Vice Admiral R Hari Kumar, Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to The Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC), Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff, said that self-reliance in the small arms sector is fundamentally necessary for the nation in the long run.
"We need to make it happen through the Make in India initiative. We need to develop these weapons, make them cost effective with adequate production capacity and modernise our inventory with indigenous weapons," Vice Admiral Kumar said at a conference organised by FICCI jointly with Centre for Joint Warfare Studies. While a majority of these are being imported by the country to meet urgent requirements, basic weapons like small arms must be manufactured in India, Kumar added.
"For true strategic autonomy and self-reliance, we (as users), academia, DRDO, public and private sector must all act together with full synergy to develop state of the art technology," he said.
Kumar, while highlighting the various initiatives launched by the government like the amendments to the Arms Rule 2016, urged for more investment from the private sector.
"The defence manufacturing has to be more competitive with private participants and the ongoing reforms in the defence procurement process will give opportunity to the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) partner with Indian companies to enter in this market," he added.
He said that the current security environment of India requires our military forces be prepared to handle wide spectrum of challenges, both conventional and non-conventional as well as asymmetric. "To effectively meet these, our personnel have to be equipped with state-of-the-art small arms. This would comparatively increase the compatibility efficiency, confidence and motivation of the troops," he added.