The Indian Army has set up its own Army Design Bureau to facilitate the research and development of arms and ammunition, as part of its efforts to procure weapons and equipment required by it, a top army officer said today.

With the Army having a huge requirement of weapons and equipment, there was the difficulty of using imported weapons, which had to be adapted to Indian conditions, Deputy Chief of Army, Lt. Gen. Subrata Saha said in Coimbatore.

Speaking at the Know your Army Expo, organised by local chapter of CII, Saha said that as part of the Make in India project, the defence sector has taken a major step to manufacture the requirement domestically, which would be cost-effective and suited to the local conditions. To prove his point, he said that the ground sensors, presently imported from other countries, failed to function in areas like Kashmir, during snowfall. Even the bulletproof jackets, weighing 15 kilos each, have to be redesigned to suit the Indian condition.

The Army will soon release its compendium of Problem Definition Document, which will highlight the requirements of the armed forces for the next 10 to 15 years, to help the students, researchers, and industries find solutions for the benefit of Defence sector, he said. A highly interactive website will also be launched on August 31.

Among the requirements of the future are self-propelled guns, rocket launchers, upgraded guided rocket launchers, electronic fuses, and also state-of-the-art tanks.