(This was originally posted in The Hindu)
The country will need a large requirement of speciality materials as advancements in missiles progresses and high-performance high temperature materials will be necessary as the speed of the missiles increase from supersonic to hypersonic, said Director-General, Missiles and Strategic Systems, DRDO BHVS Narayana Murthy on Monday. He emphasized the importance of strategic materials stating that they form the basis for any missile programme and hence, its timely availability will help complete projects within the scheduled time. He was participating in a panel discussion on ‘Building Resilience Together – Strategic Materials’ organised by MIDHANI (Misra Dhatu Nigam Limited).
Mr. Murthy said there has been significant improvement in material supply from indigenous sources like MIDHANI and there is need to extend all the support that is needed. The panel discussion was moderated by Project Director at Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex, DRDO, Jaiteerth Raghavendra Joshi, DRDL Director Dasarath Ram, BDL Chairman and Managing Director Siddharth Mishra and other senior officials. MIDHANI CMD Sanjay Kumar Jha elaborated about the strategic materials in the country and the necessity for right infrastructure and testing facilities to be augmented to meet the future growing demand of strategic materials like ferrous, non-ferrous metals and alloys, composites, and additive manufacturing, a press release said.
The discussions put forward several ideas and strategies that need to be adopted to bring about resiliency of supply chains, strengthening and supporting indigenisation of materials thereby reducing the dependence on ‘certain nations’ or ‘over reliance’ on a single nation, supplier, etc. Mitigation strategies were put forward such as identifying alternative sources for these raw materials, entering strategic partnerships with suppliers, long term contracts, stock piling, etc were discussed. It was decided that each of the organisations should be proactive and address these risks at the earliest to build a robust resilient material supply chain for the Indian missile program.
