Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh inaugurated the 41st DRDO Directors’ Conference at DRDO Bhawan here today. The Conference is an annual event, where a number of brainstorming sessions are planned over two days.In his address, Shri Rajnath Singh said DRDO has made Defence forces of the country strong and congratulated Secretary Department of Defence R&D & Chairman DRDO Dr G Satheesh Reddy and all DRDO Scientists and personnel. He appreciated the DRDO for achieving the 100 days’ target and identifying milestones to commemorate 75 years of Independence and the roadmap for 5 years.Raksha Mantri asked DRDO fraternity to imbibe the working ethos of former President Bharat Ratna Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. He stated that defence R&D and manufacturing has the potential to provide highest employment, direct or indirect. He asked DRDO to aim for the systems with technologies that should remain contemporary for next 10-15 years so that the Armed Forces maintain technological superiority.Shri Rajnath Singh further stated that 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.The inaugural function of the conference was also attended among others by National Security Advisor Shri Ajit Doval, Chief of the Army Staff General Bipin Rawat, Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Karambir Singh and Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria. Shri Ajit Doval appreciated DRDO for doing commendable work despite all challenges. He stated that DRDO has a seminal role in making India technologically strong. He mentioned that in modern war, technology and finance are going to decide the outcome of the war in which technology is more important. He further said that need based technology will enable us to have an edge over our adversaries. Critical technologies should be developed indigenously. The DRDO is the only organisation which can take up system integration and should further strengthen it.
General Bipin Rawat in his address stated that DRDO has made major strides to ensure that needs of the services are met by providing various systems like Artillery Gun System, Mines, Anti-tank missile systems, etc. He was confident that future wars will be won with indigenous 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. Shri Rajnath Singh added that warfare and technologies are synonymous and go rapid changes. These must be factored during design stage.Speaking on the occasion, Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria said that technology leadership is what defines DRDO. He also mentioned that DRDO has been able to achieve the objectives of self-reliance to a great extent in the past seven decades. He appreciated DRDO’s role in Electronic Warfare Technologies, Radars, Composite materials for LCA, AEW&C, Astra and various other technologies.He also appreciated the capabilities of LCA Tejas and asked DRDO to develop next generation aircraft AMCA, harnessing the technologies and experience of LCA. Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary Department of Defence R&D & Chairman DRDO spoke about successful development of ASAT, BrahMos, ASTRA, Nag missile, SAAW, Arjun MBT Mk 1A, 46 metre Modular Bridge, MPR, LLTR Ashwini, etc. He added that the theme for 41st DRDO Directors’ Conference is Technology leadership for empowering India, in line with the requirement to develop indigenous systems with advanced technologies.Raksha Mantri also released two compendia namely the 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. On this occasion, Raksha Mantri also launched the New Website of DRDO.While giving vote of thanks, Dr Chitra Rajagopal, DG (SAM) stated that modernisation of the Armed Forces is a continuous process based on threat perception, operational challenges and technological changes. DRDO is committed to equip our Armed Forces with Internationally competitive systems, giving then a decisive edge in the battlefield.