New Delhi, Sept. 30 -- Deputy Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Awadhesh Kumar Bharti called for indigenisation in the defence sector to win future wars and flagged concern over "painfully slow" progress towards operationalisation.

Addressing the Aero Tech India 2025 event in the national capital on Tuesday, Air Marshal Bharti said that India requires "leapfrogging" to attain strategic autonomy in critical technologies.

He said, "To win future wars, there is no doubt that indigenisation is the way ahead. Our global partners may not always be able to share niche and critical technology with us. What we need is leapfrogging, which largely will have to be done on our own."

"We need to attain strategic autonomy in critical technologies from s...