Overcome temptation to buy arms abroad, says DRDO chief

The country cannot achieve self-reliance in critical defence technologies unless the three services overcome their temptation to induct the latest weaponry from abroad, VK Saraswat, chairman of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said today.

Speaking at the annual DRDO award ceremony in New Delhi, the head of the country's premier defence R&D organisation said DRDO alone cannot achieve self-reliance in defence technology without the support of the country's armed forces.

"The services must understand that while the temptation may be overwhelming to field proven state-of-art imported systems, they too have a role to play in the economic and industrial growth of the country. No foreign system can be customised to completely address our long term requirement," Saraswat said while addressing the DRDO Technology Day Awards function.

DRDO, Saraswat pointed out, cannot force the armed forces to opt for the indigenously harnessed advanced weaponry.

"DRDO has long been held responsible for the level of self-reliance in defence systems, but it must be understood that the responsibility for self-reliance should be shared by all stakeholders of the ministry of defence and cannot be placed on DRDO alone, which neither has the power to impose its products on its customer nor the mandate or capacity to produce the developed systems all by themselves," said Saraswat.

"At the same time Indian industry has not yet reached the maturity level to take up this responsibility on itself," he added.