India's Rise as a Global Power: Why DRDO Chief Says It "Cannot Be Stopped"

Addressing the 40th Air Chief Marshal PC Lal Memorial Lecture, the DRDO Chairman said, "The world we live in today is in a phase of transition, we are in a state of geopolitical churn, moving from a unipolar world to a multipolar world, and in this, India is going to be one of the strong poles in this emerging multipolar world. Our rise cannot be stopped."

Samir V. Kamat noted India's growing self-reliance in the defence sector. He also mentioned the arsenal that is likely to be added to the country's armoury in the upcoming years.

"The systems which are likely to be inducted in the next 2-3 years are Long Range Anti-Ship Missile, Long Range-Land Attack Cruise Missile, Air to Air Missile, Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile, Surface to Air Missile, light tank, High Endurance, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, Long Range Guided bomb, among others," he added.

However, Samir V Kamat said that to catch up with China, the country needs to prioritise the Research and Development spending, pointing out the stark difference between both countries' defence budgets.

"India spends about 5.5% of its defence budget on R&D. If you look at the US and China, they spend between 10-15% of their defence budget on R&D. If we have to catch up with them, it is going to be very challenging unless we increase our defence R&D spending," he said.

The DRDO Chairman also emphasised the need to focus on defence exports to sustain the production.

"Last year, we exported around Rs 23,000 crore worth of defence equipment. Raksha Mantri has set us a target of Rs 50,000 crore by 2029. If we have to sustain defence R&D and defence production, then exports have to be looked at very seriously," he said.

Sharing a Defence Capability Pyramid which has seven criteria to measure a country's defensive strength, Samir V Kamat said that the government is performing "fairly good" at all seven criteria, but "needs to look at how to build capacity"

The Seven criteria mentioned in the Defence Capability Pyramid are: 1. System configuration and design; 2. System engineering and integration; 3. System testing and evaluation, qualification, certification; 4. Sub Systems; 5. Components, devices manufacturing; 6. Machines, tools and fixtures for manufacturing; 7. Material development and production at scale.

- ANI