DRDO, PSU and Private Defence Sector News

[pavanvenkatesh]

I found this report in Indian Express Edition of 28th october

Here's the link http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/...&SEO=A+K+Antony,+MoD&SectionName=pWehHe7IsSU=

THE Ministry of Defence has decided to open up the arms industry in a big way to private Indian companies, which will get directly involved in acquisitions under a new "buy and make Indian" provision.
Earlier, only bids from foreign firms were invited for major acquisitions. These companies would then look for Indian partners for transfer of technology.

Under the Defence Procurement Policy 2009 that comes into effect from November 1, private Indian firms can be directly approached to take part in the multi-billion dollar local defence market. These companies will be free to look for foreign partners. The rationale behind the move is that the Indian companies can do away with production of major technology through expensive and time consuming research and development process.

They can directly enter into a joint venture with a foreign company and start production of weapon systems that could be delivered fast to the ar med forces. In other words, if army wants to buy new tanks, it can place the order with an Indian company instead of a foreign vendor.

The move would reduce over-dependence on the Defence Research and Development Organisation, which has come under criticism for being slow in delivering key weapon systems. DRDO has a vast range of products, from missiles to tanks and medicines. Through the new policy, the attempt is to ensure that defence research remains focused on critical technologies.

For the first time, the MoD's plan of acquisition, production and research and development will be made public. Revealing the highlights of the new policy, Defence Minister A K Antony said that the 15-year Long Term Acquisition Plan of the armed forces would be put on the MoD website and shared with industry associations and chambers so that they knew what armed forces were looking for. However, all the acquisition plans of the MoD will not be posted on the websites.

 

[RPK]

Boeing IDS signs deals with Indian defence PSUs

fullstory

New Delhi, Oct 27 (PTI) US defence major Boeing Integrated Defence Systems has signed agreements with Indian defence public sector companies for supplying equipment to it for being fitted on Indian P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft.

"We have signed agreements with Indian companies such as Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Electronic Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for supplying equipment to us for the Indian P-8Is to be built in the US," Boeing India head Vivek Lall said here.

"They will be supplying indigenous equipment and spares such as transponders and other electronic equipment for the aircraft," he added.

The agreements have been done as part of the offsets commitments in the deal. As per the Defence Procurement Procedure, for any deal worth over Rs 300 crore, the selected vendor has to reinvest a minimum of 30 per cent of the deal's worth in Indian defence industry.

 

[rahulrds1]

DRDO to launch series of missiles

The Hindu.


here is the link: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/10/17/stories/2009101755791100.htm

 

[nitesh]

This mission would validate the DRDO’s new command, control and communication software which was being upgraded to monitor “space-objects such as satellites and to discriminate between actual threatening objects and decoys,” he added.

So here it comes so now the missiles can be fired more accurately as it can distinguish actual warhead with decoys another feather in the cap great going

 

[RPK]

BARC sets up tech incubation centre

fullstory

Mumbai, Nov 2 (PTI) A centre for incubation of technologies is being set up by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, which will work jointly with the Indian industries on some spin-off technologies.

The Centre for incubation of technologies (BARCIT), being set up at the old Training School Complex outside BARC, will have easy access to technologists from the industry to jointly work with BARC scientists, A M Patankar, Head, Technology Transfer and collaboration, said today.

BARCIT will get funding and human resource from the industry while the scientists of BARC will help them in developing lab technologies for community use, he said.

The work on four technology incubation has been initiated in the area of water, biotechnology, scientific and medical equipment and Electron Beam applications, Patankar said.

 

[nitesh]

one more achievement by Bhilai steel Plant:

Bhilai steel plant rolls special steels for space vehicles- Steel-Ind'l Goods / Svs-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

KOLKATA: Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) has for the first time rolled high strength special steels used in construction of space vehicles. While the steel slabs were developed by Mishra Dhatu Nigam (Midhani), a defence ministry arm, these plates of 9.5 mm thickness were rolled for the first time at BSP's Plate Mill recently. The rolled plates are used for manufacturing the main body of India’s indigenous space vehicles.

"These plates find application across the aerospace sector but its commercial use is largely restricted to critical areas of strategic significance," a top source told ET.

These plates are much stronger than mild steel sheets that find application in consumer durables and auto sector, for instance. However, in terms of value, these plates are likely to be many times costlier than hot rolled coils.

Such steels are made out of special alloys and are capable of withstanding metal fatigue which occurs due to tremendous changes in heat and atmospheric pressure on the space craft when it returns to orbit. Steel is widely used in construction of space shuttles along with metals like aluminium, titanium and other high grade materials.

"Bhilai has also been making special grade plates used to manufacture the hull of India’s aircraft carrier warships and submarines," a BSP official said. the plant also manufacturers the widest and thickest plates and also exports it to other countries.

Plates from Bhilai’s Plate Mill are also used for manufacturing boilers , in hydro-electric projects, heavy machinery equipment and as a base for heavy construction including platforms and bridges, including those on the Jammu-Udhampur rail link.

As part of its modernisation programme, BSP has installed a new slab caster and a second set of RH degasser and ladle furnace in the secondary refining facilities of its Steel Melting Shop II.

 

[nitesh]

this was expected:

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/...ID=lifojHIWDUU=&SEO=&SectionName=rSY|6QYp3kQ=

 

[nitesh]

Of men and minds

“TOMORROW’S war will be a war of minds,” says Manas K. Mandal, Director, Defence Institute of Psychological Research (DIPR), New Delhi, a premier institute of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). “So the importance of our laboratory has gone up. The range of activities we do with a small band of people is enormous.” The DIPR, according to its Director, has the largest number of psychologists under one umbrella. Its staff includes 45 psychologists, 30 scientists and six officers belonging to the services. They psychologically fortify soldiers to face low-intensity conflicts, devise tests for the selection of officers of the armed forces, test the aptitude of those aspiring to be sharpshooters or drivers of battle tanks, carry out personality profiling of National Security Guard (NSG) commandos and conduct mass counselling for victims of natural disasters. Mandal himself is a reputed psychologist who was a professor of psychology at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur before taking over as Director of the DIPR in January 2004. A Fulbright Fellow, he was a researcher in cognition and experimental neuropsychology, and a Fulbright lecturer at Harvard University.

The DIPR began in 1943 as an experimental board in Dehradun to select officers for the armed forces. After Independence, when the armed forces were reorganised, a need was felt to establish a dedicated research cell that would look into not only the scientific aspects of officer selection but also the psychological requirements. So in 1949, the experimental board, renamed the Psychological Research Wing, was mandated to devise tests to probe the intelligence and persona of those aspiring to become officers in the services, to follow up on candidates during training, and to assess on-job performance. In 1962, the Psychological Research Wing was redesignated Directorate of Psychological Research (DPR) to carry out research on soldiers’ morale, ideological convictions, job satisfaction, behaviour in high-altitude tests, civil-military relationship, and so on.

In 1982, the DPR was renamed the DIPR. Since then, “it has emerged as a centre of importance in military psychology, dealing with research activities pertaining to personnel selection, placement and trade allocation”, said Mandal. However, what makes the DIPR’s job difficult is that India’s armed forces are man-intensive. “Besides, this job cannot be outsourced,” Mandal noted. Over a period of time, the DIPR has standardised a battery of tests to assess the intelligence and personality of those wanting to become officers and to allocate a trade to them. These tests are validated constantly. The DIPR interacts with the headquarters of the Army, the Navy and the Indian Air Force and with the 15 service selection boards and the Air Force selection boards, providing them with psychological inputs in the selection of officers and personnel.

Arunima Gupta, scientist, DIPR, said, “There is no hire and fire in the armed forces. So the right kind of selection is crucial.”

According to Arunima Gupta, the DIPR assists soldiers to cope with extreme conditions such as the icy winds of high-altitude Siachen, the heat waves of Rajasthan and the confined atmosphere of submarines. It prepares soldiers to face qualitatively different situations in non-conventional warfare. “Psychologically training people to fight at high altitudes and in low-intensity conflict areas is not a joke,” said Mandal.

Low-intensity conflicts pose special challenges to soldiers. “It is not clear who the enemy is. It is not a declared war. The DIPR has to look into all this and how to match the human resources with these situations,” said Arunima Gupta. The main thing in such situations is maintaining the morale of soldiers. “We give psychological inputs to young commanders and soldiers and tell them to be on the lookout for warning signals [of aberrant behaviour] and how to manage a crisis,” she said. They are trained to manage combat-related stress.

K. Ramachandran, Additional Director, DIPR, said the DIPR takes the help of priests in temples attached to Army cantonments or camps to counsel stressed-out soldiers. “We have trained them to play the role of counsellors for soldiers under stress,” he said.

Mass trauma

During times of mass trauma, the DIPR’s experts play a critical role. Mandal said: “When there is a bomb blast, 10 persons may die, but hundreds around are traumatised.” In such situations, groups of DIPR psychologists visit the injured persons or the families of the victims of mass trauma, speak to them, get to know their problems and counsel them. “We take care of their psychological problems while the DRDO’s doctors take care of the victims’ medical problems,” said Ramachandran. Psychologists of the DIPR made repeated visits to Latur in Maharashtra after the earthquake in September 1993, to Orissa after the super cyclone of October 1999 and to Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu after the tsunami in December 2004 and counselled hundreds of traumatised people. For soldiers posted in the icy expanse of Siachen, “our role is to help them adapt quickly”, said Ramachandran. For those who are on the threshold of breaking down, “we provide stress inoculation courses – the mental stubbornness that is needed during their stay in Siachen”.

The DIPR has devised a computerised pilot selection system (CPSS). As a booklet on it points out, a fighter pilot in addition to having flying skills should be a systems manager. The CPSS evaluates qualities such as psychomotor and information-processing skills and the candidates’ ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. It entails 12 tests to assess psychomotor skills and nine cognitive tests.

The main controller unit, that is, the Black Box, for the CPSS was developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore, and the DIPR. The Black Box is “a kind of password” because the tests cannot be run without it. The tests are backed by 20 years of research and development of DIPR scientists. The simulator on which the CPSS is run received the Agni award in 2005 from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for self-reliance in technology.

The DIPR has a number of publications to its credit. Its psychologists and scientists have brought out manuals such as “Stress and its Management”, “Deceit Detection and Interrogation”, “Suicide and Fratricide: Dynamics and Management: A Field Manual for Officers”, “Managing Emotions in Daily Life and at Workplace”, “Propaganda – Field Manual for Armed Forces”, and “Overcoming Obsolescence and Becoming Creative in R&D Environment”.

Said Mandal: “We began our journey with a selection system in 1943. We have now spread our wings.”

 

[nitesh]

Breaking new ground

The Defence Terrain Research Laboratory focusses on providing state-of-the-art terrain intelligence to the armed forces.


"WE are proud of our laboratory and the excellent work we are doing for the Army and the Directorate General of the Border Roads Organisation [BRO]," said Major General Umang Kapoor, Director, Defence Terrain Research Laboratory (DTRL), a unit of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Situated adjacent to the majestic Meltcalfe House in New Delhi, the building that houses the DTRL looks a trifie utilitarian. However, as Maj. Gen. Kapoor and Sunil Dhar, Joint Director, DTRL, talked about how terrain could be a potent weapon in modern warfare, the importance of the work being done by the DTRL unfolded with clarity.

KNOWLEDGE OF TERRAIN

Said Maj. Gen. Kapoor: "With knowledge of the terrain, you can force the enemy into a certain area. A lot of deception can take place with the help of terrain. An Army commander, by knowing the terrain, can work out whether he should attack, defend or move forward." Knowledge of India's varied terrain, aided by images taken by remote-sensing satellites, shapes the Army's logistics to a large extent.

The DTRL's origin dates back to 1964 when a Terrain Evaluation Cell was set up as a unit of the DRDO. The cell's objectives were to develop techniques needed for evaluating terrain and assessing the mobility potential in inaccessible areas. It became a full-pledged laboratory in 1981, and was renamed the Defence Terrain Research Laboratory.

Said Sunil Dhar: "Our mission is to become technologically self-reliant in using high-resolution terrain-intelligence products. This will involve creating and updating thematic maps and terrain intelligence reports for the services."

LANDSLIDE ZONATION MAPS

An important work done by the scientists is the preparation of landslide zonation maps.

"When there is a landslide, we should know what can be skirted and what cannot be. This leads us to the question whether it is possible to have an early warning system in these areas," said Sunil Dhar.

The scientists are now working on a project called Unique Research Undertaken for Systems Development for Landslides Warning and Terrain Intelligence (URUSWATI). It involves mapping landslide-prone zones for the BRO. This is the second such project the DTRL is doing for the BRO. The first one covered the National Highways (NH) in the northeastern region and the North Sikkim Highway and provided the BRO with atlases.

The current project will cover landslide-prone areas in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir. The DTRL will provide landslide atlases for seven roads in this region. The information will include data, digital and otherwise, on landslide zonations so that relief can be provided when landslides occur.

Landslides occur in India only in three areas - the Himalayas, the Western Ghats and the Eastern Ghats. Of these, only the Himalayas are strategically important.

In the first phase of URUSWATI, the DTRL covered the Himalayas up to Sikkim. It is now preparing landslide hazard zonation maps for the remaining areas, in north Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir. "[The maps] will show the severity of the landslides - whether it is critical, less critical, or poor. Based on these zonations, the BRO will plan roads," said Sunil Dhar, who is also the Project Director of URUSWATI.

These zonations acquire importance in the context of India's plan to build a 1,200-km trans-Himalayan highway from Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh to Kashmir. This highway is strategically important because it will be close to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, China-occupied Kashmir and the Pakistan border and will enable movement of men and weapons. Some of the highways have already been zoned. They include the NH 31A, which leads to Sikkim; the NH 21, which is the lifeline of the Spiti valley in Himachal Pradesh; and the NH 1A, which connects Jammu and Srinagar.

EARLY WARNING SYSTEM

"We have taken a landslide on the highway between Rishikesh and Badrinath as a representative one to develop an early warning system, which is the first in India," Sunil Dhar said. The concept has already been proven in the Himalayas in Sikkim. It will have three components: (1) instruments to acquire data periodically on landslides; (2) measurement of the threshold values of rainfall, the occurrence of earthquakes, the rate of deforestation, the periodicity of landslides, and so on, which will be transmitted to the DTRL for modelling; and (3) suggestions on the measures to be taken to control these landslides.

The warning system will be useful in areas such as Nasri on the NH 1A, which is perennially prone to landslides. Nasri first experienced a landslide about 200 years ago, and landslides continue to plague the area to date, jamming the highway and the bypass. Some landslides lie dormant for several years.

"We are collecting historical data about the periodicity of these landslides so that we can create models of them and suggest measures to arrest them. We can erect a breast wall or form a stream so that water passes through [without eroding the hillside], we can plant quick-growing trees that will have deep roots, etc..," said Sunil Dhar.

Mats made of textiles can be introduced into the earth so that the soil will not erode. Long nails made of iron and fibre can be driven into weak zones.

An interesting phenomenon no- ticed in landslide-prone areas in Sikkim is that in places where the Thar plant grows, the landslides did not recur.

GEOSPATIAL INTELLIGENCE

The biggest project that the DTRL has bagged so far is the Geospatial Intelligence Mission (GIM). The Rs.25- crore project, which is being executed by B.G. Prusty, a scientist, will gather terrain intelligence for the Army using images sent by spacecraft and the digital elevation model (DEM). The DEM will provide information on the height of hills, the depth of valleys, and so on.

The GIM will enable automatic extraction of data on man-made and natural terrain features, including roads, habitations, forests, hills and rivers. Flood mapping for strategic perception and geo-visualisation will also be done. "We are developing two software systems for this - Vasundhara GIS and Dhara Globe," said Prusty.

Visualisation and Analysis Systems for Terrain Utilisation (VASTU) is a project that the DTRL scientist S.P. Mishra has completed. In order to visualise data of the Army or the DTRL, the Army wanted the DTRL to create a Google Maps-like application that would not compromise on secrecy.

"Suppose I want to know how many villages are there on a 100-km stretch of a road, it is not available in Google [Maps]. We should also be able to search certain features, including similarly spelt names," Mishra said.

So the DTRL developed a search engine that was capable of working on the DTRL's own data and doing spatial analysis, and had capabilities similar to the Google search engine. It was customised for the Army. "This was a challenging task and we did it on a war footing, in nine months. The Army is happy and wants us to do an advanced version called VASTU 2," Mishra said.

FOR MBT ARJUN

Another project, completed by the team headed by M.K. Kalra, is called Visualisation with Enhanced Digital Elevation Model and Soil Profile Analysis for MBT Arjun Simulator (VEDSAR).

This related to how the main battle tank Arjun performed in different kinds of terrain, including desert sands and riverine areas. The project was done through the DEM using Cartosat-1A data and took into account the response of the soil to the tanks in different kinds of terrain. The Central Building Research Institute in Roorkee helped the DTRL to execute this project.

On the basis of the success of this project, Kalra will start a new project named Vehicular Interaction with Soil for Trafficability Assessment and Route-decision Aid (VISTAR). This system will come up with maps that provide the Army with information on the shortest possible distance between two points, the kind of obstacles present on the terrain, the elevation of certain terrain features such as hills, and if there is loose soil, how many tanks can pass over it, and so on.

THAR, named after the Thar desert, is a project that the Army has agreed in principle that DTRL scientists should do. The aim is to develop a system that generates a DEM of the sand dunes of the desert and locates groundwater.

"We are interacting with the Army and we have demonstrated our capability in these areas. Future warfare will be based on DEMs. Cruise missiles will fiy on elevation models. So knowledge of DEMs is crucial," said V.K. Panchal, Associate Director, DTRL, who heads the project.

A nascent but innovative project, which will be completed in five years, is the System for Information Extraction for Spatial Terrain Intelligence (SRISTI). The project demanded computer software that was not commercially available.

P. Roy Chowdhury, a scientist, said the Army approached the DTRL to provide them with information on certain features because the information was not available in the market. For instance, the depth of water at a given location, which cannot be measured using space-borne data. This will be done by using simple and generic software solutions. "The inputs include space-borne data plus ground truths," he said.

 

[rakesh]

Can India Built the anti Satellite weapon?

 

[Chota]

Significant step toward indigenous UAV

The Hindu : News / National : Significant step toward indigenous UAV

In a significant step that will give the Indian armed forces an indigenously designed and developed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a technological demonstrator (TD) of the Rustom will take to the Hosur skies this month.

Official sources at the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory that is spearheading the Rs.1,000-crore Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) Rustom UAV programme, told The Hindu that with the high speed taxi trials of the TD almost over, the inaugural flight “could happen anytime soon.” The taxi trials are being conducted at the airstrip belonging to Taneja Aerospace at Hosur.

The Rustom, which will have capabilities equal to, or even better than contemporary UAVs such as the Israeli Heron (currently in use by the armed forces), is derived from the National Aerospace Laboratories’ Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA), an aircraft developed by a team under the leadership of late Professor Rustom B. Damania in the 1980s. The ADE have taken the LCRA airframe and structurally modified it for unmanned flights.

Officials said that the TD, which has the same configuration as that of a full-fledged Rustom UAV, but is smaller in size, will undertake around 10 flights — taxiing, taking off and landing like a conventional aeroplane, the only difference being that there will be no pilot aboard. But being smaller than the full-fledged production standard Rustom, the TD will have an endurance of only 12 to 15 hours, approximately half of what the Rustom is being designed for. The ADE are using the TD as a stepping stone to proving the technologies that will go into the Rustom. The initial flights of the TD are being restricted to an altitude of around 500 metres. All three defence services have shown interest in acquiring the Rustom.

The Rustom programme will also marks a first for the DRDO. Traditionally, the DRDO laboratories develop a product or system, build a prototype, prove it in field trials and then transfer the technology to a production agency.

In the case of the Rustom, the DRDO are moving to a regime of concurrent engineering practices where initial design efforts also take into consideration production issues, with the production agency participating in the development of the system right from the design stage, and concurrently developing the necessary infrastructure and expertise for the product and product support. This approach could become a trendsetter for future DRDO projects.

A DRDO technical evaluation committee is examining the proposals of Tatas, Larsen and Toubro, Godrej and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-Bharat Electronics Limited (joint bid), one of whom will join the ADE as the production agency cum development partner (PADP). A price negotiating committee, headed by Defence Minister A.K. Antony, is looking into the commercial aspects of the proposals.

Both the PADP and the users (armed forces) will have a financial stake in the Rustom project.


Keywords: UAV, DRDO, PADP, Aeronautical Development Establishment

 

[Chota]

No complaint from Army on grenades

?No complaint from Army on grenades? - India - The Times of India

The Ordnance Factory Board has clarified that there has been no complaint from the Army about grenades during the weapons’ normal shelf-life. A TOI
story published on September 7 had stated that a survey had found that soldiers often complained that grenades don’t explode. These, according to Ordnance Factory Board, are only whose fuse and detonators have outlived their shelf life of three years. The experts who spoke to the jawans during the course of the survey found that detonators more than three years old are reaching the jawans.

The Kolkata-based Ordnance Factory Board has confirms that it has received such reports as reported by TOI. TOI’s report does not specify whether problems are encountered by jawans during the shelf-life of a hand grenade.

On Insas (Indian National Small Arms System) rifle not having the facility to launch the grenades through its under-barrel launcher, OFB has said that the 5.56mm rifle, presently being used by jawans, is not powerful enough to lob the 36M make grenades mentioned in the article.

 

[Chota]

Lcra

HAL's Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA) on which the ADE's MALE Rustom is based

 

[Chota]

DRDO::Missiles

Can you please go thru this drdo website and comment? Has this page been hacked or is it utter negligence or incompetance of the highest degree. It looks like some school kid has managed to complete a sentence with great difficult by cobbling together some missile jargon. I am speech less

Agni-II Missile: The range for Agni-II is performance, repeated guidance more than 2000 km. The salient features of performance capability and salvo firing the test firings are mobile launch capability, capability. With the completion of above multi-staging, state-of-the-art control and flight trials, the design and development of guidance, re-entry technology and the Trishul Missile is complete. sophisticated on-board packages including (g) Nag Missile: Nag is a third generation anti-advanced communication. Agni–II has also tank missile with “top-attack” and “fire and been inducted into Services. forget” capability.

 

[Chota]

DRDO::Missiles

Can you please go thru this drdo website and comment? Has this page been hacked or is it utter negligence or incompetance of the highest degree.

It looks like some school kid has managed to complete a sentence with great difficult by cobbling together some missile jargon. I am speech less

Agni-II Missile: The range for Agni-II is performance, repeated guidance more than 2000 km. The salient features of performance capability and salvo firing the test firings are mobile launch capability, capability. With the completion of above multi-staging, state-of-the-art control and flight trials, the design and development of guidance, re-entry technology and the Trishul Missile is complete. sophisticated on-board packages including (g) Nag Missile: Nag is a third generation anti-advanced communication. Agni–II has also tank missile with “top-attack” and “fire and been inducted into Services. forget” capability.

 

[SATISH]

DRDO’s Rustom UAV to take first flight this month IDRW.ORG

DRDO’s Rustom UAV to take first flight this month
BY : THE HINDU



In a significant step that will give the Indian armed forces an indigenously designed and developed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a technological demonstrator (TD) of the Rustom will take to the Hosur skies this month.

Official sources at the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory that is spearheading the Rs.1,000-crore Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) Rustom UAV programme, told The?Hindu that with the high speed taxi trials of the TD almost over, the inaugural flight “could happen anytime soon.” The taxi trials are being conducted at the airstrip belonging to Taneja Aerospace at Hosur.

The Rustom, which will have capabilities equal to, or even better than contemporary UAVs such as the Israeli Heron (currently in use by the armed forces), is derived from the National Aerospace Laboratories’ Light Canard Research Aircraft (LCRA), an aircraft developed by a team under the leadership of late Professor Rustom B. Damania in the 1980s. The ADE have taken the LCRA airframe and structurally modified it for unmanned flights.

Officials said that the TD, which has the same configuration as that of a full-fledged Rustom UAV, but is smaller in size, will undertake around 10 flights — taxiing, taking off and landing like a conventional aeroplane, the only difference being that there will be no pilot aboard. But being smaller than the full-fledged production standard Rustom, the TD will have an endurance of only 12 to 15 hours, approximately half of what the Rustom is being designed for. The ADE are using the TD as a stepping stone to proving the technologies that will go into the Rustom. The initial flights of the TD are being restricted to an altitude of around 500 metres. All three defence services have shown interest in acquiring the Rustom.

The Rustom programme will also marks a first for the DRDO. Traditionally, the DRDO laboratories develop a product or system, build a prototype, prove it in field trials and then transfer the technology to a production agency.

In the case of the Rustom, the DRDO are moving to a regime of concurrent engineering practices where initial design efforts also take into consideration production issues, with the production agency participating in the development of the system right from the design stage, and concurrently developing the necessary infrastructure and expertise for the product and product support. This approach could become a trendsetter for future DRDO projects.

A DRDO technical evaluation committee is examining the proposals of Tatas, Larsen and Toubro, Godrej and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited-Bharat Electronics Limited (joint bid), one of whom will join the ADE as the production agency cum development partner (PADP). A price negotiating committee, headed by Defence Minister A.K. Antony, is looking into the commercial aspects of the proposals.

Both the PADP and the users (armed forces) will have a financial stake in the Rustom project.

 

[nitesh]

News and Events, NAL, Bangalore

High Mach number airbreathing propulsion is an area of research & development vital to India’s strategic needs. Propulsion is the most important pacing technology for the high speeds at which advanced aerospace vehicles such as, Access-to-Space Vehicles, Trans-atmospheric Vehicles and Missiles are to fly. From performance considerations, high-speed aerospace vehicles that fly at Mach numbers greater than 3 (speeds greater than 3 times the speed of sound) need to necessarily employ advanced airbreathing propulsion systems such as, ramjets, supersonic combustion ramjets (scramjets) and their complex derivative-the dual-mode ramjet/scramjet. Such critical engine technologies are closely guarded abroad.

The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore have active R&D programmes for the development of advanced high-speed combustors for the High Speed Flight Technology Demonstrators of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram and the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad. To carry out the appropriate full-scale ground tests, a High-Speed Combustor Test Facility has been set-up at the Propulsion Division, CSIR-NAL, Nilakantan Wind Tunnel Centre, Bangalore with joint funding from ISRO, DRDO and CSIR. This versatile test facility was inaugurated on Wednesday 28th October by Dr.G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO and Chairman, Research Council, NAL.

Dr. Madhavan Nair in his address complimented NAL for setting up such a complex test facility, which will allow the indigenous development of the critical advanced subsonic/supersonic combustor technologies for India’s futuristic high Mach number propulsion systems. He stressed that a comprehensive design data base should be quickly built up by carrying out extensive testing which, from now on, is possible in India. Dr. AR Upadhya, Director, NAL in his opening remarks said that ‘Supersonic Combustion’ is a thrust area activity of NAL and that, in fact, it was in the early nineties that this activity had been initiated in NAL jointly with DRDL by the then DRDL Director, Dr Abdul Kalam and the then NAL Director, Professor Roddam Narasimha.

This test facility can also be employed to carry out full-scale afterburner developmental tests for the aero-engine gas turbines being developed by the Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE), Bangalore, which has already funded a related programme.

 

[nitesh]

Antony presents awards to Defence PSUs /Ordnance Factories

Shri AK Antony presented the Defence Minister's Awards for Excellence for the year 2007-08 to Ordnance Factories and Defence Public Sector Undertakings at a function here today. The list of recipients is as follows:-



Institutional Awards



(a) Excellence in Performance (Trophy) – Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

(b) Best Performance in Exports (Trophy) – BEML Ltd.



Division / Factory / Shipyard Awards



(a) Best Performing Division - Bharat Electronics Ltd.,

among DPSUs (Trophy) Hyderabad



(b) Best Performing Factory - Ammunition Factory, Khadki,

of OFB (Trophy) Pune, Maharashtra



(c) Best Performing - Mazagon Dock Limited,

Shipyard (Trophy) Mumbai



Group / Individual Awards (Rs. 1,00,000 each)



Import Substitution



(a) Bharat Electronics Limited, Ghaziabad for Engineering and realization of Rohini Radar D & E Model in collaboration with LRDE (The design agency).



(b) Garden Reach shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd., Kolkata for Indigenization of Centrifugal Pumps of Russian Origin for Warships/Submarines in Indian Navy.



Design Efforts



(a) MILCOM SBU unit of BEL, Bangalore for Design and development of STARS V- Mk II 5W / 25W Radio Sets and its various accessories.



(b) Ordnance Factory, Dehu Road, Maharashtra for Development of modified igniter NP- Type II Mk-1 for 455 Litre container bombs for Air Force.

Innovation



(a) Mazagon Dock Limited, Mumbai for Innovative approach in overhaul of propulsion Motor and their mounts of German origin Submarines of Indian Navy without resorting to usual practice of cutting pressure hull which is usual practice at OEM and also world over.



(b) CRL, BEL, Bangalore for Development of Hand Held Computer, part of the Shakti- Tactical Network project for Artillery of Indian Army.

 

[Chota]

News and Events, NAL, Bangalore

The 3 picture in the above link titled "Typical kerosene/hydrogen supersonic flame showing the shock diamonds", Is that ISRO's semi-cryogenic engine ?

 

[nitesh]

The 3 picture in the above link titled "Typical kerosene/hydrogen supersonic flame showing the shock diamonds", Is that ISRO's semi-cryogenic engine ?

Can be AVATAR or HSDTV can't say surely