India's military has the capability to detect any suspected intrusion by low-flying aerial vehicles, similar to what happened during the recent operation by the U.S. Navy Seals in Abbotabad, Pakistan, according S. Sundaresh, Distinguished Scientist of Defence Research and Development Organisation said on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 20th convocation of Sathyabama University here, Mr. Sundaresh, who is also the Chief Controller, Research and Development, Armaments and Combat Engineering, DRDO, was responding to a query on whether India possessed the technology to keep a surveillance of low-flying aircraft and helicopters.
He said that India's military had the technology to keep a surveillance of low flying aircraft and possessed airships with a capability to maintain a surveillance of 100 kilometres around it to detect any suspected intrusion.
These airships were demonstrated during the recent Aero India Air Show. These airships could merge with the foliage beneath them.
Asked if the recent MoU with a U.S. firm on DRDO's explosives detection kit was a reversal in the direction in the flow of technology transfer, Mr. Sundaresh replied in the affirmative. “This is the second such instance. Earlier, we transferred technology to Korea. The kits have been finding application in the past 18 months. He said that the kits, which could trace even small quantities of explosive substances, were being used by defence forces, paramilitary and State police.
Three threats
Stating that India faced three important threats and challenges in the areas of cyber, energy and space security, the scientist said that the Ministry of Defence and research organisations were fully geared to meet these challenges.
A committee on Cyber Security is already in place. “The objective is to create firewalls and put in place adequate security measures that will make it impossible for others to penetrate our databases,” Mr. Sundaresh said. In the past, key websites of the government were hacked into by “neighbours.” He said a lot of research was being carried out to counter insurgency and adopt technology to a great extent to create tools to battle conflict. The project to design micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that could help forces fighting insurgency was on, he added.
On the proposals to design Hummer vehicles on the lines of the original made by General Motors for the U.S military, Mr. Sundaresh said the DRDO had discussions with three Indian automobile majors. Designs, if needed, could be got from the U.S. but the manufacturing and fabrication would be done entirely indigenously.
