General Manoj Pande said the Defence Expo 2022, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar, Gujarat on Wednesday, will help India improve domestic production of military hardware
Gandhinagar (Gujarat): Indian Army Chief General Manoj Pande asserted on Wednesday that India has the ability to win future wars with indigenously produced weapons and military equipment.
Pointing out that the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has highlighted the need to ensure self-reliance in the defence sector, General Manoj Pande said the Defence Expo 2022, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gandhinagar, Gujarat on Wednesday, will help India improve domestic production of military hardware.
“We can absolutely and undoubtedly win the wars of the future with indigenous weapon systems. Whatever has been produced ingeniously is as good as what’s available in world market. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has given usprofound lessons, told us you need to be self-reliant & not depend on any global supply chains to the extent possible,” the Indian Army chief was quoted as saying by ANI.
“All new ingeniously developed technology has performed well in our forward areas. The advantage of all this being indigenous is sustenance becomes easier,” he added.
In a crucial step, Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a list of 101 defence items which will be produced indigenously as part of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative during the opening ceremony of Defence Expo 2022.
These items, which are part of the fourth Positive Indigenisation List, will be procured from indigenous sources as per the provisions of Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP) 2020.
“For our make I projects, there are 2-3 major projects we are looking at including light tanks, future-ready combat vehicles and Future Infantry Combat Vehicles. These are partially being funded by the government,” General Manoj Pande said.
“In make II category, we have 43 projects, in which about 187 industries are participating. These amount to Rs 27,000 crore and largely pertain to improving our intelligence and surveillance capabilities. We are also looking at projects in artificial intelligence,” the Indian Armychief added.
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