18 March 2013, 08:48 PM IST
My first (and only trip so far) to the Rashtrapati Bhavan was as a college student in 2004. I had been a participant in a TV quiz show and won the chance to have high tea with the then President, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. While I found everything in the presidential palace fascinating-including the two cups of tea, the cucumber sandwich and the pastry I had-two bronze cannon placed in the forecourt had immediately caught my attention. Both had been cast in mid-19th century at the Cossipore Gun Foundry (now the Gun and Shell Factory, Cossipore).
Established in 1801 by the East India Company as Gun Carriage Agency, the 211-year-old Cossipore ordnance factory is the oldest in the country. From producing flintlock muskets and cannon in the 19th century to recoilless guns, mortars, naval guns and handguns of today, the Cossipore factory has come a long way. Its exploits, though, are largely unknown to the people in this country. And that's true about all the 41 ordnance factories in the country.
The ordnance factories come under the Ordnance Factories Board (OFB), a central body under the department of defence production, ministry of defence. With an employee strength of over 1.64 lakh, it's the world's largest government-run production company. But despite the manpower and funding, ordnance factories haven't had any technological innovation worth the name to their credit (back in the British Raj, though, the Dum Dum Arsenal had come up with the world's first expanding bullet. Even today, any expanding bullet is called the dumdum bullet). There have been allegations of graft and inefficiency in the company; and it has been blamed for bringing to the table sub-standard weapons, the latest being the INSAS 5.56mm infantry rifle and its variants.
The INSAS rifles had seen operation in the Kargil conflict of 1999, where the troops had reported serious flaws in the weapon. "The rifle suffered from the problem of cold arrest: it would stop firing all of a sudden, or its magazine would crack. In comparison, the AK series rifles are all-weather, all-terrain weapons. Your confidence level goes up when you have an AK in your hand," says a Garhwal Rifles officer. His buddy, a young captain, has been part of the United Nations peacekeeping operations.
"I sometimes think Pakistani forces have better weapons. You can never trust the INSAS rifle. It will surprise you by firing full auto even though you have selected the burst fire (three rounds at a time) mode. It's that funny," the captain says.
Some of the initial flaws were rectified after the Kargil War; but so far, they have failed to make it a reliable weapon. Old officers who have handled both the INSAS and the 7.62mm 1A1 SLR-the main infantry rifle until the mid-90s-say both rifles have some identical problems. "I was chasing a militant in Baramulla in 1995. He was firing his AK-56 backwards, from the shoulder, and my SLR got stuck after five rounds. I lay flat on the ground, hoping that he would continue to run and not bother to look back. I was lucky. The SLR was an accurate weapon, but not efficient. It was heavy too. The AK 47, on the other hand, is not accurate, but it's very reliable. That weapon doesn't disappoint you," says an officer who served with the Rashtriya Rifles in Kashmir and likes to call himself the 'tiger of the valley'.
Right after the Kargil War, the army ordered 1,00,000 AK rifles from Romania for Rs 85crore. Last year again, India ordered some 80,000 AK rifles for the CRPF, ITBP and the army. Towards the end of 2012, the army reached out to global rifle makers for a suitable replacement for the INSAS rifle.
"I think the ordnance factories will only produce licensed variants of foreign rifles. They will never make something original, something Indian that will pack a fair punch," says an IPS officer, sceptically.
With both internal and external voices questioning India's defence capabilities and the validity of its claim to super-power status, the ordnance factories will find themselves in the centre of the debate-if private companies should be allowed to control the war industry. As India celebrates Ordnance Factories Day today, there are some vital questions that need to be answered.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
There's a need to fire up the ordnance factories
Dengan url
http://osteoporosista.blogspot.com/2013/03/theres-need-to-fire-up-ordnance.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
There's a need to fire up the ordnance factories
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
There's a need to fire up the ordnance factories
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar