India’s Indigenous Defence: India’s defence research body DRDO is working hard on new war technologies that will be needed in the future. B K Das, Director General of Electronics and Communication Systems at DRDO, said the focus is on electronic warfare, control of the spectrum, and making fighter planes fully Indian. He spoke about this during the Electronic Warfare Conference-India. He said the idea of the event was to bring everyone together so they can work as one team.
“The main focus is to bring together the entire electronic warfare ecosystem of the country-industry, academia and research institutions-to work towards a common cause in this emerging domain of warfare,” he said.
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Das also said that more countries are now joining hands with India and that local technology is growing fast under the Atmanirbhar Bharat plan. He shared that DRDO is working on ideas that will change how wars are fought in the coming years.
“The futuristic focus areas include spectrum dominance with cognitive learning, along with new technologies such as photonics and quantum technologies,” he said. He explained that these tools will help India act faster and stronger in electronic warfare. Photonics is about using light for advanced technology like communication and computing.
Budget Support
Das made it clear that money is not a problem for DRDO. He said the government always supports their work.
“The budget has never been an issue for DRDO. We have always been well supported by the ministry,” he said. He added that the goal is to make India a global defence technology leader by 2047 using advanced ideas and home-grown systems.
Talking about fighter planes, Das said India must control the sky with its own machines and weapons.
“India has to reign the skies. The fighter aircraft must be of our own-powered by indigenous technologies and equipped with indigenous weapons,” he said. He said the Tejas Mk-1 and Mk-1A are ready and that this is just the start of a long journey.
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Fighter Jets and Stealth
Das said work is going on for Tejas Mk-2 and also for the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft or AMCA. He said stealth planes are very important in today’s air battles.
“If you want to dominate the sky, stealth (aircraft) is the way forward,” he said. He shared that the AMCA project has been approved and is being built together by ADA, HAL, and DRDO.
He also talked about Indian-made radar and weapons. Das said the Uttam AESA radar has shown great results.
“We are developing our radar. The Uttam AESA radar has proven to be among the best, and in many aspects better than the best across the world,” he said. He added that this radar, along with Indian jammers, missiles, and weapons, is ready to be fitted on fighter planes.
