Compare performance of Indian-foreign weapon systems: DRDO

DRDO chief Avinash Chander today stressed on the need for a comparison between the performance of indigenous and imported weapon systems against the backdrop of the government focusing on developing home grown defence industrial base.
Emphasising on the induction of indigenous weapon systems, he took an apparent dig at the armed forces saying such equipment should not be rejected "merely because it weighs 50 grams more than the imported stuff".
He also claimed that the Arjun tank was better than the Russian-origin T-90 tanks on many aspects.
"Let us have a performance audit of both imported and indigenous weapon system and comparisons," Chander said while addressing a seminar at the IDSA.

Seeking to justify the need for such a comparison, he said a number of times, indigenous weapon systems are criticised but "I have never heard any imported system's performance being evaluated."
He also stressed on the need for bench-marking Indian systems against the equipment being imported.

The DRDO chief said many times, the defence research agency is asked to develop defence equipment when it is close to be imported from foreign sources.
He said there was a need to increasing interaction with the Army, where the induction of DRDO equipment was "slow".
The Army has placed orders for only around 240 Arjun tanks and has expressed concerns over its weight.

The DRDO has developed several weapon systems including strategic Agni series of missiles and several other equipment such as Arjun tanks, Akash surface-to-air missiles and estimates its value to be around 1.5 lakh crore in armed forces, who rely on foreign sources for over 65 per cent of their requirements.