Lt. Gen Sisodia calls for further technological interdependence in defence purchases

New Delhi; Feb.18 : Lt. General B K Sisodia, Director General Ordinance Services, Army, today chaired a technology seminar on Arms and Ammunition as part of the ongoing DefExpo 2008.

He mentioned that there have been many successful ventures between the defence sector and the private sector which is visible in the current creation of the vibrant defence sector. These ventures have an important impact on the International defence trade. A number of countries have taken to exports to reap the advantages of scale and have a consolidated approach to International Marketing.

"Presently, we are in an era of consolidated technological interdependence, so outsourcing of the technology and weapons which we do not have is important. Currently, 38 defence factories and 8 PSU's are outsourcing the defence material from the private sector," he said..

Surender Kumar, Director ARDE, stressed on the need that the Indian Defence and Development organization support the Defence sector. He mentioned that the 5 Armament labs ARDE, HEMRL, TBRL, PXE and the CFEES have been instrumental in the growth of the defence sector.

Completing 50 years of DRDO today, the main function of these laboratories has been to make high quality, low cost defence material. Some of the important Arms and Ammunitions developed by these laboratories have been INSAS, Pinaka, Warheads, Rockets for Naval applications, Mortar Ammunition, Power Cartridges and many more.

The base of ARDE, the largest of these laboratories has been the Small arms technology, Warhead technologies and Control and guidance material.

Kumar also briefed on the range of products on Munition technology, Launch systems, Air deliveries, Technology for Small arms, Rocket systems, Warhead technology, Fuze technology, Technology for weapon platforms, Stand-off weapons etc.

With the technological advancement in India, the range of air deliveries are now with high speed and low drag technology available at throw away prices for both India and defence systems abroad.

Kumar also welcomed the co-operation and co-development from the private sector for the turreted weapons systems, which can be converted to more modern systems. In the past few years the technology production has gone up and is in demand in India and other countries. With the stress on high end and low cost weapons Mr. Kumar said that testing of defence material can be done at a low cost in India.

A special development agency has been made on select bases to extend collaboration to India and abroad to share technology and product development to make systems faster and better.

The expenditure of Rs 35,000 crores had been done on the development of defence material last year. And this year the budget is nearly 30 billion dollars to develop even more competitive Arms and Ammunition. The development process has opened in all sectors, private, public and abroad, he said.

ANI