New Delhi: With the long delays in the completion of military projects increasingly becoming an issue of concern, especially in the backdrop of changing regional security and defence scenario, the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) on Monday gave an update on the various ongoing projects at the annual Unified Commanders’ Conference that began on Monday.
Besides the ongoing military projects, certain crucial defence plans for the five-year period from 2017-2022 were also presented, government sources have told this newspaper.
The Unified Commanders’ Conference is an annual forum to take stock of the country’s security preparedness and is chaired by the defence minister.
Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat and IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa also presented their views during the meet.
Security issues like the Kashmir situation and issues relating to maritime domain were also discussed. It is not known whether the standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the border near Sikkim was discussed.
While resources crunch for military projects has usually been cited as a problem, the defence minister Arun Jaitley gave a strong assurance to the armed forces that “with resource availability increasing within the Indian economy, capital expenditure will be a priority area”.
In effect, the forces can look forward to substantial augmentation of their military hardware. The defence minister also stated that “there is a clear realisation in the government that issues relating to the Services cannot be kept pending for long and the government will be decisive in its approach”.
The source also said that “jointness and integration” in strategy, training, operation and setting up of joint institutions for the three military services and other branches was a focal area of the deliberations.
Interestingly, Navy chief Admiral Lanba says in the foreword of the recently-released joint doctrine of the Indian Armed Forces 2017: “The rapidly changing character of conflict is constantly throwing up new challenges thereby behoving on the Indian armed forces to remain operationally current, agile, efficient and utilise scare resources in an optimised manner”.
The delay in setting up the National War Memorial and Museum also figured among the issues discussed.
