India Working On Advanced Defence Technologies, Says Dr G Satheesh Reddy

NEW DELHI. Indian defence scientists are working on advanced technologies from missiles to aircraft and precision weapons, according to the country’s top scientist.

- Shweta Sehgal

Addressing the strategic community at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO, gave an insight into various programmes, observing that the effort now is to transform India to a state-of-the-art technology developer and be a leader in futuristic defence systems.

His subject was Technology for National Security, and IDSA is India’s premier think tank set up by the Ministry of Defence in 1965. Dr Reddy is an expert in aerospace and missiles, sensors, aerodynamics, algorithms, calibration methodologies, etc. He had joined DRDO, or Defence Research and Development Organisation, in 1986.

Dr Reddy pointed out that DRDO was increasingly handholding the industry. For instance, in the case of Akash Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM), while the state-run Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) is the production agency, the industry supplies nearly 85 per cent of the components in terms of value.