He said that to fasten procurement procedures, the government had come up with the Defence Procurement Procedure and if required, further changes can also be made.
He said that the allocation of funds for the modernisation of defence forces was not a problem. "The government is earmarking huge budgets for the defence forces but it is not fully reflected in our modernisation efforts," the defence minister said.
He said that the forces should timely and judiciously utilise the money allocated to them. Without mentioning the frequent complaints of the Defence Research and Development Organisation against the services for making last minute changes in their specifications and requirements during trials of its equipment and systems, Antony said, "End-users (armed forces) must also ensure that the requirements and specifications are not changed frequently."
Antony said that the principles of joint-ness and integration should be implemented in letter and spirit by the armed forces. He said that the country should move to indigenise its requirements as armed forces cannot always depend on foreign sources for their needs.
He also called for a closer synergy between the armed forces and the DRDO for enhancing the efforts.
"We also must have a dominant air force to ward off any evil designs emanating from land, sea or air," Antony added.
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