India’s defence ministry runs one of the largest research organizations with labs all over the country and its fair share of controversy in recent year. The Defence Research and Development Organization was given a new leader in September 2009. At the helm of DRDO’s affairs today is India’s leading missile scientist, Dr. V.K. Saraswat, who is also the scientific adviser to India’s defence minister. Here are excerpts from his interview last week with Aviation Week magazine.
On new programs that are real:
“DRDO’s journey in the last two decades has been very bumpy. Though it delivered some very critical systems and missiles, it still didn’t win many hearts in the country…. We havet now started initiating programs that were in the maturity phase of [the] taking-off stage, including the Rustom UAV, long-range surface-to-air missiles, short-range surface-to-air missiles, medium-range surface-to-air missiles, Tejas Mk-II, Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft and Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle.”
On missile technology:
“India today has done exceedingly well as far as missiles are concerned, ever since we consolidated the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program in 1982. This has led to India having tactical missiles, semi-tactical missiles and strategic missiles. We have missiles for virtually every platform. But missing from the kitty is a subsonic missile. The focus of DRDO in the next five years will be to build a subsonic cruise missile for multi-platforms. The work has already begun. Now we are focussing on major building blocks for the missile, which means engines. You will see a couple of jet engines being designed for missiles. ”
On Collaborating with Foreign Entities:
“I am supportive of interenational collaborations. The idea is to accelerate our pace of development and avoid reinventing the wheel. oday, if anyone wants complete homegrown products in critical areas, it is because of the lack of [understanding] of the dynamics of the market and a lack of understanding of what is global competitiveness. We should opt for realizing a technology with minimum cost and maximum efficiency. Low volume and large infrastructure cost-related systems should be made indigenous only under these conditions: a) they are totally denied to you; b) they are strategic in nature; c) the country cannot afford not to have it.”
