Antony warns against overdependence on foreign suppliers while inaugurating new DARE Complex in Bangalore

Press Release from the MoD today: Defence Minister AK Antony today cautioned defence scientists and the Armed Forces to reduce their over-dependence on foreign countries and suppliers for ‘cutting edge technologies’. Inaugurating the new complex of the Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE) in Bangalore, he said, ‘such a tendency may land the country and the Armed Forces in deep trouble in crucial times in the form of import restrictions, technology denial or even undue and unjustified delay in the delivery of already contracted systems or components.’ Antony said the government will give all support to the scientists to achieve self-reliance in cutting edge technologies for the Armed Forces.

DARE, formerly known as Advanced System Integration and Evaluation Organisation(ASIEO) was formed in 1986 under the leadership of Dr KG Narayanan with a team of four scientists drawn from LRDE and DRDL and a couple of officers from Indian Air Force. It has achieved many milestones in the last two decades including equipping several squadrons of various types of IAF aircraft with Electronic Protection and Jamming System.

The Defence Minister asked DRDO scientists to ‘devise ways and means to utilise modern technology to further reduce the stress on our troops’. while the government will not allow resources to be a constraint, it must be ensured that the various resources – human, financial, technological are not frittered away.

Shri Antony complimented the scientists, engineers, technicians and other DRDO personnel for putting in hard work in developing critical and state-of-the-art technology systems, platforms and equipment in the last fifty years against heavy odds. However, he asked them to minimize time and cost over runs and satisfy the expectations of the Armed Forces.

‘Despite technology denials and restrictive exports regime, DRDO has been able to develop strategic systems and advanced missiles. The programmes and projects designed by DRDO have significantly enhanced the combat readiness of our Armed Forces. At the same time, the organisation needs to improve its track record on minimising the time and cost overruns and satisfaction levels of the end-user – that is, our Armed Forces’, Shri Antony said.

The Defence Minister said the nature and scope of the potential threats are changing constantly and the need of the hour is to develop innovative and indigenous defence systems’ to counter these challenges. He said, it is imperative that we achieve the goal of modernising and equipping our Defence Forces with cutting-edge technologies but with least dependence on foreign assistance.

Shri Antony said DARE has been entrusted with the task of delivering high precision systems to the Indian Air Force. DARE has developed numerous Electronic Warfare (EW) and avionics systems for airborne application for the Indian Air Force. However, he said, it must be borne in mind that ‘high-tech products need to be futuristic, as technology can never be static’.

The Defence Minister said all efforts must be made to retain our ‘precious wealth’ of human resources and to nourish them by suitably tailoring our work environment. ‘We must transform the work culture in such a way that working not only becomes more productive in professional terms, but is also relaxing and enjoyable,’ he said.

Speaking on the occasion, the DRDO Chief Shri M Natarajan said the shortcomings of certain products made by DRDO can be significantly improved to the total satisfaction of the user agencies with productionisation.

The Director of DARE Shri RP Ramalingam said the organization will be field testing fourth generation Electronic Warfare System for the MiG-27 and LCA in the next 18 months.

8 thoughts on “Antony warns against overdependence on foreign suppliers while inaugurating new DARE Complex in Bangalore”

  1. DARE’s contribution is commendable. but its transfer of technology to defence public sector is worth criticising.

  2. Mr. Aroor, in my view, the statement made by Mr. Antony may be “hypocritical”. Whereas on the one hand, he is effectively laying the groundwork to force the services to wholly induct foreign hardware that is licence produced by local private players, on the other hand, he “exhorts” DRDO to be more innovative and develop more technologies.

    The actual competition is between the DRDO and the foreign private companies, in who will “rope in” the nascent private players to licence manufacture their technology. Unfortunately, the government under Mr. Antony is effectively encouraging the private players to choose foreign partners over DRDO, in the “garb” of offsets. Hence, this ‘advice’ to DRDO may be meritless.

    It must be noted that the practice of licence production has not changed, as what was done by state-owned PSUs during the cold-war era, will be done by upcoming local private companies now under the aegis of so-termed “offsets”.

    The DRDO lags behind in miniature sensor technology only, whereas in all other technologies be it propulsion, ground radars, aircraft, composites (missile and aircraft), helicopters, computers etc. it is at par with western nations and Russia.

    Thank you.

  3. “The DRDO lags behind in miniature sensor technology only, whereas in all other technologies be it propulsion, ground radars, aircraft, composites (missile and aircraft), helicopters, computers etc. it is at par with western nations and Russia.”

    May be in your dreams anon. not a reality.! DRDO takes up a project and gives specifications as per JANE’s! make a shoddy prototype. award some gold medals to some young scientwists! there ends the project! DRDo has made a technology demonstrator succesfully and is the only 6th country to do so after us of A,france ,russia ,china and mozambique!

  4. abhiman, are you on drugs, bro?

    “The DRDO lags behind in miniature sensor technology only, whereas in all other technologies be it propulsion, ground radars, aircraft, composites (missile and aircraft), helicopters, computers etc. it is at par with western nations and Russia.”

    Are you completely insane, or do you just like doing this to invite thumps on your thick skull. Pray inform me as to which propulsion systems, helicopters, computers or for that matter any system the DRDO has built fully by itself, i.e. without foreign help or components or assistance. please wake up from your hibernation of stupidity and ignorance.

  5. To the previous anonymous I may say, that for the sake of a logical argument, even if assuming that the entire development by DRDO till date is totally influenced by foreign inputs, my previous argument still holds i.e with the exception of miniature sensors, India has gained self-sufficiency or near sufficiency in all other critical aspects of defence production.

    Now regarding your opinion of DRDO’s products not being indigenous, it is true that the invention of those products did take place in the west. As an example, jet propulsion, rockets, missiles, helicopters, fighter planes, super-computers, radars etc. are ALL western inventions, and could never ever have been developed in India — or any other country — without a “touch and feel” or “tinkering” of a live example. If one assumes that a helicopter, a space-rocket or a fighter plane can be developed only by “glancing” at it’s photo in a text book or promo manual, then one is mistaken. The only items that may be reproduced in this way are rudimentary devices like farm equipment and bicycle/motor spare parts.

    The question here may be the LEVEL of indigenousness, in which India ranks much higher than most other nations.

    Thanks.

  6. “India has gained self-sufficiency or near sufficiency in all other critical aspects of defence production.”

    can someone please tell abhiman that he seriously needs mental healthcare? or is he another of drdo’s misguided projects, this one at zeroing in on websites to plug bullshit logic, much like drdo’s way of doing things,.

  7. To the previous anonymous, I may request to actually list the technologies which DRDO has not attempted, or which are “out of grasp” of it.

    DRDO has tried almost ALL known aspects of defence like AEW&C, AESA radars, ABM, SLBM, hypersonic vehicles, under-sea robots, robotic bomb defusers, torpedoes, air-launched missiles etc. The oft repeated quote, “You name it and DRDO has done it”, may be applicable here.

    As mentioned earlier, DRDO lags behind in miniaturized sensors, which is why it lags behind in AESA radars, and active-seekers for missiles like Trishul and Akash. It also is yet to develop a target pod like Litening due to the same reason.

    Thanks.

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