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India 2014
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d e f e n c e n d i p l o m a c y n S EC U R I T Y SATURDAY, february 8, 2014
hc tiwari
DRDO Chief Avinash Chander lists out the successful culmination of DPSU projects that the year will be a witness to in his first Defexpo press conference
2014: Year of displaying
military prowess
T
he year 2014 is going to be historic for the Indian military in more senses than one as it will witness the induction of the Agni-4 IRBM, final operational clearance for the HAL Tejas Mk-1, trials of the K-15/B-05 SLBM from the INS Arihant, handing over of two AEW&C platforms to the Indian Air Force (IAF), induction of heavyweight torpedo Varunastra onto frontline Indian Navy(IN) ships, production of 60 km range Pinaka-II rockets and the initiation of new signals equipment by the military. The ongoing development programmes, according to Avinash Chander, Director General DRDO, will see the first canisterised trial of the Agni-V, launch of the Astra BVRAAM from a SU-30, further technical trials of the Nirbhay GLCM and flight tests of the RustomII MALE UAV. Interacting with the media on the second day of the Defexpo, Chander, who is also the
Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, enumerated successes of the recent past and was candid is his answers to questions on India’s cyber security set-up. Overall, the tenor of the press conference suggested a renewed emphasis on public-private partnerships and upgradation of domestic industrial capabilities through technology partnership with DRDO. Chander and his colleagues also apprised the audience about the growth of seeker technology in India saying that India was self-sufficient in imaging infrared seeker technology and had launched indigenous production of laser seeker heads for munitions. Furthermore, an indigenous detector fabrication facility and larger seeker test facilities were also under consideration. A test of an exo-atmospheric missile interceptor with indigenous dual mode seekers has been slated for next month. On the production side of things, output from a domestic titanium sponge facility has commenced, while
Agenda for 2014 Induction of the Agni-4 IRBM Final operational clearance for HAL Tejas Mk-1 Trials of the K-15/B-05 SLBM Handing over of two AEW&C platforms to the IAF Induction of heavyweight torpedo Varunastra Production of 60 km range Pinaka-II rockets First canisterized trial of the Agni-V Launch of the Astra BVRAAM from a SU-30 Further technical trials of the Nirbhay GLCM Flight tests of the Rustom-II MALE UAV
DRDO’s RCI lab has produced an indigenous system on chip. Moreover, indigenous gunsights built with DRDO technology for mechanised forces are also being progressively inducted. DRDOdeveloped thermal imagers are even replacing image intensifier tubes in the Commander’s sight on legacy MBTs. Fielding questions on delayed programmes such as the India-Israel LRSAM project for the India Navy, Chander stated that all supporting hardware and software for the missile were already integrated with the first destroyer of the Kolkata class and flight trials from the same would begin in mid-2014. Commenting on the yet-to-succeed indigenous foliage penetrating radar (FOPEN) effort, Chander said that though they were open to foreign collaboration in this area, no FOPEN available anywhere was found to be ‘effective in penetrating Indian rainforests’. In the critical area of network security, Chander admitted that ‘true cyber security can
More News on page: 3 & 4 only be realised by optimising India’s basic policy of acquisition’. He mentioned the development of indigenous routers and bulk encrypters in this context. Emphasising the need for DRDO-Industry partnership on processors, an indigenous operating system and other analysis tools, Chander stated that while the DRDO could throw a ‘cupola’ around platforms during early stages of integration a much wider synergised effort in this domain was essential. Replying to a question on the implementation of the Rama Rao Committee report, Chander stated that three out of its five key suggestions with relevance to DRDO were already being implemented with respect to restructuring DRDO’s vertical clusters, new HR policies and the creation of a future technology management group. Saurav Jha