there are established defense contractors such as Elbit
Systems of Israel, which has extensive expertise in advanced security
solutions. The company has deployed security solutions in the US and Israeli
borders which is similar the ones required for military installation security.
India should use its fast
burgeoning defense relationship with Israel for consulting and tech
sharing. Involving a company like Elbit in partnership with proven Indian SME
will help in developing indigenous security capability in base defense. A model
base should be chosen and security deployments should be made with the
aforementioned relationship. Once India's SME attains impressive deployment
proficiencies, it can be solely used for Indian base security solutions. Apart
from developing indigenous capability, this will increase employment and if
proven it could be a significant foreign exchange earner for India by exporting
its tech to other countries.
This will be a true
“Make in India" model. Instead of foreign defense players making ancillary
components in India, which require more manufacturing expertise than tech
proficiency, we will have a holistic security industry with all components made
in-house. This can lead to development of customizable consulting, integration,
manufacturing and managed service solution capabilities in India itself.
Changing attitude towards security is Imperative
The Modi
government has shown itself to be less Spartan in its approach to defense
procurement by bringing in new
innovative means of defense acquisitions. The Indian government and defense
establishment is on the verge of increasing spending on base security as a
knee-jerk reaction to frontal attacks. The establishment should leverage Indian
SMEs proven security capabilities and nurture it under guidance from foreign
experts so it can burgeon into a well-developed indigenous industry rather than
purchasing temporary off the shelf solutions. The defense establishment should
wake up and realize that casualties are not the norm anymore. Perpetrators of
asymmetric warfare often have surprise on their side but our preparedness in
terms of technology and training should be high enough to effectively thwart an
attack with no or minimal casualties. Empathy towards the Indian soldier and
faith in Indian SMEs is the need of the hour in developing a permanent solution
to thwarting offensive terrorist strikes.
*views are
my own
About The Author:
Arjun
Sreekumar (TR RID: M-2366-2015) is an Industry
Analyst – Aerospace, Defense and Security in a leading Research Firm.
Cite This Article:
Sreekumar , A
"FEATURED | Securing the Indian Defense Establishment"
IndraStra Global 002, no. 02 (2016): 0066.
http://www.indrastra.com/2016/12/FEATURED-Securing-Indian-Defense-Establishment-002-02-2016-067.html |ISSN
2381-3652|
