India must develop missiles to maintain credible deterrence: Rajnath Singh

New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday said here that India must immediately move towards developing the missiles to maintain minimum credible deterrence against its enemies.

His sense of urgency came against the backdrop of several advanced nations including the US taken by surprise by China taking the lead in successfully testing the hypersonic technology.  However, it claimed it was a routine spacecraft test used to test the reusable spacecraft technology.

Taking note of this development by the eastern neighbor with whom a stand-off is on for the last one and half years in Ladakh, Rajnath said the countries that have done defence innovation are the ones who have bested their enemies and made their mark on history, he said.

“We should, therefore, strengthen ourselves and be ready to deal with any kind of situation,” he said in his speech at an event of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) here.

The Minister said it should be ensured that India is a leader when it comes to defence technologies. “We have to obtain those technologies too that are with just a few countries right now,” the Minister noted.

Ballistic missile defence systems are getting



more and more robust with the passage of time, Rajnath said.

“In order to maintain a minimum credible deterrence, we have to immediately think about hypersonic cruise missile development. It will be a revolutionary step in our defence sector and we all have to put our efforts into it,” he said.

The various weapon platforms designed and developed by the DRDO and handed over to the armed forces have bolstered the security architecture of India, he said.

The Minister said the crucial role played by ever changing technology has added a new dimension to the modern battlefield and termed it as amazing and unprecedented. In such a time, defence technologies with India will have to catch up with the future, he said. Rajnath said he wanted to assure the people of the country that the modernisation and the integration of the armed forces will continue as usual.

“The integration and modernisation is not just happening by the efforts of the government. This is also happening because of the meeting of minds of our armed forces,” he said.

The Government has already taken various measures to boost self-reliance in defence sector, Rajnath said.