Varunastra ship launched torpedo

H.A.

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VISAKHAPATNAM: Varunastra, India's yet another powerful underwater weapon, is all set for the test trials. Developed by the Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), Visakhapatnam with indigenous technology, Varunastra will be tested by the Indian Navy shortly. With this, India is likely to be a part of the select group of nations to operate an underwater weapon with such technology.

Weighing around 1.25 tonne, the underwater weapon carries about 250 kg of explosives at a speed of 38 nautical miles per hour. With a circular trajectory, which makes it difficult for the enemy to target it, Varunastra smashes the target (underwater) from both top and bottom. Equipped with the most advanced automatic and remote-controlled guidance system, the weapon uses its own intelligence in tracing the target.

"With its self-intelligence, Varunastra detects enemy object and informs the control room. It is a clever underwater spy, which when inducted by the Indian Navy will have India joining the group of countries possessing a weapon with such advanced technology," a senior NSTL scientist told Express. The NSTL has earlier developed autonomous underwater vehicles - TAL (light water torpedo), and Takshak (heavy weight torpedo). Varunastra carries the Takshak.

Varunastra's technology and chemistry are completely indigenous, developed by a group of scientists specially deputed for the project.Meanwhile, the NSTL is also working on updating the TAL by the end of 2014.

Recently, the Union government has announced the prestigious DRDO AGNI-2011 award to the Project Varunastra team of NSTL for its excellence in self-reliance.

Varunastra ready for trials | Varunastra | NSTL | The New Indian Express
 

agentperry

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what is varunastra exactly? is it an expendable torpedo carrier taking a circular trajectory to reach a location to fire the weapon ie torpedo?
 

bhramos

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what is varunastra exactly? is it an expendable torpedo carrier taking a circular trajectory to reach a location to fire the weapon ie torpedo?
as given of this Heavy Torpedo was never reaching its range... some friends from DRDO said it was becoming too slow before reaching its target..
 

Bhadra

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I love the names they give :happy:
Somewhat wrong name it seems. Varun is the God of water (Sea) and his ashtra (Varunashtra) is Paash, a rope which ties down one. Something akin to stangulate.

How does this Varunashtra strangulates its target and makes it immobile? It just another torpedo?
 

nrj

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Varunastra is supposed to have capability of assuming any shape, just like water. Not sure why this name was chosen ?

Maybe its a torpedo which can be scaled to fit in any of our future subs? Meaning they've finalizing specs of P75A ? :notsure:
 

H.A.

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Which stall was varunastra located in, how could i miss it?

@Utube be quicker man..:p
 
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nitesh

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Is it a torpedo or a torpedo launcher?
 

Sridhar

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nitesh

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Thanks:

I guess this is also a good read, good description of the work done for underwater arms

Underwater might

The NSTL has developed both light-water torpedoes (LWTs), named TAL, and heavy-weight torpedoes (HWTs), named Takshak and Varunastra. Takshak has two versions, a submarine-launched variant with wire guidance and a ship-launched one with autonomous guidance. Varunastra is an advanced version of the ship-launched HWT. Under development is a torpedo called Shakti with thermal propulsion, which can generate 500 kilowatt of power and rev up the engine within a second. "Thermal propulsion is a challenging technology," said Rangarajan. "It is a totally indigenous effort. We have already consolidated several technologies in its development. Only the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia had torpedoes with thermal propulsion when we took up the challenge."
Varunastra, which is ready for trials by the Navy, weighs more than one tonne and contains 250 kg of explosives. It travels at a speed of 40 knots an hour, going in circles and bobbing up and down to attack targets. K. Sudhakar, Principal Associate Director, NSTL, called the torpedo's homing device, located in its front portion, "its eyes and ears" as it detects and tracks the target. Its guidance system enables it to take the optimum path towards the target, and its onboard computer guides its rudder's navigation towards the target. The warhead has a proximity fuse, with the blast occurring about 8 m from the target. "The torpedo should have its own intelligence to reject the decoy and go towards the target," Sudhakar said. Besides, torpedoes should be water-tight. "Development of a torpedo takes 10 to 15 years. It has to go through several sea trials. We started out in this field 25 years ago. No torpedo technology is available in the open market," he added.
 

Apollyon

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VISAKHAPATNAM:

Equipped with the most advanced automatic and remote-controlled guidance system, the weapon uses its own intelligence in tracing the target.
:notbad:
So it detects the Target and send the info to Control room to decide whether the target is hostile or not

"With its self-intelligence, Varunastra detects enemy object (1) and informs the control room. It is a clever underwater spy (2) Varunastra carries the Takshak (3) (heavy weight torpedo).
So Varunastra is a Underwater Loitering Device ..which has its Own Sonar (1) and intelligent on board target detection and identification systems (2) and has a bay to carry a Heavy Torpedo or it is itself a bay (3) .... (can be broadly related to GPS guided kits for Dumb Bombs) .... :confused:
 

Godless-Kafir

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Some how the Russians seem to be able to pronounce such names as Vikramaditya with ease, compared to English who deliberately screw it up.
 

Pokemon

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as given of this Heavy Torpedo was never reaching its range... some friends from DRDO said it was becoming too slow before reaching its target..
Its speed is way less than Type-53 torpedo which we currently use in our kilo and akula class subs.
 

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