Chitradurga: Union Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, in a veiled reference to Pakistan, said on Sunday that India's defence preparedness needs to be enhanced to the optimum level, owing to its geographical location.


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"India is a country which is geographically located in a region which isn`t free from trouble. We have a neighbour, who, for almost seven decades, has perpetuated a security threat as far as India is concerned," said Jaitley while inaugurating the Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) here at Challakere, about 250 km from Bengaluru.


For the level of defence preparedness always to be optimal, "you need to in the long run eventually establish the facilities - to a large extent possible - for its manufacturing within the country itself," he added.


Addressing the gathering, Jaitley threw light on the importance of creating such facilities which will go a long way in ensuring national security.


"Such facilities create an ecosystem to promote the desire for research and further progress. The government has been leaning towards a policy to create optimal facilities in India. For the same, an area with low human habitation is necessary to carry out test launches," he said as per ANI.


The ATR, conceived by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) Bengaluru in collaboration with other Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) labs, has been located at nearby Challakere, about 250 kms from Bengaluru.


According to defence authorities, it is a key facility for integrating and testing various unmanned air vehicles before being inducted into the armed forces and other organisations.


It is a 'national asset' encompassing 4,090 acres of technical infrastructure and 200 acres for transit and residential purposes. The land was alloted by the state government.



 Noting that the country was spending a large part of defence budget allocation toward procurement from outside, Jaitley said, "If the best minds produced here can dominate technology elsewhere in the world, there is no reason why they cannot make India itself a world leader and a world beater," as per PTI.


The government had been consistently leaning in favour of policy where these optimal facilities were created within the country, the defence minister pointed out.


He said the demonstration that had been made to him today of the unmanned flying objects, their capacity and various other allied facilities will go a long way in helping in many areas of life and certainly in the country's security.


"I asked the chairman of the DRDO as to where does he see this facility in 20 years from now. He was more optimistic than me, and said why would you say 20 years, the questions really should be where do you see this facility 5 years from now. That's the pace at which our research really should progress," Jaitley said.


(With Agency inputs)