JOIN USDefence PSUs gear up for air expo
Opening up of the defence production industry to private players and Defence Minister A K Antony stressing on the need for DPSUs to wake up and prepare for competition from the private sector has already seen some of the PSUs increase investment in research and development and restructure their human resource management policies.
Show-stoppers
People in the know-how say that besides the projected ‘show-stoppers’ like the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), HAL’s light combat helicopter (LCH), light combat aircraft (LCA), DRDO’s BrahMos, prithivi and agni missiles among other things the Indian PSUs will showcase a series of technologies like battle field radars, surveillance et al.
Last year, participation of exhibitors from 33 countries and 55 overseas delegations, 592 exhibitors accommodated over an exhibition area of 44,000 sqm was nearly a 47 per cent jump over the 2007 edition and sources in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told Deccan Herald: “It is favourably poised for an exponential growth over previous edition. We tentatively expect at least a 20 per cent increase in the display, participation and the aircrafts.”
The Eighth edition will be held at Air Force Station, Yelahanka, will be organised from February 9-13, 2011 and senior officials from the MoD including its spokesperson Sitanshu Kar will visit Bangalore for a confedential meeting on December 27. Sources said that besides inspecting the site and finalising on liasoning and publicity, the delegation is expected to conduct talks over the registration of participants among other things during the meeting.
In line with the expectations from the PSUs, Bharat Electronics Limited Director (R&D) I V Sarma said that the company is working towards showcasing its state-of-art software-defined radio, due for induction in March 2011 besides its radar technologies and battle-field surveillance technologies.
Claiming it to be a breakthrough technology which will revolutionise the communication space in the armed forces, Sarma said: “We had embarked upon the project about two years ago and are will induct the army version by March 2011 with the testing already complete.”
He said that in the next two phases, BEL will come up with the Navy and Air Force versions of the product as they require a slightly different configuration with clearances needed on the environment front. “We will have such radios for the navy and air force ready by March 2012,” he added.