Kalam asks armament scientists to transform themselves

New Delhi, Feb 21 (UNI) The country's top armament scientists today got a wake up call from President APJ Abdul Kalam who asked them to "transform" themselves to cope with the need for long-range missiles with proven warheads, nuclear submarines and hypersonic cruise missiles in the next ten years.

Listing out his strategic vision on what India needed in the next 20 years, President Kalam -- himself a leading missile scientist told the Directors of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) that the scientists had to gear themselves to developing a pilotless supersonic aircraft, military communication and reconaissance satellites, multi-role stealth fighter aircraft and an internationally competitive advanced main battle tank.

For this, the President -- delivering a 'special address' at the 31st Annual DRDO Directors' Conference here -- said the country's sole Defence Research and Development Organisation had to be completely "reorganised" into a competitive environment.

President Kalam's wake up call to the defence scientists followed closely Defence Minister AK Antony telling them that the nation could ill afford frequent cost and time overruns in the development of missiles, fighters and main battle tanks.

The function for the President's "special address" was boycotted by mediapersons after they were barred from entering the DRDO Bhavan venue by high-handed security personnel.

Mediapersons -- representing leading electronic and print media, who were being escorted by the Additional Principal Information Officer of the Defence Ministry, were not allowed inside the hall where President Kalam was to deliver a special address to leading scientists and chief controllers of various key defence research and development projects from DRDO, his old organisation.

All the journalists had the government's Press Information Bureau accreditation and were being escorted by key Defence Ministry officials when barred from entering DRDO Bhavan by security personnel.

UNI