By
Anantha Krishnan M
Express News Service
Hyderabad: Hit
by the guided and unguided ‘missiles’ often fired by the media, Services and
the government for not delivering products on time, Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO) chief Dr V K Saraswat on Saturday asked Indian
aerospace industries to adopt today’s science, to absorb tomorrow’s technology.
He was speaking at the inaugural session of the International Conference and Exhibition
on Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA), organised by the Aeronautical Society of
India, Hyderabad Chapter, at the sprawling Taramati Baradari, near Golconda
Fort in Hyderabad.
Sighting
examples of the recent hiccups in the LR-SAM (Long Range-Surface to Air
Missile) and MR-SAM (Medium Range-Surface to Air Missile) programmes, Saraswat asked
the defence fraternity to share their strengths. “We ran into problems with propulsion
system, especially in areas of combustion and stability of LR-SAM and MR-SAM, being
jointly developed with Israeli Aerospace Industries. Understanding these
technologies and development of propulsion systems can be done in a better way,
if the academic institutions, private industries, space agencies, DRDO, Hindustan
Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and others join hands,” he said.
Not
mincing any words on HAL, Saraswat said that the company must augment the
production facilities for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) -- Tejas. “Today HAL
has 3rd generation production lines and we need modern ones to
replace it. Tejas is a 4th generation aircraft and if have the
vision of exporting this aircraft one day, then rolling out quality aircraft is
the key. The problems Tejas faced are all related to auxiliary systems, be it
the fuels lines or lightening arrester. Tejas Mk-II will be the future mainstay
and we need to address quality concerns at the earliest,” Saraswat said.
Next
on the DRDO chief’s radar was Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL), which is the workhorse
production centre for various missiles in India. “Even BDL must upgrade missile
integration facilities. We have today Rs 30,000 crores of Akash missile
production. We are expecting more orders. One BDL is just not enough to meet
our demands,” he said.
With
a total missile production order worth around Rs 90,000 crore, the DRDO chief
said that Indian defence sector can’t keep quiet. “We need to change and raise
the level of performance. We cannot continue in the same manner as far the
defence equipment goes. We should not treat private industry as outsiders;
instead we should bring them together,” he said.
He
said new programmes worth 80,000 cr are under various stages of development in
DRDO, including underwater systems, Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA),
Anti-Radiation Missile and Ballistic Missile (BMD). “As a nation, we need more
patterns in design. We need an agency that take everything at one go. Today, we
have a poor design base with us and we need to look at it seriously. There are
many gaps in engine technology, including in the field of materials. We don’t
have a facility to test, evaluate and integrate engines. If this tendency
continues, we will continue to import engines,” Saraswat said.
Copyright@The New Indian Express
