With the changing economic, political and strategic equations increasingly placing world powers in a tussle, India’s defence requirement has increased and constant modernisation of the country’s armed forces is critical, stated Defence Minister Rajnath Singh here on Thursday.
“Economic, political and strategic equations are changing all over the world and major world powers are in a tussle. Our defence needs have also increased and constant modernisation of the Armed Forces is the need of the hour,’‘ he said after inaugurating a seven-storeyed Flight Control System (FCS) integration facility at Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Bengaluru.
The minister said, “Keeping ourselves ready is our top priority and we are constantly working to enhance our strategic capabilities. Be it technology or products, services or facilities, their advanced and faster development is critical.’‘
The FCS facility would support R&D activities for developing Avionics for Fighter Aircraft and FCS for Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft being undertaken by ADE.
The complex would also provide simulator training to pilots of combat aircraft. The simulators provide an opportunity to learn by making mistakes without having to incur any losses.
The state-of-the-art complex has been constructed in record 45 days, with in-house hybrid technology consisting of conventional, pre-engineered and precast methodology. The technology has been developed by DRDO with the help of Larsen & Toubro while design check and technical support has been provided by IIT Madras and IIT Roorkee.
Commending DRDO and L&T, the minister said the new infrastructure would increase the productivity of the construction process, promote optimum utilisation of resources, reduce losses due to wastage and would also be helpful in the speedy completion of projects. Although the mandate of DRDO was to develop futuristic technologies, its spin-off benefits would be available to the civilian sector as well, the minister expressed hope.
“Our traditional construction industry in generally considered to be labour intensive, high risk and low on productivity. But, the way DRDO has constructed the FCS complex through hybrid technology, we can build infrastructure projects low cost and in a time-bound manner,’‘ he added.
