Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi has emphasised the importance of domestic industries collaborating on indigenized solutions to enhance maritime air capabilities. He urged the domestic industry to invent, innovate, indigenize, and integrate solutions, viewing industry partnerships and collaborations as crucial for securing a decisive war-fighting advantage.

Admiral Tripathi stressed the strategic necessity of Atmanirbharta in the defence sector, highlighting the potential for innovation and opportunities within a supportive policy environment.

The government is aiming for ₹3 lakh crore in indigenous production and ₹50,000 crore in exports by 2029. Currently, indigenous defence production has crossed ₹1.25 lakh crores, with 20% from the private sector, and defence exports have hit ₹21,000 crore, with 60% contributed by the private sector.

Naval aviation is undergoing a transformative leap, with the air domain at sea now a multidimensional battle space that includes both kinetic and non-kinetic capabilities. Unmanned and autonomous systems are operating from sea level to the stratosphere.

Admiral Tripathi pointed out the uniqueness of the naval air domain, the need to reduce timeframes for design, development, and deployment, and the importance of integrating each capability into the broader war-fighting ecosystem. He also noted that commercially available systems with off-the-shelf sensors and commercial satellite networks enable even non-state actors to deploy aerial platforms at sea.

According to an earlier report, the Indian Navy has been focused on indigenization, and maintains a list of over 380 items on the ‘Srijan Defence’ portal to be indigenized within three years.

The Navy has also developed "Indigenisation Roadmaps" for equipment/systems onboard ex-import platforms like Aircraft Carrier Vikramaditya, Talwar Class ships, P-75 submarines, and Tankers. The Centre for Indigenisation and Self-Reliance (CISR) has been set up at Coimbatore to accelerate the growth of private domestic manufacturers.

PTI