“There is a need to change the approach from ‘acquiring technology’ to ‘development of technology’ in order to achieve desired level of indigenisation. The aim should be to equip the Indian armed forces with state-of-the-art equipment to bring them at par with the world leaders,” said Minister of State for Defence Jitendra Singh, while inaugurating a two-day seminar on Night Fighting Capability on April 25-26, 2013, in New Delhi.

Appreciating the strides made in indigenous design and development and production of equipment to enhance night fighting capabilities, Jitendra Singh emphasised on self-reliance in the field of instrumentation and to reduce the import content to a minimum. He also emphasised the need of greater synergy among different stakeholders in the process of development i.e. DRDO, public sector and private industry.

“We are facing incursions from across the land borders and there is need to have early warning systems to handle such situations more effectively.”

Dr V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, Secretary Department of Defence R&D and DG DRDO, highlighted the achievements of DRDO in the field of electro-optics. He also mentioned about the development of Thermal-imaging based commander’s sight for T-72 and T-90 tanks as well as BMPs, thus removing the night blindness of these armoured fighting vehicles.

Mentioning the progress made by IRDE in this critical area, he gave the example of recently developed integrated multi-functional sight that weighs 3.5 kg, as compared to the first-generation devices of similar nature that used to weigh around 55 kg. Emphasising the need to strengthen manufacturing infrastructure in the country, he stated that the country had to gear up to produce the advanced thermal detectors indigenously, “Our biggest weakness is the availability of infrared imaging detector fabrication facilities.”

Delivering the keynote address, Lt. General S.K. Singh, Vice Chief of Army Staff briefed about the Army acquisition plans for the next decade and expected DRDO to match the expectations of the armed forces. The partnership of private industry could be crucial, he emphasised. The services today are looking for innovative technological solutions to stay ahead of their adversaries.

Anil Kumar, Chairman and Managing Director of the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) in his address put forth the industry perspective. He assured that BEL centres are always ready to support the indigenisation efforts of the country and will deliver the quality instruments in time to the armed forces.