DRDO, PSU and Private Defence Sector News

pmaitra

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VEM technologies 2.75-inch guided imaging rocket for surface to surface use (a model of the mobile launcher with raised optronic mast is visible in the picture)

and maybe air to surface use later on

View attachment 21650

pras*un seng*upta mentions it as a laser guided rocket which i disagree because the picture clearly mentions guided imaging rocket

and he says it is a air to surface rocket which i also disagree since a model of the mobile launcher gives away its intended use as of now, later on maybe it will have air to ground variant.
What is a Guided Imaging Rocket?

It is good the private company VEM technologies developing missiles for the first time. I hope indian army will induct these missiles in mass numbers.
Is it Private company in reality or just a dummy company opened by RSS or RAW to bypass cumbersome government procedures to hire talent? I can't believe that DRDO takes 3-4 years to develop MPATGM even after development of NAG while this company pops out of nowhere and gets everything done so quickly.

They must have got ToT from DRDO which they used to develop this.
They have been in business since 1988 and have a technology tie-up with Lockheed-Martin.

Unfortunately, the website does not show up on the first page of Google: http://vemtechnologies.com/

I don't know what they developed. I did not see any list of patents, publications, or research grants from this company. They probably received ToT from somewhere.

____________

P.S.: Rather post a link than say "Google it," "Go to YouTube" etc..
 

Chinmoy

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Would that be the same thing as FLIR?
Well............. FLIR is thermal imaging, whereas IIR is infrared imaging. In layman term both are same as both does use heat for seeking. But in technical term, there is some difference in both.
 

pmaitra

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Well............. FLIR is thermal imaging, whereas IIR is infrared imaging. In layman term both are same as both does use heat for seeking. But in technical term, there is some difference in both.
What are the differences in technical terms?
 

Vorschlaghammer

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I'm no expert, but my understanding is that "FLIR" is kind of a general term, referring to early generation airborne thermal sensors that only looked forward, as opposed to side "scanning" or "tracking" sensors, that took pictures while moving and combined the pictures to make a 2D map. Modern gimbal mounted thermal sensors can do both I believe. Anyway the typical military aircraft mounted "FLIR" pod like Thales Damocles are technically thermal sensors.

For the sensors themselves, a more appropriate differentiation would be which spectrum they operate in. military grade sensors use medium wave or long wave far infrared while cheaper consumer grade sensors use near infrared. Near infrared detection is easy since regular glass optics and silicon ccd can be used, but far infrared is opaque to glass optics, and silicon based ccds won't work. Far infrared sensors need to use more exotic mirrors, refractors and sensors, some sensors even need cooling to get better/acceptable contrast between target objects and the background when the difference in their radiated thermal energy is small. (I assume why uncooled Nag failed in the desert where sand and tank steel emissivity are close in 50 degree ambient temp)

I guess it could be said that military grade "FLIR" sensors are actually "thermal". IIR I think is more about how the radiated energy is seen. Modern heat seeking missiles use a focal plane sensor array to create an actual "image" as we understand, where previously they used scanning reticles to plot points on a 2d plane.

But I'm not really sure about these, and would like to know more definitive answers.
 
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Vorschlaghammer

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Less advanced "Night Vision" devices either amplify ambient visible light like the faint star light at night,(these will burn out if used in daytime) and/or see near infrared radiation emitted by the target passively, or reflected from an active source.(1960s-70s soviet Tanks used this) "Thermography" is combining advanced(and expensive) medium-long wave infrared sensors with signal processing to brighten or colour the target image according to the different amount of IR radiation detected from different parts. More radiation would mean hotter, hence brighter or more red colour on the display screen.
 
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Chinmoy

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What are the differences in technical terms?
Although @Vorschlaghammer had already mentioned a overall view, let me keep it simple.

IIR means Imaging Infra Red. Now the names implies what it does. It does target the invisible Infra Red wavelength of spectrum.
FLIR or Forward Looking Infra Red does act on the whole spectrum of Thermal energy. It could be be from ultraviolet to Infra Red including the in between visible spectrum.
 

Vorschlaghammer

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Seekers of Precision Guided Munition, which are visible or infrared light based, and are self-sufficient, or fire-and-forget, have 2 main sub systems. First is detection of the incident light coming from the target area then processing the generated signal to recognize the target and establish a "track". IIR seeker systems use a 2d array of infrared detector elements in a certain size (eg. 640x480) at the front for detection. This is like our eye, with multiple photosensors and a lens in front to focus the incident light. Also called focal plane array or staring array.


After this, there are image processing electronics to make out the target object from the "viewed" image. Since this is an actual image like our eyes see, the electronics has to do relatively more complex signal processing like our brain does to correctly determine the target object, but it's much harder to fool this kind of seeker since the tracking algorithm can clearly "see" the difference between the outline of a Fighter and a point source like a flare.


Older seekers use a single detector and some sort of scanning system to sequentially look at different parts of the view. These could be linear scanning, or circular spinning scanning. Other enhancements like drawing rosette patterns or optics with extra mirrors and prisms can be added to widen the field of view or make the tracking more spoof resistant etc.

The tracking electronics are easier with these, and can use simpler logic switches. They generally determine a point in the fov, which is most likely the target, but the downside is these tracking algorithms are easier to spoof with flares, although the effectiveness of the spoofing varies depending on what enhancements are used.

In the cutting edge of technology for imaging systems, be it fixed LORROS, or portable, handheld and head mounted devices, or airborne pods, the trend seems to be focusing on combining multi-spectral signals into a single augmented visible image, which is presented to the user. Electronics has enabled techniques like compressive sensing which can produce a full multi pixel image from a single detector. Material science plays a big role, sensors made out of exotic substances like strained superlattice gallium arsenide promises to bring down cost, power consumption and cooling needs while increasing sensitivity. The research and engineering activities in this field are very much active and newer more effective techniques and "things" come out very often.
 
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Chinmoy

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Ok... One in eastern sea board, another in western.
But interestingly, NOTAM has been issued for around 200+ km for MR-SAM test.
 

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