It is imperative for India to detect and beat malware or snooping virus in software that come with foreign weapons bought by the Indian armed forces, Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) Chief Avinash Chander said.

Flagging spyware threat on imported weapons, Mr. Chander cautioned that India is currently incapable of detecting and checking malware that come integrated with imported weapon systems.

Speaking on the topic, he said, "It is very difficult to assess in an integrated system whether there is malware. Nobody is giving you the source code for all the equipment which is there."

He added that the challenge would continue to bother the country and that it was the duty of the Indian authorities to see what level of assessment could be done.

Mr. Chander was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of Defexpo 2014 on Friday.

The DRDO chief's warning comes amid fears that India is buying military equipments that have some Chinese components that may contain malware for snooping. Military planes supplied by United States to India over the recent years reportedly have some parts manufactured by China.

India is the world's biggest importer of weapon systems. According to estimates by international think-tank SIPRI, Indian imported weapons worth nearly Rs 60,000 crore from foreign countries in the last five years.