Army Pushes For Indigenous Defence Tech
The sessions covered autonomous operations, cyber-physical resilience, counter-drone capabilities and strengthening domestic supply chains.
Hyderabad: Senior Army officers, scientists and industry experts called for stronger indigenous defence capability during discussions at the Military College of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering (MCEME) in Secunderabad. The two-day programme, held on February 27–28 under the aegis of the Army Training Command, examined how robotics, autonomous drone systems and additive manufacturing are reshaping future warfare.
Lt Gen. Neeraj Varshney, Commandant of MCEME and Colonel Commandant of the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, said warfare was becoming “multi-domain and increasingly non-kinetic,” where speed, precision and technological integration would determine outcomes. Lt Gen. Rajiv Kumar Sahni, Director-General of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers, stressed that future preparedness would depend on multi-sensor data fusion, cyber resilience and interoperability, aligned with indigenous development under national manufacturing priorities.
Four themes were discussed: robotics and autonomous systems, core technology layers enabling autonomy, defence and industrial readiness, and additive manufacturing for military applications.
Speakers included Air Chief Marshal V.R. Chaudhari, Lt Gen. Ajay Kumar, Prof. P. Rajalakshmi of IIT Hyderabad, DrSpandan Roy of IIIT Hyderabad, and representatives from Bharat Electronics Limited and private defence firms. The sessions covered autonomous operations, cyber-physical resilience, counter-drone capabilities and strengthening domestic supply chains. The focus remained on building home-grown technological capability to support future battle-ready systems for the Armed Forces.