DRDO chief: increase the production rate of missiles and it now one of the main thrust areas

Among the various issues faced by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), one is to increase the ‘production rate of missiles’ and it will now be one of the main thrust areas.

Dr S Christopher, secretary, department of defence research and development-cum-director general, said that with respect to various varieties of missiles, the focus would be on both – the quantity as well as quality for all the variants. Currently, the production rate is just about 20% of the potential which, he insisted, has to be harnessed to full. The DRDO is now emphasising on exports, patents and spin-offs.

Dr Christopher was here for the 23rd Professor Daulat Singh Kothari memorial lecture at the Defence Laboratory, Jodhpur. He is the man credited for building the indigenous airborne early warning & control system .

Talking about the involvement of more than one company for reaching the target production of missiles, he said that a lot of confusion in the past could be attributed to the lack of clarity in wordings of contracts. “We should now engage multiple agencies and timeframes should be clearly spelled out,” he said.

Regarding invitation of proposals by the army from domestic and foreign firms for manufacturing ‘future ready combat vehicle’ (FRCV) tanks, he said, “The world is becoming increasingly competitive.

There is nothing wrong in it. We take it up as a challenge. There is enough for all provided we prove ourselves.”

It may be mentioned here that DRDO, having proven its mettle with Arjun main battle tank, is also developing future main battle tank (FMBT).

Dr Christopher said that India being one of the four countries in the world mastering in AWACS (airborne warning and control system) can now even think of exporting the same and stands a good chance due to its cost effectiveness. “Right now, we are developing three such systems of which two shall be given to Indian Air Force and one shall be retained by the DRDO possibly for export purpose. In fact, what we are giving for $110 million has been bought at more than double the rate by our neighbouring country,” he said adding that the AEW&C system is designed to detect, identify and classify threats present in the surveillance area and act as a force multiplier in air operations.

Source from India Defence News.