Recent geo-politics shows nations won't hesitate to go to war: Manoj Pande

The army's dependence on imports to maintain combat capability has come down to 'near zero' in the past two financial years, Army Chief General Manoj Pande has said, adding that having a robust indigenous industry is vital to maintaining hard power in an era where countries are not hesitating to go to war to protect national interests.

The top officer said that there is a need for partnering with the industry to develop new technologies for future wars and creating 'national champions' to develop a strong defence industry eco system at the scale of global arms manufacturers.

"Weapons manufacturing, aerospace, shipbuilding and electronics are some of the sectors where we must create our own equivalent to Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin or Raytheon Technologies, to name a few," Gen Pande said in an address at a conclave by the All India Management Association.


The General said that "Indigenise to Modernise" is the motto for the Army's capability development plans which are oriented towards substantially increasing state of the art equipment by 2030.

The Army chief said that an indigenous defence manufacturing ecosystem is vital, given the recent developments where changes have taken place at unprecedented scale and speed. "Recent geo-political power plays have displayed that where national interests are concerned, countries will not hesitate to go to war. These developments have reaffirmed the relevance of hard power," he said.

He said indigenous manufacturing of ammunition and spares is vital to sustain the armed forces. He added that of the 175 variants of ammunition of different calibre and types, 134 have already been indigenised by DRDO and the Defence Public Sector Units.

"We have put in place a time-bound indigenisation plan for currently imported ammunition and diversifying sources of supply, by onboarding private industry," he said. The General said investing into the defence industry in the past years has already shown results, pointing to the increase in volume of Indian defence exports to Rs 21,000 crore in the last financial year, with the private industry accounting for 60% of the military sales abroad.