The Hindu Business Line : Govt will give bigger role for pvt sector in defence

Major role: The Defence Minister, Mr A.K. Antony, flanked by Dr V.K. Saraswat, Chief Controller - R&D Missiles and Strategic Systems, and Mr M. Natrajan, Scientific Advisor, at DRDO Laboratories, in Hyderabad on Tuesday. —

Our Bureau

Hyderabad, March 25 The Union Defence Minister, Mr A.K. Antony, has stated that India must reduce its dependence on foreign suppliers for procuring equipment required for the armed forces.

“Looking at the changing world security scenario, we need to increase our capabilities to supply the equipment required by the defence sector.

It is all right to depend occasionally on foreign suppliers but overdependence is not the right way,” he said while addressing scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation here on Tuesday.

The Minister said, “It’s also the Government’s policy to give an enhanced role from the private industry in the defence sector to fuel its growth.

As the requirement of the armed forces has increased considerably, public sector units cannot cater to the full demand and that is why we are looking at the private sector in the country to take a more proactive role,” Mr Antony said.

According to the Minister, a major instrument to implement this is the offset policy which requires the involvement of foreign vendors in large projects to actively invest in Indian firms and joint ventures. Mr Antony also said that a couple of enquiries have come from ‘friendly countries’ for buying Indian missiles. “Though no orders have come, there have been a couple of enquires and we will take a decision on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

The DRDO is looking at testing the enhanced version of the Exo Atmospheric Interceptor, PAD Missile, in June-July this year.

Interceptor Missile

“The earlier PAD Missile, tested in November 2006, which had a 600 km range has now been enhanced to intercept a target fired from a 1,500 km to 2,000 km. It had a kill altitude of 47 km, which has now been enhanced to between 75 and 90 km,” Mr Adalat Ali, Deputy Project Director of the Air Defence Project, said.

The DRDO wants to develop an interceptor for a missile fired from a 5,000 km range which would require a kill altitude of 250 km by 2011-12.

Earlier, the Defence Minister visited the missile lab- Research Centre Imarat (RCI), saw an exhibition on missile development and addressed the scientists of the various DRDO labs in Hyderabad.