A nation has to become “industrially strong” and full spectrum self-sufficiency is required in defence, especially in the aerospace sector, Deputy Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit said on Friday. Delivering a keynote address at an international conference here, he also said it is being seen that ‘atmanirbharta’ (self-dependence) is becoming more and more important after the “two wars” happening around us in the world.

The conference, titled ‘Energising Indian Aerospace Industry: Challenges for ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat” and hosted at Manekshaw Centre in Delhi Cantonment, is being attended by many other senior officers of the Indian Air Force and representatives of various leading defence industry firms.

“Every nation wants to become self-reliant, ‘atmanirbhar’. And we are seeing that… after these two wars happening around us in the world, it is becoming more and more important,” Air Marshal Dixit said.

His remarks come in the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Israel-Hamas conflict.

He emphasised the need for ‘atmanirbharta’ in the IAF and the challenges that the force faces at present as it forges ahead.

“We have to become industrially strong, full spectrum self-sufficiency is required in defence, especially in the aerospace sector,” the deputy chief of the air staff said. He also shared a historical aspect of manufacturing of IAF aircraft in India in the 1950s and the force’s journey in the realm in the decades that followed. “Today, the situation has become such that if a user doesn’t come forward and drive this whole gamut of ‘atmanirbharta’, I don’t think it is going to be successful,” he added.

Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) and air force think-tank Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS) are also co-organisers of the event.

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