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Innovative disruption is future of arms race and India has a bright chance at excelling

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 4/16/2021 1:14:14 PM

New Delhi, Apr 15 There is a distinct line between invention and innovation; the thickness of the line being what one perceives it to be. The exact meaning may differ from one dictionary to another, but an invention is essentially something newly produced which never existed earlier, unlike an innovation which improves upon something already existing. Military hardware, since the dawn of civilisation, has been more a product of innovation rather than invention. While the bow, cannon, musket, and atomic bomb can be regarded as inventions, a tank is actually an innovation — something you get by putting together an internal combustion engine, a gun, wheels (with tracks) with armour around it. So the payoffs of innovation are greater than that of invention. Innovation (and invention) in military hardware for long (almost three centuries now) has been considered to be the preserve of a selected few. USA, Europe, Russia, and Israel, for many decades have been leaders. They primarily are inventors of military hardware and have set the agenda for the world in this field. It’s only in the past decade that more countries are entering the club albeit more as innovators and not necessarily inventors. The recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan is an indication of where the future points to. The new entrants — call them Technovitiates — include China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Turkey, South Africa amongst others. Technovitiates, at present are mostly endeavouring to produce copies of what is already there, with countries like China fast moving into the inventor category. What drives this? For the old players, it is availability of abundant resources giving rise to a thriving militaryindustrial complex backed by sustained research and development (R&D). For the Technovitiate, it is ambition and a feeling of having its back to the wall. This is now leading to a different arms race and it’s just a matter of time before Technovitiates become inventors in their own right. A weapon system, which earlier was considered ‘state of the art’ for a decade or two will now lose that tag much faster (although that odd Abram, B-52, or C-130 will still be around). So a country would now have to decide upon one clear technological aim — either ‘race ahead’ or ‘catch up.’ To ‘race ahead,’ a country needs to invest heavily in R&D of technology, thus, a requirement to infuse funds and resources. Other than that, there is a requirement of well established, robust industrial support, and to top it all, resilience to handle failures. Therefore, at present, it’s only the very few established defence producers who can think of ‘racing ahead.’ However, ‘catching up’ is a relatively level playing field. ‘Catching up’ can be done in two ways; one is to simply replicate a design or technology and produce a copy, which is not a formidable challenge in this hyper- connected world, even when having to deal with technology denial. Countries like China, Iran, North Korea, and even India have proved this. The other way is to exploit an inherent weakness in any niche weapon system and produce a countermeasure. This is where real innovation lies.