DRDO claims it is taking steps to make India self-sufficient in defence equipment

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Sunday said that the agency has set its sight to make India self-sufficient in producing defence equipment ranging from missiles, manned and unmanned aircrafts to sensors among others.

"The DRDO had been depending on the indigenization of the weapon system. We have now taken on five new missions to make sure that we have cutting-edge capabilities," Director General Dr Avinash Chander told ANI.

"We are making ourselves totally self-reliant in making our own missiles; manned and unmanned aircrafts to dominate the skies; ...go into modernizing the army with better mobility...We are also looking at providing state of the art sensors, communication radars and sonar," he added.

Dr Chander also said that the agency has taken major strides in ensuring that weapons are delivered to the armed forces on time to meet their immediate requirements.

"The DRDO is the prime organization for designing indigenous defence systems. In that context, we have a major role to indigenize the systems and develop our own technologies. We have taken major initiatives to make sure that we deliver the immediate weapons on time and giving the cutting edge capabilities," he said.