Self-reliance and jointness must for future-ready force: Rajnath; moving with speed & consensus for theaterisation: CDS

NEW DELHI: Exhorting defence scientists to accelerate R&D work, defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday said the “battlefield of tomorrow will reward those who can shorten the time between an idea, a prototype and operational deployment”.

Addressing defence strategic dialogue Kalam & Kavach 3.0 in a video message here, Rajnath said, “A nation’s strength will increasingly depend on how quickly its defence forces, labs, and industries think & act as one”, underscoring the importance of self-reliance and jointness to secure strategic autonomy & remain future-ready for emerging security challenges.

“National security demands our preparedness, resilience, innovation, and strategic confidence,” he said.

Rajnath described self-reliance as not only an economic goal, but also a strategic necessity, asserting that a nation that depends excessively on others for critical defence capability remains vulnerable in times of crisis.

In the presence of Italian and Armenian envoys at the event, MoS defence Sanjay Seth told foreign delegates that India firmly believes that global security and progress are strengthened through cooperation, trust and shared innovation. He said India’s defence exports, which were a meagre Rs 686 crore a decade ago, have skyrocketed to a record high of Rs 38,424 crore today. He said annual defence production has touched an all-time high of Rs 1.54 lakh crore in financial year 2025-26 and reaffirmed the govt’s resolve to achieve the target of Rs 50,000 crore of defence exports and Rs 3 lakh crore of defence production by 2029-30.

Talking about Operation Sindoor at a special session at the event, CDS Gen Anil Chauhan said the Indian armed forces “dominated the escalation matrix on all four days” of the conflict.

On 'JAI' (jointness, atmanirbharta and innovation) triad, the CDS said that as far as the planned theaterisation is concerned, efforts have been made in this direction with enhanced “scale and speed” as India is lagging behind other countries by 10-15 years, which have already implemented such structures. “These joint structures, which we are trying to create, would be one of the most transformative reforms that India would be undertaking... Our model was slightly different. Some people had to introduce legislation, it was a top-down kind of approach. I tried to work through consensus. Consensus was taking everyone along,” he said.