Indigenisation should be the focus: IAF chief

Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari on Tuesday said no country can be “truly sovereign” without being self-reliant and underlined the need for India to sharpen its focus on defence research and development to manufacture weapons and systems locally rather than relying on “minor indigenisation” of foreign products.

The IAF chief also said future warfare could involve attack on all fronts ranging from economic strangulation to diplomatic isolation and the military standoffs to information blackouts in the form of attacks by “distributed denial of services.”

“All this will happen well before the first bullet is fired or the first aircraft goes across the border,” Air Chief Marshal Chaudhari said, while delivering a talk on “The Future of Air Warfare: Securing the Skies and Beyond.”