New Delhi (NVI): Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh has said the Indian armed forces are firmly set on the path of rapid modernisation and indigenisation and asked the industry to tap the opportunities existing in the maritime force, ranging from production to repair, maintenance and upgradation.
“The conditions are right to take us to the next level on Indigenous Defence – Industrial Base evolution chain,” he said while inaugurating a seminar-cum-exhibition on Naval Weapon Systems ‘NAVARMS – 2019’ with the theme ‘Make in India – Fight Category: Opportunities and Imperatives’.
He said there was enough headroom in the defence sector that should be harnessed if India was to grow into a developed economy.
Admiral Singh said that since weapon system is a complex mix of subsystems with a large array of technologies that go into each one, ranging from metallurgy to composites, propellants and rocket technologies to microwaves, it allows diverse industry elements in a single weapon project.
He exhorted the industry to tap into the wide naval eco-system starting from production to repair, maintenance and upgradation.
The Navy Chief emphasised that rapid advancement of weapon technology is a key challenge which requires cutting edge R&D and speedy production.
The inaugural session of the seminar was attended by more than 300 delegates, including from three Services, Ministry of Defence, DRDO, Indian and international industries and representatives of foreign missions of friendly countries.
In his welcome address, Rear Admiral Sanjay Misra, Director General of Naval Armament Inspection, said he was hopeful of inherent competence of domestic industry and capability being leveraged in expediting indigenous weapon on indigenous platform.
