Coimbatore could look at manufacturing small arms: Army

COIMBATORE: Engines that can withstand low temperatures and run on different fuel with better insulation are among the priorities of the Indian Army, said the vice-chief of the Indian Army staff, Lt Gen

Sarath Chand

. He pointed out that Coimbatore could look at manufacturing small arms and ammunition for them.

Speaking at a seminar on ‘Solution to problem statements, Make in India to Made in India, and to win India’s wars with Indian solutions’ here on Friday, Lt Gen Sarath Chand said, “We keep talking about fighting the western and northern borders. While people and media hype that we should be worried about the western border, it is the northern border that is tough to fight.” He added, “We need vehicles with engines that can operate at cold temperatures. The terrain is different too.”

Sarath Chand said we wanted to teach Pakistan a lesson when the

Parliament

was attacked. “And when started moving troops, we had to halt mid-way because we felt we did not have the enough arms and ammunition.” He added, “Even during the Kargil War we went scouting across the globe for arms and ammunition.”

The vice-chief of the army staff urged the industrialists of the city to take up manufacturing of small arms and ammunition. “The total count of defence, paramilitary and police personnel across the country are about 2.5million. The requirement of small arms will be about 2 million arms for the next 15 years and about 4million rounds of the ammunition,” he said.

Major General A K Channan from the

Army Design Bureau

said that the Indian Army during the seminar has received about 40 solutions for the problem statements presented by the Indian Army. “These 40 solutions address 17 problems. This will give us variety and choice enabling us to pick the best and cost-effective solution,” said Channan.

The mentor of the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers’, Lt Gen Subrata Saha (Retd), said

Amrita University

, the venue for the seminar, has the potential to be made as centre of excellence of defence research. He raised concern about how research work is not entering the procurement chain. “Unless research does not translate into manufacturing, the idea of Make in India will go into vain. We will then have to look back to foreigners for procuring arms and ammunition,” he said.