Expressing concern over the absence of a research and development mechanism for ordnance factories in the country, defence minister George Fernandes on Sunday said the R&D efforts of defence public sector units and Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) would be synergised with the ordnance factories to achieve Indianisation in defence production. A concrete thinking on these lines has to be evolved. The synergy would be effected by defence ministry in consultation with DRDO, defence PSUs and ordnance factories," Fernandes told the valedictory session of the conference of general managers of Indian ordnance factories in New Delhi.
Stating that a "revolution" in military affairs was taking place the world over, he said it was imperative that "we develop our efforts to meet all our defence requirements on our own". Stressing on indigenisation, he referred to the war in Afghanistan and the Gulf War in early 1990s in which sophisticated weapons were used to fight and the US did not lose many lives.
Referring to the problems regarding the production of T-72 tanks, over 120 of which had been supplied by ordnance factories to the army, Fernandes said the problem lies with the "incomplete documents" supplied by the Russian firm which were not updated. However, he said, the problems had now been sorted out and the production process had resumed.

Bureau Report