| Tuesday, November 14, 2006 |
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Ministry of Defence |
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DEFENCE EXPERTS DEBATE R&D AND ACQUISITION ISSUES
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18:48 IST |
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“Can Technology make you lose wars also?” The answer surprisingly is ‘Yes’, said Dr. K.G. Narayanan, Emeritus Professor, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, opening the Session today on ‘Defence Research & Development” in the International Seminar on Defence Finance & Economics being held at Vigyan Bhavan here. The Down-the-Up-staircase syndrome is the cause for this, he said citing Arthur C. Clark. Shri M. Natarajan, Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister, in his Keynote Address referred to the Triple Trap syndrome why indigenous R&D is important : What is developed abroad will not suit our requirement; What is suitable will be denied; and What is not denied will not be affordable. He suggested a pattern of funding with Defence Research & Development Organisation contributing 70%, Industry 20% and the user Services (Army, Navy, Air Force etc.) 10%, for better stakeholding in long term projects. Prof. Michael Brzoska of Germany brought out the surprising fact that military R&D growth has been much slower world-wide compared to civilian R&D in the last few decades. Perhaps there is a lesson in this for the Indian planners.
In a parallel session, Shri V.K. Misra, Secretary Defence Finance stated that the most demanding component of the defence capability building process is the aspect of acquisition of weapon platforms. This could be made simple, but not simpler going by Einstein’s advice. The issues of upgradability and assuring a sustained and high level of readiness are the overarching concerns of an efficient acquisition process, he said. He called for a focused project management orientation to the entire defence acquisition process. Sir Kevin Tebbit of U.K. presented the ‘Smart Acquisition’ concept introduced there to meet the three key parameters of defence procurement – time, cost and performance. Dr. Elisabeth Wright of U.S.A. made an interesting Presentation on Life Cycle Management of defence acquisition costs – which is emerging as an important concept to arrive at an economic, equitable assessment of competing design alternatives.
SK/ HS
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