'Terror attacks have led to demand for new technology'

Recent terror attacks in the country have led to the demand for new technology, different to what used in conventional warfare, a top defence official said.

Recent terror attacks in the country have led to the demand for new technology, different to what used in conventional warfare, a top defence official said on Thursday.

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"The means of fighting a war have undergone changes through the ages and modern threat categories include weapons of mass destruction, missiles, battlefield threats like aircraft, submarines, surface ships, electronic, information and cyber warfare, space control and security," Vijaya Kumar Saraswat, scientific advisor to Defence Minister AK Antony, said in his convocation address at Bharathiar University in Coimbatore.

Saraswat, also the Director General of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), said the global threat to India has to be analysed with respect to the country's nuclear doctrine - no first use and no use against non-nuclear states.

As part of the mandate of technology development for national security, DRDO has already developed strategic missiles like Agni, Prithvi and tactical missiles like Akash, Nag, Astra and many electronic warfare systems. "Phased array radars have also been developed and inducted," he said.

With the advent of nano and biotechnology, the size of the systems was getting smaller, performance getting enhanced and the cost has been coming down, he said.

According to him, major threats to space security were increasing orbital debris, increasing crowding in key orbits and potential use of space weapons that threaten the space environment.