A. There is growing demand and need of new technologies in the field of defence and risk of obsolesce has made it essential to focus on the issues of development and management of such technologies. Weapon systems are becoming technology intensive and reduction in 'development time' of high technology products and weapons and increasing obsolescence rate make decision very important. R&D activities need tremendous skill and capital. Therefore investments need to be carefully worked out. There have been numerous instances where DRDO has overshot its stated delivery schedule. Although a lot of progress has been made in this direction; yet it skills lacks trust with the user agencies and technology managers.
Time cycles are being compressed to critical levels that challenges not only military commanders but also all those who are in the loop for application of military force from the political leadership to the soldier on the front. The main cause in the delays in executing projects contracted and in their inability to deliver the requisite wpm sys/eqpt to maint the combat edge over our adversaries.
Technology is changing so rapidly that if a weapon system with certain specifications is not delivered in time, it then which it was designed originally. A delayed induction also results not only in economic and human losses but at times, loss of morale of the troops. A classic examples has been the development of AJT (Advanced Jet Trainer) by DRDO/HAL. Finally after continued delays, the Govt decided to 'buy' the product from vendors. Another such as example is the integrated indigenous Electronic Warfare System 'SAMYUKTA'. iN THIS REGARD, THE Govt report states, "the ways and means of linking financial commitments in R&D with performance milestones, also need to be evolved with a view to ensure strict accountability and time responsiveness".
Research and Development in the frontiers of 'high end' technologies is thus, an extremely expensive and time consuming process. It demands clear strategic vision and evolving a strategy, which must relate the technological needs of the country to the national Science and Technology capabilities. Considering the global technological environment and various control regimes, it is extremely important for india to fucus on indigenisation in the area of defence technology management.