DRDO, PSU and Private Defence Sector News

[Patriot]

DRDO, US defence labs collaborating for research projects

NEW DELHI (PTI): Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and American defence labs are working together on several research projects in fields such as life sciences, naval and cognitive sciences, the Parliament was informed Monday.

"Defence research labs of US department of Defence and DRDO are having ongoing research programmes in the areas of life sciences, material sciences, naval sciences, power and energy, cognitive science and human performance enhancement and war fighter protection," Defence Minister A K Antony said in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

On whether US has refused to provide dual use technologies needed by DRDO, Antony said, "As per existing US laws, all dual use items exported out of the country require an export licence from US Department of Commerce depending on item's classification."

He further informed that major foreign partners of DRDO include Russia, Israel, Germany, France, USA, Belarus, Brazil and Singapore.

"DRDO is having Research and Development cooperation including joint development of weapons systems and platforms (with these countries)," Antony said.

Meanwhile, replying to another query on whether the government is exporting products manufactured by DRDO, Antony said that "efforts are on to identify the products and to explore the possibilities of exports of the products designed and developed by DRDO."

"However, the first objective is to fulfill the requirements of our armed forces," he said.

Antony further added that achieving self-reliance in defence production is a joint responsibility that has to be met through national efforts by all government agencies and public and private industries.

"As per provisions in Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), DRDO is concentrating only on development of strategic, complex and security sensitive system. It has developed a number of systems which have been inducted into armed forces," Antony said in reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

He also informed the House that the restructuring of DRDO is being undertaken as per recommendations of Dr Rama Rao Committee to improve its functioning.

The Minister also replied to a query on number of scientists in the Organization and said, "Twenty scientists working in the fields of computer sciences, electronics and communication resigned from DRDO in 2010."

While, three scientists from computer sciences stream left the organization, rest 17 were from electronics and communications.

Since 2006 till March 2011, total 52 scientists took voluntary retirement from DRDO and the number of scientists employed with it increased from 7161 in 2008 to 7854 in 2010.

Antony also informed the Parliament about the steps being taken by the government to arrest the attrition rate.

"Two additional increments are given on promotion to each grade and up to six variable increments on promotion is granted on fast track," he said.

DRDO has also introduced professional update allowance and fast track promotions through assessments. Opportunities are given to acquire candidates by providing them sponsorship at reputed institutes like Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

It has also instituted awards for young scientists and scientist of the year in recognition of their services.






http://www.brahmand.com/news/DRDO-US-defence-labs-collaborating-for-research-projects/6564/1/14.html

 

[nitesh]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...ops-new-assault-rifle/articleshow/7740063.cms
Tiruchi ordnance factory develops new assault rifle

Field trials have been done for the 7.62mm caliber rifle with a range of 400 metres. "The rifle has been successfully tried by the Indian Army,'' Prabhakar said. It features a foldable butt and boasts of night vision device besides telescopic day vision system.

OFT has also developed a hand-held multi-shell launcher. The weapon of 38mm calibre with a range of 400 metres could fire six shells at a time. It could be used for firing grenades and tear gas shells.

Prabhakar said this was the first time that OFT was coming out with an "internal security weapon", or a riot control device in common parlance. "One batch of the device has been supplied to CRPF and many states have evinced interest in buying it for their police force,'' he said.

Heavy Alloy Penetrator Project (HAAP), another ordnance unit and the only one in the country to produce anti-tank projectiles, has also received overwhelming response for its indigenous anti-submarine rockets.

HAPP general manager B Pugazhendi said the Indian navy had placed bulk orders for the six-kilometre range anti-submarine rockets named RGB 60 developed by HAPP.

HAPP had dispatched 12 units of RGB 12, another version of the anti-submarine rockets, to the Navy last year. "With inhouse research and development efforts, HAPP has also developed 120mm caliber and 125mm calibre MK-II anti-tank projectiles,'' Pugazhendi said.

HAPP has chalked out a modernization plan for enhancing the production of MK-II projectiles. "Very soon, the blueprint for modernization will be submitted to the ordnance factory board that will in turn forward it to defence ministry for clearance,'' he said.

 

[shuvo@y2k10]

don't you think that 400m is a little less range compared to 500-600m for western assault rifle.

 

[Patriot]

Ordnance Factory Board draws up Rs 6,800 cr upgrade plan

SOURCE : PTI

The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has drawn up an extensive modernisation and infrastructure plan in all of its 39 odd factories across the nation, the company chief said today."The board has made a detailed project report about long- term modernisation of all the 39 factories. We will submit (it) to the defence ministry in April for approval," Director- General of Ordnance Factories and chairman of OFB D M Gupta said today.

Gupta said the expenditure lay out for the upgradation plan would be Rs 6,800 crore, which would be spent over a period of five years.

The board would also commence trial production at its new plant at Korwa near Lucknow this year built to manufacture small arms, he told reporters here.

About the other new plant at Nalanda in Bihar, he said that work on the facility had been put on hold because of certain problems.

Further, he said the Nalanda plant will manufacture propellant chargers for high calibre ammunitions.

Gupta said that Israeli Military Industries was yet to put up its unit in the plant which would manufacture Bi-modular Charge Systems, the finished product.

"We are hopeful of an early completion of the plant", he said.The two plants had attracted an investments of Rs 1200 crore.

 

[Patriot]

US yet to provide dual use tech to DRDO

SOURCE: www.economictimes.com

Government-run defence research body DRDO may have struck a number of foreign partnerships, including that with the US, but the latter has refused to provide dual use technology needed by DRDO.According to the government's information, shared with Indian Parliamentarians recently, all dual use items exported out of US require an export license from the US department of commerce or state department.

The defence research laboratories of US department of defence and DRDO are, however, having a few ongoing research programmes in the areas of life science, material science, naval science, power and energy, cognitive science and human performance enhancement, war fighter protection, etc.

The other major foreign partners of DRDO are Russia, Israel, Germany, France, USA, Belarus, Brazil and Singapore with whom it has R&D cooperation. The big question still remainshow much of technology know-how the DRDO has been able to import so far?

 

[nitesh]

http://frontierindia.net/drdo-to-begin-nanotechnology-courses-at-diat
DRDO to begin nanotechnology course at DIAT

India's premier Defence Research institution, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is about to start a new nanotechnology course at one of its units, the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT).

DRDO has a well formated Nano Science and Technology initiative programme. It has financed many projects in the fieldand initiated many centres of excellence for nano research in various universities across India, as well as started off many research studies and tasks projects.

Though DRDO is yet to have a full fledged project on nanoscience or technology for its applications in defence , it has many system projects that has nanotechnology based devices and materials being carried out in many of its laboratories.

Last year, DRDO announced a Rs 500 Crore nano foundry in collaboration with the University of Madras National Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NCNN).

 

[nitesh]

http://frontierindia.net/drdos-chitra-centralised-super-computing-facility-is-being-upgraded
DRDO's CHITRA centralised super computing facility is being upgraded


Due to heavy demands on computing facility for DRDO internal users, CHITRA (centre for High performance computing and Research) centralised computing facility is being upgraded. The process of upgradation is likely to be completed by march 2011. The new system will consist of around 3000 numbers of x86 cores and likely to give a sustained performance of around 30 Teraflops.

Project CHITRA houses Advanced Numerical Research and Analysis Group (ANURAG) developed 384 node cluster computing system called DHRUVA (DRDO's High performance computer for Very Large Applications). This system gives a sustained performance of 4 to 5 Teraflops (Trillion Floating points operations per Second). DHRUVA was one of the fastest supercomputer in India at the time of its configuration and installation. The system completely meets the curent demands of missile and LCA development teams. It was developed as part of project CHITRA to set up a centralised high performance computing facility at ANURAG. CHITRA Centre is connected to all the DRDO laboratories through DRDO's wide area network, called DRONA. As a result, this massive centralized computing resource can be used by DRDO laboratories across the country over DRONA network. Some of the salient features of DHRUVA cluster are as follows :

Number of nodes (servers): 384
Each server consist of: Dual Xeon CPUs @ 3.8 Ghz
Interconnetion Network: 20 Gbps (Full duplex) infiniband Switch and Gigabit Ethernet switch
Operating System: 64-bit Red Hat Linux

ANURAG's supercomputer development programme was started in 1988 because of non-avilability of supercomputing technology to Defence for strategic applications. It was in the wake of this denial that the mission of developing a supercomputer inhouse was take up by DRDO in 1988 and ANURAG was established. The larger goal was to attain self-reliance in the field of supercomputerdeveloment.

ANURAG started its mission with the develoment of Processor for Aerodynamic computations and Evaluation (PACE) series of parallel computers in 1988. Prominent among them were 32-node PACE+ systems, built in 1995 and 1996, for Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA). Bengaluru and Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) Hyderabad. These systems were built using HyperSPARC processors. And were primarily used to run CFD applications. In 2002. ANURAG developed a 128- node system. Called PACE++. It was built using pentium 11 processors @ 450 Mhz. This system has primarily been used to run CFD codes at DRDL. Hyderabad. Over time, the computation and memory requirments of the missile designers as well as other application developers within DRDO increased tremendusly. In early 2007, ANURAG began working on DHRUVA.

 

[nitesh]

http://frontierindia.net/drdo-develops-cads-350-precision-airdrop-system
DRDO develops CADS -350 precision airdrop system

 

[nitesh]

march 2011 newsletter
http://www.drdo.gov.in/drdo/pub/nl/2011/NL March 11 web.pdf

 

[biswas_k11]

hello sir. may i keep in touch with you.
kanchan.

 

[nitesh]

http://frontierindia.org/blog/dr-kalam-gives-away-drdo-awards-2010/
Dr Kalam gives away DRDO Awards 2010

 

[nitesh]

http://tarmak007.blogspot.com/2011/03/nstl-to-launch-smb-project-for-indian.html
NSTL to launch SMB project for Indian Navy on April 1

 

[nitesh]

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2011/04/indias-anti-tank-helina-to-spawn-longer.html
India's Anti-Tank HELINA To Spawn Longer Range Strike Weapon

India's Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL) plans to extend the range of the HELINA (Helicopter-mounted Nag) anti-armour missile into a >20-km range strike munition for combat aircraft and helicopters.

 

[venkat]

Games DRDO Plays
False claims on the BMD programme are detrimental to India's security
By Pravin Sawhney

Tall claims and empty boasts seem to have become the hallmark of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The proclivity of the Director General, DRDO, Dr V.K. Saraswat and his team to exaggerate its achievements would be amusing to discerning people. Unfortunately, this amusement has grave national security implications and Dr Saraswat, a ballistic missile expert with the indigenous Prithvi ballistic missile being his crowning glory, should know this better than most.

As the director general, DRDO, he is leading the nation's home-grown Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) programme. The claims made by him about the recently tested-fired Dhanush and Prithvi II ballistic missiles on March 11 and the BMD Endo-atmospheric interceptor test on March 6 are exaggerated beyond imagination. These should have been put into perspective by the Indian defence correspondents and experts, not only for domestic but international consumption as well, because the Pakistani establishment, while ignoring DRDO's claims on Prithvi, utilises the boasts about the BMD to its strategic advantage.

Making use of Saraswat's chest-thumping, Pakistan is going ahead full throttle to more than match India's humble BMD technological achievements; if at all, the programme is decades away from fruition. According to US intelligence, while ahead of India in ballistic missiles capabilities since 2001, General Headquarters, Rawalpindi continues to increase its inventory of nuclear weapons' land vector by citing India's BMD claims as a destabilising factor. This writer had first-hand experience of this a few months ago. During the alumni meet at the Cooperative Monitoring Centre (Sandia National Laboratory) at Albuquerque, US in October 2010, a former director of Pakistan's Strategic Plans Division, Brigadier Feroz Khan argued that India's growing BMD capability had forced Pakistan to build more ballistic missiles.



Given its unbridled inventory, it is a matter of time before the Pakistan Army will alter its war-fighting doctrine to align it with the Chinese People's Liberation Army thinking. While supplementing air power, the difference between combat aircraft and ballistic missiles will narrow down to tighter control of the latter. This will upset the Indian Air Force combat numbers superiority over the Pakistan Air Force and force the Indian Army to review its operational level pro-active strategy, referred to as the Cold Start doctrine in the media, against the Pakistan Army. Given such implications, the defence minister needs to restrain Saraswat and the DRDO from making irresponsible statements. Apparently after the recent claims on the BMD project, defence minister A.K. Antony has expressed his displeasure to Saraswat.

Prithvi and Dhanush
A brief history and technological limitations of the indigenous Prithvi ballistic missile are in order. The development of surface-to-surface Prithvi ballistic missile was sanctioned by the government in 1983 under the Integrated Guided Missiles Development Programme. As Prithvi was an offshoot of ISRO's civilian Space Launch Vehicle (SLV), its development commenced without the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR) — technical requirements given by the user, that is, defence services, to the research organisation — implying that the defence services were neither consulted nor were they interested (ballistic missiles were still unknown to them) in the programme. As happens with most indigenous programmes, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi personally goaded the army in 1988 to accept Prithvi in order to encourage the indigenous product. Considering the Prime Minister had intervened regarding a weapon system, it was easy for the DRDO to arm-twist the other two services, the navy and the air force to seek the missile with a few minor and not design changes to suit its medium of operations.

copy right FORCE magazine
http://www.forceindia.net/featurereport7.aspx

 

[nitesh]

http://frontierindia.net/drdo-inaugurates-jc-bose-microwave-tube-facility
DRDO inaugurates JC Bose Microwave Tube Facility

He stated that DRDO should initiate the work on High Power Microwave Directed Energy Weapons and Vacuum Microwave Electronic Devices (VMED) to meet the futuristic requirement of services. VMED synergize the technology of vacuum and solid state devices having promise for High Power Microwave Devices.

 

[pavanvenkatesh]

Games DRDO Plays
False claims on the BMD programme are detrimental to India's security
By Pravin Sawhney

Tall claims and empty boasts seem to have become the hallmark of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The proclivity of the Director General, DRDO, Dr V.K. Saraswat and his team to exaggerate its achievements would be amusing to discerning people. Unfortunately, this amusement has grave national security implications and Dr Saraswat, a ballistic missile expert with the indigenous Prithvi ballistic missile being his crowning glory, should know this better than most.

As the director general, DRDO, he is leading the nation's home-grown Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) programme. The claims made by him about the recently tested-fired Dhanush and Prithvi II ballistic missiles on March 11 and the BMD Endo-atmospheric interceptor test on March 6 are exaggerated beyond imagination. These should have been put into perspective by the Indian defence correspondents and experts, not only for domestic but international consumption as well, because the Pakistani establishment, while ignoring DRDO's claims on Prithvi, utilises the boasts about the BMD to its strategic advantage.

Making use of Saraswat's chest-thumping, Pakistan is going ahead full throttle to more than match India's humble BMD technological achievements; if at all, the programme is decades away from fruition. According to US intelligence, while ahead of India in ballistic missiles capabilities since 2001, General Headquarters, Rawalpindi continues to increase its inventory of nuclear weapons' land vector by citing India's BMD claims as a destabilising factor. This writer had first-hand experience of this a few months ago. During the alumni meet at the Cooperative Monitoring Centre (Sandia National Laboratory) at Albuquerque, US in October 2010, a former director of Pakistan's Strategic Plans Division, Brigadier Feroz Khan argued that India's growing BMD capability had forced Pakistan to build more ballistic missiles.



Given its unbridled inventory, it is a matter of time before the Pakistan Army will alter its war-fighting doctrine to align it with the Chinese People's Liberation Army thinking. While supplementing air power, the difference between combat aircraft and ballistic missiles will narrow down to tighter control of the latter. This will upset the Indian Air Force combat numbers superiority over the Pakistan Air Force and force the Indian Army to review its operational level pro-active strategy, referred to as the Cold Start doctrine in the media, against the Pakistan Army. Given such implications, the defence minister needs to restrain Saraswat and the DRDO from making irresponsible statements. Apparently after the recent claims on the BMD project, defence minister A.K. Antony has expressed his displeasure to Saraswat.

Prithvi and Dhanush
A brief history and technological limitations of the indigenous Prithvi ballistic missile are in order. The development of surface-to-surface Prithvi ballistic missile was sanctioned by the government in 1983 under the Integrated Guided Missiles Development Programme. As Prithvi was an offshoot of ISRO's civilian Space Launch Vehicle (SLV), its development commenced without the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR) — technical requirements given by the user, that is, defence services, to the research organisation — implying that the defence services were neither consulted nor were they interested (ballistic missiles were still unknown to them) in the programme. As happens with most indigenous programmes, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi personally goaded the army in 1988 to accept Prithvi in order to encourage the indigenous product. Considering the Prime Minister had intervened regarding a weapon system, it was easy for the DRDO to arm-twist the other two services, the navy and the air force to seek the missile with a few minor and not design changes to suit its medium of operations.

I think this is not a fair assessment of the BMD research of DRDO cause BMD tech is one of the most challenging technologies in defence and v have acheived very good results in this field in such a short span of time labs like ASL hyderabad has done commendable breakthroughs in this field.

 

[nitesh]

http://frontierindia.net/indian-air-force-fighters-to-be-equipped-with-obogs
Indian Air Force fighters to be equipped with OBOGS

The OBOG is being integrated into India's own fighter aircraft, the LCA Tejas Mark II. OBOG is based on a sieve-like structure.OBOG is fitted into the main frame of the aircraft. The function of the OBOGS is to concentrate the oxygen available in the atmosphere and removes nitrogen content from it.

"Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) has started the ground integration process of OBOGS in the Technology Demonstrator (TD) version of the LCA Mark-II. After LCA it will be integrated in all the frontline aircraft of the IAF," says William Selvamurthy, Chief Controller, Life Science, DRDO.The OBOG is being integrated into India's own fighter aircraft, the LCA Tejas Mark II. OBOG is based on a sieve-like structure.OBOG is fitted into the main frame of the aircraft. The function of the OBOGS is to concentrate the oxygen available in the atmosphere and removes nitrogen content from it.

"Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) has started the ground integration process of OBOGS in the Technology Demonstrator (TD) version of the LCA Mark-II. After LCA it will be integrated in all the frontline aircraft of the IAF," says William Selvamurthy, Chief Controller, Life Science, DRDO.

 

[nitesh]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...develop-hi-tech-foods/articleshow/7939397.cms
Indian defence scientists develop hi-tech foods

 

[sayareakd]

Games DRDO Plays
False claims on the BMD programme are detrimental to India's security
By Pravin Sawhney

Tall claims and empty boasts seem to have become the hallmark of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The proclivity of the Director General, DRDO, Dr V.K. Saraswat and his team to exaggerate its achievements would be amusing to discerning people. Unfortunately, this amusement has grave national security implications and Dr Saraswat, a ballistic missile expert with the indigenous Prithvi ballistic missile being his crowning glory, should know this better than most.

As the director general, DRDO, he is leading the nation's home-grown Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) programme. The claims made by him about the recently tested-fired Dhanush and Prithvi II ballistic missiles on March 11 and the BMD Endo-atmospheric interceptor test on March 6 are exaggerated beyond imagination. These should have been put into perspective by the Indian defence correspondents and experts, not only for domestic but international consumption as well, because the Pakistani establishment, while ignoring DRDO's claims on Prithvi, utilises the boasts about the BMD to its strategic advantage.

Making use of Saraswat's chest-thumping, Pakistan is going ahead full throttle to more than match India's humble BMD technological achievements; if at all, the programme is decades away from fruition. According to US intelligence, while ahead of India in ballistic missiles capabilities since 2001, General Headquarters, Rawalpindi continues to increase its inventory of nuclear weapons' land vector by citing India's BMD claims as a destabilising factor. This writer had first-hand experience of this a few months ago. During the alumni meet at the Cooperative Monitoring Centre (Sandia National Laboratory) at Albuquerque, US in October 2010, a former director of Pakistan's Strategic Plans Division, Brigadier Feroz Khan argued that India's growing BMD capability had forced Pakistan to build more ballistic missiles.



Given its unbridled inventory, it is a matter of time before the Pakistan Army will alter its war-fighting doctrine to align it with the Chinese People's Liberation Army thinking. While supplementing air power, the difference between combat aircraft and ballistic missiles will narrow down to tighter control of the latter. This will upset the Indian Air Force combat numbers superiority over the Pakistan Air Force and force the Indian Army to review its operational level pro-active strategy, referred to as the Cold Start doctrine in the media, against the Pakistan Army. Given such implications, the defence minister needs to restrain Saraswat and the DRDO from making irresponsible statements. Apparently after the recent claims on the BMD project, defence minister A.K. Antony has expressed his displeasure to Saraswat.

Prithvi and Dhanush
A brief history and technological limitations of the indigenous Prithvi ballistic missile are in order. The development of surface-to-surface Prithvi ballistic missile was sanctioned by the government in 1983 under the Integrated Guided Missiles Development Programme. As Prithvi was an offshoot of ISRO's civilian Space Launch Vehicle (SLV), its development commenced without the General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR) — technical requirements given by the user, that is, defence services, to the research organisation — implying that the defence services were neither consulted nor were they interested (ballistic missiles were still unknown to them) in the programme. As happens with most indigenous programmes, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi personally goaded the army in 1988 to accept Prithvi in order to encourage the indigenous product. Considering the Prime Minister had intervened regarding a weapon system, it was easy for the DRDO to arm-twist the other two services, the navy and the air force to seek the missile with a few minor and not design changes to suit its medium of operations.

copy right FORCE magazine
http://www.forceindia.net/featurereport7.aspx

Well this is self contradictory article, on the one hand, author bashes DRDO for its BMD, saying all sorts of negative things, on the other hand he says that Pakistan acknowledge growing BMDs capabilities and felt threated by these.

Pakistani's are not fool, they have resources at their disposal to see, what are the capabilities of Indian BMDs and if they felt threated by BMD then surely it must have some substance in the claim of DRDO.

Last para of the article speaks about Prithvi and Dhanush, which has not connected to topic he wanted to discuss.

I must say that, with great respect to authors past, this is half cooked article unprofessionally written article, which is not even properly researched. I must also say that in the past also many article from professionals have come which are trying to discredit the good work done by DRDO guys, particularly BMD area.

I wont be surprised that based on this or this types of reports and article, IA will make know its preference for US made BMD.

 

[nitesh]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...s-for-iaf-army-pilots/articleshow/8005078.cms
DRDO develops composite oxygen cylinders for IAF, Army pilots

The Defence Research and Development Organisation has come up with composite oxygen cylinders that will lighten the burden of military helicopters in high-altitude areas.

"The oxygen cylinders used in Chetak and Cheetah helicopters last for 20-25 minutes only. We have developed a composite oxygen cylinder which would weigh one-fifth of normal cylinders but can provide oxygen supply for minimum two hours," W Selvamurthy, Chief Controller of DRDO told PTI.

Developed by Defence Bio-Engineering and Electro Medical Laboratory (DEBEL), the cylinders take away a significant amount of weight from the choppers, increasing its weight carrying capacity for longer durations.

"IAF has already accepted the technology and is considering placement of orders. Only a very few air-forces in the world have this technology and we managed to develop it in a record period of six months only," he said.

Completed at a cost of Rs six crore, DRDO recently completed the industrial checks of the technology and is now looking froward to initiate the tendering process for appointing an industrial partner.