NEW DELHI: The work towards indigenisation and innovation into the defence manufacturing is bearing results with the number of patent applications filed particularly in areas of design in the recent years crossing the numbers of the same filed till four years back.
Detailing about such applications, sources in the defence establishment said, “The new Make in India in defence as part of Atmanirbhar (self-reliant) Bharat policy is particularly strong on design. In fact, because of the indigenous technology development efforts, more than 2500 number of patent applications have been filed during the last four years in comparison to 1700 number of cumulative applications filed from inception till then.”
Such efforts arelikely to have huge impact on development of defence platforms to meet the growing and futuristic requirement of our Armed Forces, the source added. Not only has there been a push towards innovation with tie ups with Indian Institute of Technologies (IITs) and other academic institutions, provisions jave also been made in the budgetary allocation towards research and development.
Beginning with the financial year 2022-23 the Defence R&D has been opened up for industry, startups and academia with 25 per cent of defence R&D budget earmarked. Private industry will be encouraged to take up design and development of military platforms and equipment in collaboration with DRDO and other organisations through SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) model. An independent nodal umbrella body will be set up for meeting wide ranging testing and certification requirements.
A focused approach is being followed towards the modern technologies, the sources added, saying, “The non-hackable quantum channel created by our start-up with a hop of 150 km on a terrestrial optical fibre infrastructure, which betters the 90 km of similar hop achieved in the world.” Alos, the Drone swarms of 1000 drones showcased during this year’s ‘Beating the Retreat’ is now aiming at 3500 drones in next few months, something which would be beyond what any other country has been able to achieve thus far.
The other area, the sources said, being cranked up is the manufacturing capacity.
Keeping the order for 83 LCA Tejas (73 LCA Tejas Mk-1A fighter aircrafts and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 Trainer aircrafts) to be inducted in Indian Air Force the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has worked to “manufacture 16 fighters a year”. “HAL is in a position to further enhance the rate of production up to 30 aircrafts per annum for any additional operational requirement and is now gearing up to manufacture for the international market.”
Push provided by Atmanirbhar policy
The new Make in India in defence as part of Atmanirbhar (self-reliant) Bharat policy is particularly strong on design. In fact, because of the indigenous technology development efforts, more than 2500 number of patent applications have been filed during the last four years in comparison to 1700 number of cumulative applications filed from inception till then