Interview
By Kartik Lokhande
India is working on and making a good progress in
developing ‘futuristic soldier’ who will be a system in himself. Once
the high-profile ‘Futuristic Infantry Soldier as a System’ (F-INSAS)
becomes a reality, which is likely to be pretty soon, India will join
the club of a few nations including France, Germany, Britain, and the
United States that have got the ‘futuristic soldier’ systems.
“Defence Research and Development Organisation has been working on it
and a good progress has been made on various components. Many
laboratories are actively engaged in the project,” said Dr V K Saraswat,
former Director General of Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) and Secretary of Department of Defence (R&D). Dr
Saraswat, who is said to be front-runner for the post of Principal
Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister, was talking to ‘The Hitavada’
during his visit to the city on Saturday to grace the first national
convention of Vijnana Bharti, at Persistent Systems auditorium.
F-INSAS is one of the modern initiatives of DRDO. Shedding more light on
the project, Dr Saraswat said that a soldier had to perform many
functions like seeing through darkness, navigating, collating data from
command centres, quick use of weapons if needed, power all the gadgets
through mechanical energy, and also ensure that his own
protection/defense systems are working. “If all these things and
technologies can be brought on the body of a soldier, he will become a
system in himself. And, that, is the idea behind the project ‘Soldier as
a System’. There will be intelligent devices, helmet, charging the
batteries or gadgets through mere walking or mechanical energy,
connectivity to virtual network, bulletproof jackets etc,” he added.
The project aims at making the Indian soldier a well-equipped fighting
machine in himself. Various components that have been and are being
developed for the soldier include portable command-and-control systems
having encrypted computer and a monitor that could be operated in Indian
weather variations, connectivity to network-centric warfare system,
advanced mobile observation system that would operate through radio
frequency sensor to enable soldier to observe and record target, GPS
signals, multi-caliber individual weapon system, anti-material rifles,
thermal imaging sights, ground sensors, laser range-finders, secured
communication systems etc.
Asked as to when the Indian soldiers would get equipped with these
technologies, Padma Bhushan recipient Dr Saraswat said that the present
DRDO establishment would be able to answer that.
There has been talk
that more than 10 lakh of Indian soldiers will be covered under the
project by the next year and the remaining will be covered by the year
2020.
Former DRDO chief
favours raising FDI
cap in Defence sector
Dr
V K Saraswat, former Director General of DRDO and Secretary (Defence
R&D) and Scientific Advisor to the then Defence Minister, favoured
raising the foreign direct investment (FDI) cap in Defence sector to 49
per cent from the current cap of 26 per cent.
“FDI brings technology and money, increases participation, and enriches
the culture of manufacturing and design. The model of BrahMos, in which
India and Russia had 50.5 per cent and 49.5 per cent share respectively,
has been highly successful,” said Dr Saraswat. He also favoured
increasing the FDI cap to more than 50 per cent if India was getting
critical technologies. According to him, FDI increased private
participation in Defence sector and gradually boosted self-reliance.
However, he cautioned, while raising the FDI cap there must be caveat
that India should have Intellectual Property Rights over the
technologies.
On the issue of indigenisation in Defence sector, Dr Saraswat said that
it was poor because enough heed was not paid to design development and
maintenance of various production units. The focus was mainly on
production but there was no new discovery of materials.
“Still, the situation is improving. In 1995, only 30 per cent of Defence
products were indigenised. Today, indigenisation is to the extent of
50.7 per cent,” he said. More than 80 per cent of the contents in the
missiles like Shaurya, Akash, Agni, Nag, etc is indigenous. Further, as
much as 50 per cent of the electronic warfare systems, radars, main
battle tanks, Light Combat Aircraft, navigation systems, etc going into
the Indian Army is indigenous. “Indigenisation is freedom from
technology controls, and it should be done in all critical
technologies,” he observed.
‘BMD Phase-I to be
completed by 2016’
India’s
Defence capabilities are improving steadily and one more feather will be
added to the cap of the country in this sector in 2016 when the Phase-I
of Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) will be completed.
“We are on target,” said Dr V K Saraswat. BMD Phase-I is about
capability to intercept Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBMs)
with a range of 2,000 kms. As far as Phase-II is concerned, Dr Saraswat
said, it was on drawing board and was likely to be completed by the year
2020. Under this phase, India will be capable of intercepting
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) with a range of over 5,000
kms. “For BMD, India initially tied up with Israel and captured ‘know
how’ and ‘know why’ both. This is the best model as there was no FDI,
only collaboration,” he added.
As far as Cruise Missile Defence (CMD) is concerned, the former DRDO
boss said, “It is still at the concept stage. We are designing for it,
and we are at the level of technological evaluation. However, we cannot
say that the programme has been launched as the Government is yet to
start funding.” CMD being a different ball game, he said, the
ground-based radars used for BMD will not be useful here. CMD will need
air-borne, space-borne surveillance or low-level surveillance through
AWACS or UAVs, added the acclaimed scientist.
28-06-14
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