India ready for any challenge, only strong respected: Defence minister

Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said that India is a peace-loving country but is ready to face any challenge and the nation’s scientific community is producing the finest defence technology in this endeavour.

Addressing staff at the Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratory (TBRL) in Panchkula after inaugurating an augmented environmental test facility, Rajnath Singh said, “It is against our values to start a conflict. But if need be, our country is ready to face any challenge. Only the strong are respected.”

Chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat, who accompanied the defence minister, said, “We have challenges at our borders and to meet them, we need technology. Our adversaries are using technology in warfare. We also need to do so.”

Besides General Rawat, Dr G Satheesh Reddy, the secretary in the Department of Defence R&D and chairman, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO); Air Marshal Sandeep Singh, the vice-chief of air staff; Dr BHVS Narayana Murthy, director general, missile and strategic system; and Dr Tessy Thomas, director general, Aero, also accompanied the defence minister.

Milestone to make India self-reliant

Rajnath Singh recalled that in August 2021, he had handed over the indigenously developed and produced multi-mode hand grenade to the Indian Army. This grenade, designed and developed by TBRL, was the first munition that was produced by a private industry, a transfer of technology (TOT) holder of DRDO and inducted into the Indian armed forces.

“The safety and performance parameters of this grenade make it truly world class and it has achieved the functional reliability of more than 99.5% in production. This is a clear demonstration of capabilities of our scientists and the production agency,” Singh said.

He appreciated the role TBRL and DRDO for this achievement and mentioned that it is an important milestone to make India self-reliant in defence production. He also indicated that indigenous systems would keep getting inducted regularly. “Moreover, the active participation of industry, specifically the private sector, in manufacturing these products with DRDO technologies is the strength, both military and economic, that would make our country aatmanirbhar (self-reliant),” said Singh.

TBRL one-stop solution for trials

He said that the test facilities at TBRL are being extended to Indian industries, R&D institutions and academia to support the Make in India initiative. He stressed that the TBRL can provide one-stop solution for static and dynamic trials of all munitions and warheads in addition to its core capability of design and development of warheads, munitions and its sub-systems.

On this occasion, transfer of technology for the TBRL developed warhead for MPATGM Mk-II was handed over to Economic Explosive Ltd, Nagpur.