Indigenous military projects such as missiles have shown consistently shorter development cycles over the years thanks to deft planning and handling of the projects, the former DRDO Director-General V.K. Saraswat said on Thursday.
Citing the bouquet of missiles that came out of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme through 2008, Dr. Saraswat said the later Agni III and V missiles had taken three to five years to develop compared to the earlier ones such as Prithvi that needed around a decade.
The former top military scientist was addressing members of the defence and aerospace industry at a conference organised by the SAE India and Project Management Institute.
A number of military and civil aerospace business opportunities worth several thousand crores of rupees were unfolding in the country and the local industry was also rising to these challenges, he said.
Dr. Saraswat had steered the missiles plan as the DRDO’s then chief controller R&D of missiles and strategic systems.
The former ISRO director B.N. Suresh, leader of Engineering and Technology from Boeing India Bala K. Bharadvaj, and Raj Kalady of the institute spoke on the role of project management and the new opportunities coming up in the aerospace and defence area in the country.