Will fight and win next war with indigenous weapons: Army Chief Bipin Rawat

New Delhi: Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat on Tuesday pitched for greater inclusion of indigenous technology in the armed forces and asserted that India will fight and win the next war with home-grown solutions.

In his address at the 41st DRDO Directors Conference, the Army Chief said the development of weaponry and other systems should be done keeping "future warfare" in mind.

"And, if we are looking at the contours of future warfare, it may not necessarily be contact warfare. So, there is realm of non-contact warfare.

We need to start looking at development of cyberspace, space, laser, electronic warfare and robotics... and, along with that Artificial Intelligence (AI)," Rawat said.

He praised the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for its achievements in the last few decades and said India is making great strides in research and development. "We are confident the services will greatly benefit from it," he said.

"India is one of the largest importers of weapons and ammunition, and after 70 years of Independence, it is not a very proud statement to make.

But in the past few years, it is changing. DRDO is striving to ensure our requirements of services are met with home-grown solutions," Rawat said. "We are confident that we will fight and win the next war with indigenous weapon system," the Army chief said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was the guest of honour at the inaugural session of the two-day event held at the DRDO Bhawan here.

He earlier paid tribute to former President APJ Kalam by garlanding his bust at the DRDO premises as the event coincided with the 88th birth anniversary of the distinguished scientist.