Life Cycle Management for Indian Naval Warship Equipment

Abstract

Indian Navy has laid out ambitious shipbuilding plan in coming decade with large numbers of ships and submarines planned to be built in Indian shipyards with indigenous design. However, a number of critical equipment viz. electric propulsion equipment are not available from Indian defence manufacturers. These equipment are to be imported as of now causing precious foreign exchange outgo. Further, the dependence on foreign suppliers throughout equipment life cycle of 25–30 years costs Indian Navy dearly. Indian defence manufacturers aspire to support ‘Make-in-India’ initiative by establishing capital intensive set-up for manufacturing electric propulsion equipment in the country, but a lacuna in bid evaluation process has adverse impact on this indigenous drive. The lacuna being evaluation of commercial bids of equipment procurement on acquisition costs alone. The operation & maintenance (O&M) costs, a significant element over equipment life cycle, is not considered holistically in bid evaluation. Ministry of Defence (MoD), Govt. of India (GoI) in the recently promulgated Defence Procurement Policy (DPP-2020) has mandated consideration of long-term product support during equipment procurement. But clear guidelines for estimation of life cycle costs (LCC) does not exists, thus making commercial evaluation on the basis of LCC during procurement very complex. This paper aims to bring out practices followed in US and NATO Navies in life cycle management (LCM) practices and suggest ways to implement LCM process and LCC estimation in Indian Navy, thus providing ‘level playing field’ to Indian manufacturers struggling to support country’s drive in attaining self-reliance in critical defence projects.