IAF's Maintenance Command chief bats for indigenisation

The chief of the Indian Air Force's Maintenance Command, Air Marshal R K S Shera, on Friday emphasised upon the need for continuous efforts at indigenisation by India in defence productions to be self-reliant in the defence sector.

The air marshal advocated for indigenisation while also flagging the emerging defence threat from drones and the need to develop a system to counter it.

“We are huge importers of defence and this trend has to be reversed,” he said in his speech after inaugurating a day-long national level 'Nodal Technology Centre (NTC)' symposium, held jointly with the PHD chamber of commerce, at 3 Base Repair Depot (3BRD), Air Force Station, Chandigarh.

A number of senior officials and domain experts from the Ministry of Defence, Air Headquarters, Headquarters Maintenance Command, Army Headquarters, Naval Headquarters, DRDO, academia and industry including CII, ASSOCHAM and FICCI also participated in the event.

Referring to the IAF's commitment to indigenisation, Air Marshal Shera urged the participants to evolve a conclusive strategy to implement various projects under the Nodal Technology Centre (NTC).

Emphasising upon the need for continuous efforts at indigenisation for India defence production, he said, "As far as this (3BRD) depot is concerned, it has been involved in indigenisation projects for the last 40-50 years right from the beginning.”

Flagging the emerging threat from drones and the need to come up with technologies to counter it, he said, “Drones have become a serious threat in the recent past. We are now going to work very seriously on some good drone system, which can take care of our air defence.”

Further touching upon the indigenisation, Shera said IAF has been partnering with industry and academia and holding “indigenisation weeks and symposiums”.

“If I talk about military aviation, we had very less participation from the industry until recent few years. Over the last couple of years, we are having indigenisation weeks and symposiums, where we call the industry partners and academia, quality assurance agencies. We sit together and try to find out what we need as far as self-reliance is concerned and how we can do that,” he said.

The IAF's Base Repair Depots across the country have been doing a lot of work on indigenisation and finding solutions to complex projects, Shera said.

“Most of the engineers working in depots are exposed to the best of the technologies,” he said.

“There are huge challenges in maintaining and sustaining these legacy machines,” he said, referring to aircraft which have been in service for decades.

The IAF is also partnering with the industry to carry out some “part tasks” like repainting, structural repairs of the aircraft.

“We are partnering with the industry in all these things,” he said.

The day-long event covered presentations, display and demonstrations of niche technologies under development by academia and industry, who together discussed ways to exploit the indigenisation opportunities in the Indian Air Force.

The symposium included presentations from IITs, DRDO labs and industry, which were complemented by a display of a number of successful projects of indigenisation.

A special session for MSMEs was conducted by PHD Chamber of Commerce towards their envisaged role in indigenisation and opportunities.

The symposium concluded with a speech from Air Commodore Sanjiv Ghuratia, Air Officer Commanding, 3 Base Repair Depot who covered the active role of the Depot in indigenisation and self-reliance.