APJ Kalam: A “transformed” DRDO must make India self-reliant in defence

New Delhi: President APJ Abdul Kalam and defence minister AK Antony on Wednesday sent out a similar, forward-looking message to senior scientists of the country's Defence and Research Development Organisation (DRDO). They spoke about a need for change in the manner of the organisation's functioning, as it was a historical imperative, and also the need for the organisation to focus on the country's requirements for futuristic weapon platforms.

Addressing the scientists Kalam said that the Parliament and the Government ought to set a goal for the defence ministry to make India self-reliant in defence systems and technologies to the extent of 70 per cent by 2020. "Self-reliance is essential by the nature of the mission, particularly in the environment of conflicts. It is indeed a national mission of importance for DRDO, production agencies, industry and the armed forces to work together to realise the goal of the nation."

Kalam said that the DRDO would have to "transform" itself, if it were to cope with the country's defence requirements. "When an organisation functions for over five decades, it develops a particular type of organisational culture, human resource and infrastructure. A change in the organisational culture is required, based on present-day technology and infrastructure for meeting the short and long-term goals of the service," he said.

In this regard, he felt that the DRDO should reorganise itself every five years, keeping in mind the dynamics of the missions that it was engaged in.

The president also set out the broad contours of the missions that the scientists ought to focus on, as they were vital for the security of the nation. The missions, according to him, are long-range missile systems (to be developed in less than 10 years with a proper war head), long-range hypersonic cruise missiles, pilot-less supersonic aircraft, a nuclear submarine, advanced inter-service integrated electronic warfare systems in the GHZ region (hardened for radiation), military communication satellites, exclusive military reconnaissance satellites, high-end cryptography (encryption and decryption with special purpose algorithms), multi-role supersonic stealth fighter aircraft, a stealth class airborne early warning system and an internationally competitive advanced Main Battle Tank.

Kalam advocated joint ventures with the private sector as well as with foreign partners for design, development and marketing of products.

He felt that there was now a need to unify users, developers and producers into technically and economically viable "strategic industry clusters" of DRDO laboratories, select national laboratories and defence industries, with partners form the private sector.
Such industry clusters could be created to deal with communications and sensors, aerospace and aviation, armaments and vehicles and ocean systems.

Defence minister AK Antony's message to the scientists was not made available to the media for unexplained reasons. Also, the media was prevented from attending the function at the last minute, which resulted in some unpleasantness.