India Interested in Indigenous ISR Capabilities

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The Make in India program has been gaining momentum in new fields: ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and Electronic Warfare.

In an address at Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (FICCI) seminar on ‘Solutions to Problem Statements’, Indian Army’s Chief General Bipin Rawat interacted with industry representatives seeking different approaches to meet sustainable capability development in defence sector with ‘indigenisation’ being the focus.

Army Chief Rawat said that the major requirement of the army at present is ISR. “Our purpose is to discuss it with the industries on how we can make this process move forward and how best we can indigenise equipments  whether for surveillance or war fighting,” he said, as reported defenseworld.net.

He invited defense industry representatives to interact with the Army Design Bureau, which was established last year to indigenise procurements and reduce import dependence as part of the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.

During the seminar, Gen Rawat also said that the army is looking into Electronic Warfare (EW) to “keep an eye on adversaries on the western and northern borders”.

“We are looking at EW systems to keep an eye on not just the borders but also on the hinterland,” the army chief added.

The decision to reduce imports of spares is part of the government’s overall approach to enhance battle readiness of the armed forces after a thorough review found “gaps” in its operational preparedness. The Army has been pressing the government for ensuring speedy procurement of key military platforms citing evolving security challenges.