Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister and former DRDO chief G Satheesh Reddy said India has become self-sufficient in missile technology with wide range of missiles in its arsenal and that global restriction regimes “helped” it achieve this self-reliance.
Reddy said that the country has today developed a range of missiles that any country would like to have. In a podcast, the former DRDO chief said, “Indian missile programme has gone a long way and a number of missile systems have been developed. Varieties of missiles have been developed. Surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles and air-to-air missiles, anti-tank missiles, and many other varieties of missiles which have been developed io the country.
The country has gained a lot of knowledge and has become, I say that, self-sufficient and self-reliant in missile technology today by developing all these varieties of missiles. Range of missiles that any nation would like to have based on their necessities, the country has developed all these.”
When asked about the obstacles the R&D organisation faced following the sanctions placed on India in the 1980s to curtail India’s missile programme, Dr. Reddy provided specifics on how the DRDO had combated the sanctions and stated that it undertook the development of components for missile technologies as one of its missions.
“When the country started the missile programme, when we tested Prithvi, and Agni and conducted tests in Pokhran and other tests, there were restrictions put on this country. Various components and critical systems, sub-systems for which we have been dependent on foreign nations, had become very restricted. But I think that has helped the country. You had to develop yourself and so that was taken as a mission to develop all these critical systems and components that are required in these missile technologies. They all have been developed in a period of time indigenously,” he said.