‘Operation Sindoor has reinforced thrust on indigenisation of defence products’

Operation Sindoor that has displayed India’s defence capabilities to the world will reflect in a renewed thrust for indigenisation of defence products, G. Satheesh Reddy, president, Aeronautical Society of India and former Secretary of Department of Defence Research and Development said in Coimbatore on Saturday.

The takeaways from Operation Sindoor constitute confidence of armed forces in the country’s industry, a boost to the morale of scientists, the possibilities created for industries to get defence orders and the scope for export orders for India’s defence products, Dr. Reddy said, addressing the Academia-Industry Meet – 2025 on Aerospace organised by Kumaraguru Centre for Industrial Research and Innovation (KCIRI) of Kumaraguru Institutions, in association with the CODISSIA Defence Innovation and Atal Incubation Centre (CDIIC) and the Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI).

The event was envisioned as a platform to strengthen collaborations between academia and industry, promote indigenous defence technology, and drive progress in the Coimbatore Defence Corridor, in alignment with the national vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

State governments were now vying with one another to make the most of the potential in defence and aerospace industries. Industry clusters could consider creating export promotion cells, as India has set a target for manufacture of indigenous defence products worth ₹3 lakh crore by the next three years. Likewise, the export target has also been increased correspondingly, he said.

Operation Sindoor has shown to the world India’s air defence system, accuracy of strikes, and integrated command system. Now that India’s defence capabilities are known, industry and academia need to work together to further technologies and bring in the surprise element (in future warfare) for assured success, Dr. Satheesh noted, emphasising that industries have to look at opportunities at this juncture.

Lt. General. Karanbir Singh Brar, GOC, Dakshin Bharat Area, in his presentation of ‘Opportunities for development of technologies for defence applications and collaborating with Indian Army’ said that while the processes have been simplified under Atmanirbhar Bharat for conversion of prototypes into orders, and through tweaking of the procurement system, a deep understanding of the users has become a necessity. Most of the start-ups were in the proof of concept stage. In industry-academic collaboration, India needs to accelerate as USA and China have already taken long strides, Gen. Brar stressed.

Earlier, V. Sundaram, CDIIC, CODDISSIA, spelt out the road map for broad-basing Coimbatore’s contribution to the defence sector.

A. Seshadri Sekhar, Director, IIT Palakkad, while addressing on ‘Academia and Defence Collaborative mode for development of disruptive technology’ said the institution has given push for industry-academia collaboration through a unique initiative of academic externship that entitles faculty to avail special leave for two months to study the industrial processes and subsequently engage students in real-time problem-solving.

Chandrika Kaushik, Director General – Product Coordination and Services Interaction, DRDO, dwelt on ‘possibilities of collaboration with the DRDO on development of systems and technologies’. India was now particular about indigenisation of defence products even if it was costlier, Dr. Chandrika said.

The event culminated with an interactive session on Aerospace and Defence Ecosystem: R&D, Production, Policies, and Industry-Academia Collaboration, that had the participation of A. Joseph, Managing Director, BrahMos Aerospace, among other leading experts.