Chandigarh: There is no pressure on Defence
Research and Development Organisation to match China`s
military might, its Director General V K Saraswat said here
on Saturday night.
"There is no pressure. Neither in the past nor right now,
there has been nothing of that kind. There is no pressure to
have parity and rather the pressure is to excel in our own
technologies," Saraswat, who is also Scientific Adviser to the
Defence Minister, told a news conference.
Saraswat, who was responding to a question, said India
has never been in any "number game" with anyone.
Addressing the conference at Terminal Ballistics Research
Laboratory here, the top scientist said that DRDO
was developing technologies which would give the country a
technological-edge.
“We need to have technologies that will improve our
capability in terms of precision, load on target, mobility, in
terms of taking on surprise attack, improve our surveillance
capability...," he said.
He said that DRDO had identified three major activities
for 2010-11 which pertained to cyber space, space security and
low intensity conflict.
He said 2010-11 had been declared as the year of
collaboration with academicia, industry and the countries
willing to partner and collaborate with DRDO.
He spelt out how small innovative technologies can be of
great help to the forces fighting terrorism and naxalism.
"Our laboratory at Pune is developing a technology in
which a vehicle will be fitted with sensors to detect an area
laid with mines. We should be able to perfect it within next
18 months," he said.
On cyber security, he said though defence of the country
had its independent network and was not vulnerable like the
nation`s banking system or rail reservation system would be,
they were working to build technologies and hardware which
will secure these vulnerable networks from any attack.
"We are having tremendous interactions with academicians,
institutions and the people from the IT industry," Saraswat
said.
On space security, he said that future wars would be
contactless where remotely operated weapons system would take
over and to secure command, control and communication network
would be important in that scenario.
"We are gearing up in that direction as far as space
security is concerned. We hope we will make major breakthrough
in these areas," he said.
Against the backdrop of asymmetric warfare with
increasing terror threats and insurgency, he said it has
ventured into technologies to support security forces in
the operations.
"DRDO now has very focused programmes on technologies for
low-intensity conflicts," he said, adding they would come up
with soldier-centric and customised technologies with his
"survivability, sustainability, efficiency and lethality" as
the focus areas.
On the low intensity conflicts, with counter-terrorism
operations often carried out to deal with threat posed by the
terrorists, he said "DRDO has identified 30-35 activities"
which can help the Army and the paramilitary forces deal with
the situation in a better manner".
"Couple of years back, we developed what is called chilli
bomb, in which chilli powder is used to temporarily immobilise
the terrorists. Another useful innovation is the laser
dazzler, which temporarily blinds a person."
Saraswat also said that the DRDO was working on the mark
II version of the Main Battle Tank, which will incorporate a
number of modifications that have been sought by the Army and
its production was under progress.
To a question, he said that Export Control Regimes were
acting as a "roadblock".
He said that India has the capability to manufacture the
best available systems but with such Regimes, it may only mean
more time in acquiring a product.
"Our emphasis is on quest and self-reliance," said the
man responsible for the development of the country`s first
Liquid Propulsion Engine. Saraswat was also the project
director of the first indigenous surface-to-surface missile
Prithvi.
PTI
