Rajnath Singh lauded DRDO for achieving the 100 days' target and identifying milestones to commemorate 75 years of Independence and the road map for 5 years

New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday asked DRDO to aim for the systems with technologies that remain contemporary for next 10-15 years so that the armed forces maintain technological superiority. Addressing the 41st DRDO Directors' conference here, he called upon DRDO fraternity to imbibe the working ethos of former President Bharat Ratna Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. He stated that defence research and development and manufacturing has the potential to provide highest employment, direct or indirect. According to a Defence Ministry release, the minister said technology also has its limitations and development of products have a gestation period. "For such complex systems, the technical requirements keep evolving during the development cycle. Spiral development of these systems should be preferred option," he said.

He lauded DRDO for achieving the 100 days' target and identifying milestones to commemorate 75 years of Independence and the road map for 5 years. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval said DRDO has a seminal role in making India technologically strong. He mentioned that in modern war, technology and finance would decide the outcome. Noting that need-based technology will enable India to have an edge over its adversaries, he said critical technologies should be developed indigenously. The DRDO is the only organisation which can take up system integration and should further strengthen it, he said. Army Chief General Bipin Rawat expressed confidence that future wars will be won with indigenous systems.

He said DRDO has made major strides to ensure that needs of the services are met by providing various weapon systems. Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh in his address stated that Indian Navy is efficiently using Varunastra, Maareech, Ushus, TAL and various other DRDO-developed systems Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria lauded the capabilities of Light Combat Aircraft Tejas and asked DRDO to develop next generation aircraft Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), harnessing the technologies and experience of LCA. He said DRDO has been able to achieve the objectives of self-reliance to a great extent in the past seven decades. Bhadauria appreciated the organisation's role in electronic warfare technologies, radars, composite materials for LCA, astra and other systems.

DRDO cheif G Satheesh Reddy spoke of various technologies developed by DRDO. He said the theme of the conference - Technology leadership for empowering India- was in line with the requirement to develop indigenous systems with advanced technologies. Singh also released two compendium - `DRDO-Industry Partnership: Synergy' and `Growth and DRDO Products with Potential for Export'. DRDO Policy and Procedures for Transfer of Technology to support industry was also released by him. He also launched the new website of DRDO. Chitra Rajagopal, DG (SAM) said modernisation of armed forces was a continuous process based on threat perception, operational challenges and technological changes and DRDO was committed to equip our armed forces with Internationally competitive systems, giving then a decisive edge in the battlefield A conference is an annual event where a number of brainstorming sessions are planned over two days.