LCAs and MBTs are highlights at the seventh edition of 'Aero India 2009', according to Defence Minister A K Antony. He made these remarks while inaugurating the Asia's premier air show at Yelahanka Air Force Station today. He said the performance of LCAs and MBTs is very satisfactory as they steal the show in the grand spectacle.
Organised by Defence Exhibition Organisation (Ministry of Defence) in association with Confederation of Indian Industriy (CII), the Show attracted global attention and huge participation from the leading Defence Industries across the globe.
"This year's Aero India is biggest ever in size and scale in terms of arrangements, participation, business delegations and most importantly the coordination between various agencies organizing the show," said Mr. Antony.
"All these developments are enough to say that India is emerging as a great aero-space power. The maneuvers of Indian made LCAs and MBTs make India feel proud," he further stated. " We are not going to stop with these initial successes. Our aim is to achieve at least 70% self sufficiency and indigenous production capacity, which is about 30% currently. We will achieve this goal with the efforts of DRDO, PSUs and Armed Forces," he added.
The Minster outlined several measures and how Government is overcoming several bottlenecks in this regard. He explained how India came a long way when Jawaharlal Nehru initiated the process of Defence production in India from literally zero ground level. He said several hurdles like end-user verification provisions of US for supplying Defence equipment are being sorted out through consultations and negotiations.
"As the environment around India is not going to improve, referring to Mumbai attacks and other terrorist threats, we have an urgent need to modernize our Armed Forces and continue to do it as an ongoing process. Recession, Global meltdown or any other factor will not be allowed to come in the way, "Mr. Antony said.
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"Though there is some impact of economic slow down on Indian industries; compared to other countries it is minimal. Even among industries in India, Government will not allow the problem of funding to come in the way. More or less as a percentage of GDP, India's Defence spending remained same and modernization will continue to be our priority, "Mr. Antony further stated.
"When we started LCAs and MBTs, many were skeptic about our capabilities but now we have proven that we can. Similarly India will increase domestic production component of our Defence needs either through our own projects or co-production," Mr. Antony explained.
Replying to questions on why India is not pursuing military options against Pakistan in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, Mr. Antony said we are still pursuing through diplomatic options and showing maximum restraint, which should not be taken as weakness.
"To fulfill our needs, India is purchasing equipments from many countries and off late US is also one of the leading partners for India," Mr. Antony said.