IAF chief seeks self-reliance in design and development

As the country sharpens its focus on achieving self-reliance in defence, the Indian Air Force chief, Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari has stressed that Atmanirbharta should not be confined to production, but also include design and development, even as he called for building offensive and defensive space capabilities to safeguard assets, and developing directed energy weapons that have significant advantages over traditional weapons, a media report said.

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NEW DELHI. He said stakeholder collaboration was imperative to achieve self-reliance, and without it, "we will wallow in the dark."

"The key to faster development of niche technology is to identify core areas of development, clearly articulate requirements, and closely interact with the industry to design and develop the technology," Chaudhari said while speaking at a seminar on India's Aerospace Capabilities and Technology Requirements.

"Well established defence manufacturing public sector enterprises must hand-hold and get the developed technology into the market for mass production. Unless all stake holders come together, I am afraid, we will continue to wallow in the dark and not see tangible progress," the IAF chief said. His comments come at a time when boosting self-reliance in the defence manufacturing sector is one of the top priorities for the government.

Indigenous research and development, and production of platforms, sensors and weapons will play a critical role in future capability building, he said.

The ongoing Russia- Ukraine conflict has shown that technological capability needs to be complemented with combat sustenance, and "our defence industries need to adopt the twin mantras of technical quality and production scalability to meet the requirements of armed forces in any future conflict," he said.