Ballistic missile defences were getting “robust” day by day and to maintain a minimum credible deterrence, India should quickly think about developing hypersonic cruise missiles, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday. He pointed to the fast-changing battlefield landscape with the emergence of new technologies.
“Our effort should be to make India the leader in defence technology. Those technologies which we have already developed are already ours, but along with that we should also acquire those technologies which today are only with a handful of countries,” he stated at an event of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
“For example, ballistic missile defence are getting robust day by day. So, in order to maintain our minimum credible deterrence, we should quickly think about developing hypersonic cruise missiles,” he noted.
Hypersonic weapons are manoeuvrable weapons that can fly at speeds of at least Mach 5, five times the speed of sound. Several countries, including India, are currently developing them.
In 1998, India conducted nuclear tests under Phokran-II and in 2003, declared its nuclear doctrine based on credible minimum deterrence and a No-First-Use (NFU) policy. The concept of maintaining a minimum credible deterrence and a nuclear triad for delivery of nuclear weapons based on aircraft, missiles and nuclear submarines flow from that.
At the event, Mr. Singh handed over five technologies developed by the DRDO to the three Services and Home Ministry as part of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’. He also handed over six Transfer of Technology (ToT) agreements for the technologies developed by the DRDO to seven public and private sector companies.
Emphasising on emerging technologies, he stressed that developments such as cyber, space, IT, robotics, Artificial Intelligence and big data analysis were adding news facets on the battlefield. Some of the products being developed by the DRDO were not just futuristic but also the first of the kind, he pointed out.
Technologies handed over
The technologies handed over by Mr. Singh include an anti-drone system for the three Services, a modular bridge for the Army, smart anti-airfield weapon and Chaff variants for the Air Force and a lightweight firefighting suit to the Home Ministry.
The ToT documents handed over comprise coastal surveillance radar, automatic chemical agent detection and alarm and chemical agent monitor, unit maintenance vehicle, unit repair vehicle, fused silica based ceramic core technology and fire suppressing gel.
