New Delhi |Calling 'Aatmanirbharta' (self-reliance) a "strategic necessity", Navy chief Admiral Krishna Swaminathan on Tuesday said that there is a need to build a navy that can fight, sustain and adapt without being constrained by extraneous factors or external dependencies.
In his address at the Delhi Defence Dialogue, hosted here by a think tank, the Navy chief emphasised that Aatmanirbharta doesn't mean isolation, and pushed for collaborating with friendly foreign countries "from a position of strength, and not from a position of weakness".
The Navy chief said growing political tensions globally have inflamed "old, historical fault lines, and today one can see the use of force as an acceptable instrument of national policy, or rather a preferred instrument".
Underlining the impact a conflict can have on supply chains and warfighting capabilities, Admiral Swaminathan pitched for building a navy of the 21st century that can "fight, sustain and adapt by itself without being constrained by any extraneous factors or any other person or agency… or external dependencies".
He cited the factors at work in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine to emphasise his point.
Pointing to the rise of non-state actors without naming anyone, he also said that democratisation of technology has happened, and technology is available to both "good boys" and "bad boys".
The Navy chief also said there was a need to fill "critical gaps" and invest more in research and development (R&D), as well as in niche and emerging technologies.
"Also, the innovation-to-operational-capabilities transition needs to take place in a reasonable time," he adde
