DRDO Chairman Samir V Kamat addressing the CAPSS–IMR Joint Seminar, in New Delhi | Photo Credit: ANI

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman Samir V Kamat on Tuesday sought a sharp reduction of the development cycle for critical material from the existing 10 to 15 years to ‘keep pace’ with ‘continuously shrinking’ system development timelines and enhance the country’s technological capabilities.

“Materials are key enablers, whether for systems, weapons, or sensors. If you want capabilities beyond what you currently possess, you must develop materials that can provide that capability,” the DRDO chairman said at the CAPS-IMR Joint Seminar hosted at Subroto Park here.

Big challenge

According to Kamat, the biggest challenge today is that the material development cycle is 10 to 15 years. If you see, the system development cycle is continuously shrinking. “Today, new systems arrive every five years and in areas like drones, things change every couple of years or every year.” So, unless the material development cycle keeps pace with the system development cycle, “getting any new material in is becoming a greater and greater challenge,” the DRDO chief added.

Underlining various challenges the material development sector faces, from investment to scalability, Kamat suggested getting self-reliant in this sector.

“You are not going to get it. They will give you the technology only after they have used it in their systems. And, when they move to the next generation technologies, they give you the various components of technology needed for making your systems,” Kamat said.

“So if you have any ambition of becoming atmanirbhar and a technology leader, this is one area – not the only area, but one area – that the country needs to focus on,” he asserted.

Kamat said the materials community has attempted to shorten the materials development cycle, using integrated computational materials engineering and AI/ML (artificial intelligence/machine learning) tools to shorten it. “I am very hopeful that in the next five to ten years, the materials community will also be able to shrink the material cycle,” he said.

The next challenge would be manufacturing, which is converting materials into needed products.

He also called for investment in extraction technologies for exploiting the presence of rare earth resources available in the country.

“See, today we have magnet technology, but we don’t have the rare earth metals,” he emphasised. China controls 90 per cent of the rare earth metals. And for the heavy rare earths needed in neodymium, iron, and boron magnets, China has 99 per cent dominance, the DRDO chief added.

Air Marshal Umesh Yalla, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Maintenance Command of the Indian Air Force, was on the same page with the DRDO chief on becoming aatmanirbhar in advanced materials research in military aerospace manufacturing to get rid of dependence on foreign original equipment manufacturers to enhance the country’s strategic autonomy.

“The military aerospace manufacturing industry has largely grown around licensed manufacturing of mainly airframe structures built to foreign OEM designs. Engines, aggregates, accessories, and avionics are usually supplied as a kit. Whenever these are allowed to be built within India, tight control over critical parts technology, processes and raw materials is ensured by the foreign OEM. In essence, we continue depending on the foreign OEMs,” he said.

Published on April 7, 2026