New Delhi, Aug 28 (IANS): India's aspiration of becoming a regional powerhouse cannot rely on borrowed strength, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Bipin Rawat, said on Friday.

Addressing the 5th IETE Innovators-Industry meet, Rawat said that India's wars have to be won with Indian solutions, asserting that indigenisation is only the way forward.

"To win future wars, India cannot be import-dependent," Rawat said.

The CDS said that air defence capabilities of the armed forces are at the cusp of modernisation with the acquisition of ballistic missile defence system, Akash weapon system, Rafale fighter aircraft, S-400 missile system and progressive replacement of the legacy air defence systems within the inventory.

He reiterated that India will be able to use its budgetary allocations in a better way if it develops its systems indigenously.

Talking about cyber warfare, Rawat said the pervasiveness of information and pace of technological change is transforming the very character of warfare and providing innovative ways to execute new forms of warfare, especially in the non-contact domain.

Two days ago at a seminar in Delhi, Rawat had talked about the prevailing situation in Afghanistan.

He had said that everything that has happened in Afghanistan was anticipated and only the timeline had changed.

Rawat had said that from the Indian perspective, "we were anticipating that Taliban will take over Afghanistan".

"We were concerned about how the terrorist activities from Afghanistan could spill over to India... Our contingency planning has been ongoing and we are prepared for that. The timeline has certainly surprised us," Rawat had said.