efence Minister Manohar Parrikar has announced the Ministry’s target to achieve self-sufficiency in indigenous development of missile technology in the coming five years, which was the dream of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
An exercise will be undertaken in the next five years, for identifying the requirements of the armed forces, improving production capabilities, conducting technical feasibility studies, and filling gaps wherever they are.
“The credit for this goes to the great scientist and visionary Dr. Kalam,” he said, after renaming the Missile Complex at Balapur housing the Research Centre Imarat, Defence Research and Development Laboratory, and Advanced Systems Laboratory, as ‘Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Missile Complex’, here on Thursday.
Reminiscing his association with Dr. Kalam, Mr. Parrikar termed ‘Vision 2020’ as the first biggest gain the country had from him, and assured that many goals of the same will be achieved in the coming years.
Another important contribution to the nation from Dr. Kalam was his books which ignited young minds and created in them an interest towards science.
Lauding Hyderabad as Dr. Kalam’s ‘Karma Bhoomi’, where he created the Missile Complex, Mr. Parrikar said he came down to the city on his birth anniversary, so that people could understand Dr. Kalam’s phenomenal contribution.
Speaking separately to the media, Mr. Parrikar said there will be role for women in all the three armed forces, except where there are problems and bottlenecks pertaining to infrastructure and training.
A policy decision in this regard will be announced in two to three months.
Answering a query, he clarified that the next Aero India show will be held in Bengaluru, despite requests from the State government and recommendations from a committee constituted for the purpose, to shift it. On cross border infiltration, Mr. Parrikar said the Ministry’s duty was to neutralise the infiltrators.
Infiltration into the country has come down to the lowest of 10 years in this regime and the rate of elimination of terrorists has increased, he said. During the visit, Mr. Parrikar also inaugurated the Open Range RCS Test Facility (ORANGE) at Dundigal and Kautilya Advanced Research Centre at RCI.
An exercise will be undertaken for identifying the requirements of the armed forces, improving production capabilities, conducting technical feasibility studies and filling gaps, if any
Manohar Parrikar
Defence Minister
