DRDO, PSU and Private Defence Sector News

[fire starter]

BEL Tactical Control Radar (Reporter)

This is an early warning, alerting and cueing system,including weapon control functions. It is specially designed to be highly mobile and easily transportable,by air as well as on the ground. This radar minimises mutual interference of tasks of both air defenders and friendly air space users. The command and control capabilities of the RADAR in combination with an effective ground based air Defence provide maximum operational effectiveness with a safe, efficient and flexible use of the airspace.

FEATURES

All weather day and night capability.

40 km range, giving a large coverage.

Multiple target handling and engagement capability.

Local threat evaluation and engagement calculations assist the commander's decision making process, and give effective local fire distribution.

Easy to operate, and hence low manning requirements and stress reduction under severe conditions.

Highly mobile system, to be used in all kinds of terrain, with short into and out of action times (deployment/redeployment).

Clutter suppression.

High resolution, which gives excellent target discrimination and allows accurate tracking.

 

[fire starter]

DRDO Laser Ordnance Disposal System (LORDS) - 2000.

LORDS-2000 Lab Prototype was developed indigenously for the disposal of large caliber 155 mm shells and long range incendiary effects. It is a multi disciplinary system. It has single operator based laser fire control system with user friendly GUI. All subsystems are integrated on to the stallion vehicle for transportation.

 

[fire starter]

BEL Advanced Land Navigation System (ALNS)

The Advanced Land Navigation System (ALNS) is an equipment mounted in 'A' vehicles for the purpose of Land Navigation in featureless terrain. The equipment is used for traversing a path defined by coordinates of a military map. The ALNS guides the Commander as well as the Driver by dynamically updating the vehicle's present position and the bearing to the selected destination. The basic sensor used in the system is called Inertial Measurement Unit.

FEATURES

The ALNS can be operated in three different modes as per the requirement. The three different modes are:

Inertial Mode.
Hybrid Mode.
GPS Mode.

In Inertial Mode Systems operates completely on the Inertial Sensor Inputs. In Hybrid Mode it takes the inputs from Inertial Sensor as well as GPS receiver and selects the most accurate data for calculations of Navigational Parameters. In GPS mode system is independent of Inertial Sensor Inputs.

The ALNS is a RLG (Ring Laser Gyro) based navigation system.

It is completely independent of GPS when operated in Inertial Mode of operation.

It is having two different DISPLAY PANELS, conveniently fitted for the Commander and the Driver to view the navigational guidance provided by the system after processing the different inputs.

It is having PC Interface for Upload / Download of Navigational Data.

It can store various Navigational Data such as 500 Waypoints, 100 Roots.

The system is completely Menu driven.

 

[fire starter]

DRDO LASTEC is working on the development of High Power Fiber Laser technologies. LASTEC has already developed 2KW continuous wave High Power Fiber Laser.

Fiber lasers have become the disruptive technology in the field of lasers as they are adjudged superior to many of the established lasers for various applications. The recent advances in optical fibers and related technologies resulted in the development of High Power Fiber Lasers (HPFL) for industrial and defence applications.

It has many proven advantages over other lasers. High efficiency, low thermal management constraints, small footprint, no requirement of logistic supply chain and above all good inherent beam quality make fiber lasers most suitable for platform integrated long-range DEW applications. Another major advantage of fiber lasers is that they are highly suitable for power scaling using different beam combining techniques.

As fiber laser beam is confined within the flexible fibers and requires no alignment or free space bulk optics such as lenses and mirrors, systems built using fiber lasers have significant advantage in harsh military environments. However, development of all-fiber single mode high power fiber lasers is very challenging and crucial for development of HPFL based DEW systems.

 

[fire starter]

Infrared Imaging Video Bolometer (IRVB) for Indian fusion reactors

Power loss from the magnetically confined plasma due to impurity radiation has been a subject of great interest as it plays a vital role in the overall power balance of the plasma discharge. High impurity radiation lowers the plasma temperature and hence leads to unstable configuration, terminating the discharge. The measurement of radiation loss from the plasma is an important parameter measured by bolometers. Recently, the Infrared imaging Video Bolometer (IRVB) has emerged as a powerful tool for imaging the plasma radiation in two dimensions.

The IRVB has a simple pin-hole geometry. An aperture in the plate collimates the radiation from the plasma onto a 2.5 µm thick, graphite coated, metal foil held in a copper frame mounted inside a modular light -shielding tube made of aluminium.

The foil acts as a radiation absorber and an infrared camera monitors its temperature through an IR vacuum window. The power falling on the IRVB foil is estimated by numerically solving the 2D heat diffusion equation using the spatiotemporal variation of the foil temperature measured by the IR camera and the thermal-physical and optical properties of the foil. The foil is thoroughly calibrated to estimate its thermal and optical parameters.

It is observed that the radiated fraction ranges from 5% to 20% of the ohmic input power. This diagnostic has been successfully operated on Aditya, Aditya-U, and SST-1. Several inherent problems due to the ultra-thin metal foil in conventional IRVB are addressed by a patented (Indian Patent # 290634) diagnostic module called “DeLaS-IRIB,” which stands for Deposited Layer Substrate – Infrared (IR) Imaging Bolometer

 

[fire starter]

DRDO'S ADTCR is capable of detecting hypersonic targets.

It is a variant of Ashwini radar. It will replace the INDRA radars currently in active service. It has a range of 90 Km for 1m2 targets and 60 km for 0.1 m² targets. It can track 100 targets at it's best. Although the maximum tested speed of a target that could be tracked is 800 m/sec, experts believe it would be able to track targets of even faster speed. The radar in staring mode has azimuth +- 40° and elevation 0-70°. During rotating operations it can rotate at 10,20 or 30 RPM, during rotating mode the azimuth coverage is 360°.

Just like Arudhra it has digital beamforming technology and surviewed intense jamming. The S Band AESA radar can be deployed in any kind of geographical region. It can transmit data to friendly command posts upto 20Kms away. A separate powerpack mounted on another truck is also part of this system. With advanced signal processor, data processing systems combined with digital multibeam processing, the radar can perform multiple functions through programmable waveforms. It can be upgraded as an FCR in future.

 

[fire starter]

Neutral Temperature Measurement in Aditya-U Tokamak

A high-resolution visible spectroscopic system has been utilized to measure the spatial and temporal profiles of the ion temperature of neutral hydrogen (TH) using Doppler broadened Ha (656.3nm). The system consists of a 1m long spectrometer coupled with a CCD detector. The entrance slit of spectrometer is coupled to a vertical array of nine fiber to get multi –track measurement. This array feed light into the spectrometer transported using another 13 m long fiber connected to lenses collecting light through an in-house developed rectangular viewport from different lines of sight (LoS) passing through the various plasma radial locations.

The spectral width due to the Doppler broadening is directly proportional to neutral or ion temperature enabling the temperature estimation. However, in the presence of the magnetic field, the energy levels of atoms are split into multiple levels due to Zeeman Effect generating many Zeeman split lines, therefore adding to the broadening of the Ha spectral line. Accurate estimation of Doppler broadening for the temperature measurement is needed to be done after incorporating broadening due to the Zeeman Effect as these lines are not distinctly detectable by the spectrometer. A MATLAB code has been developed to estimate the neutral and ion temperatures after incorporating the Zeeman Effect.

For Aditya-U tokamak, the analysis has been carried out for several discharges by fitting the spectral line profile through the simulation of all Zeeman split line when tokamak is operated with 1.2 T of toroidal field and considering the TH has two components, warm and hot.

 

[ezsasa]

I hope IA asks DRDO to develop pinaka with optical sensors along with current guidance package.

Precision guided pinaka with optical sensors, IA can then send pinaka into windows of tango houses, and use pinaka like NAG, SANT & Hellfire but with a 90 kms range.

 

[Bleh]

I hope IA asks DRDO to develop pinaka with optical sensors along with current guidance package.

Precision guided pinaka with optical sensors, IA can then send pinaka into windows of tango houses, and use pinaka like NAG, SANT & Hellfire but with a 90 kms range.

Erm, what exactly are optical sensors?.. I googled but got nothing!

 

[ezsasa]

Erm, what exactly are optical sensors?.. I googled but got nothing!

Infrared sensors or laser guidance.

 

[Bleh]

Infrared sensors or laser guidance.

I am not sure how you will laser/ir guide a 120km ranged Pinaka 3... Seems too far for forward observers. Can satellites do that?

Pinaka wont fire a 1 or 2 rockets to provide accurate creeping barrage firesupport either, but full volley for total devastation of an area.

 

[AnantS]

I am not sure how you will laser/ir guide a 120km ranged Pinaka 3... Seems too far for forward observers. Can satellites do that?

Pinaka wont fire a 1 or 2 rockets to provide accurate creeping barrage firesupport either, but full volley for total devastation of an area.

well your point is right. but China has similar long range IR guided tank buster missile. The Range of missile is greater than sensor detection range. They expect a spotter to mark a target with Laser Target designator
I am not sure about covert operations as Laser Target designator seem pretty bulky.. not sure.. if they can carried over for covert ops by our troops in such scenario

 

[ezsasa]

I am not sure how you will laser/ir guide a 120km ranged Pinaka 3... Seems too far for forward observers. Can satellites do that?

Pinaka wont fire a 1 or 2 rockets to provide accurate creeping barrage firesupport either, but full volley for total devastation of an area.

if helina can course correct mid way, maybe similarly additional control surfaces can be added to make pinaka more accurate.

the current pinaka Mk1 & 2 will have a role, this would be for even more accurate PGM. This one need not be sent in volleys, because after the first hit the dust will make the sensors useless.

possible roles:
CAS : forward base will send a rocket, forward troops can laze the target for accurate hit.
Anti-personnel : enemy sniper or MMG position can be guided by a UAV or lazing.

 

[Bleh]

well your point is right. but China has similar long range IR guided tank buster missile. The Range of missile is greater than sensor detection range. They expect a spotter to mark a target with Laser Target designator
I am not sure about covert operations as Laser Target designator seem pretty bulky.. not sure.. if they can carried over for covert ops by our troops in such scenario

if helina can course correct mid way, maybe similarly additional control surfaces can be added to make pinaka more accurate.

the current pinaka Mk1 & 2 will have a role, this would be for even more accurate PGM. This one need not be sent in volleys, because after the first hit the dust will make the sensors useless.

possible roles:
CAS : forward base will send a rocket, forward troops can laze the target for accurate hit.
Anti-personnel : enemy sniper or MMG position can be guided by a UAV or lazing.

I think you don't want too much accuracy to avoid unnecessary hastle. Best if the rockets fall all over the place at different places within 50m radius for a typical MLRS volley target:

 

[AnantS]

I think you don't want too much accuracy to avoid unnecessary hastle
Best the rockets fall all over the place at different places within 50m radius for a typical MLRS volley target:

Bleh, Different rockets for different purpose. At some place you need precision, at some place cheap barrage of rockets will achieve more than what you could with precision rockets

 

[Bleh]

Bleh, Different rockets for different purpose. At some place you need person, at some place cheap barrage of rockets will achieve more than what you could with precision rockets

Yes, a 50km range drone/infantry guided ATGM or simply suicide missile drone (@ezsasa better than IR/laser guided) is a better option today than attack helo in a connectional war's AAA saturated sky.

But MLRS is mostly for shoot&scoot volley attacks on area targets, like that or infantry concentration or forward headquarter or ammo dump.

 

[AnantS]

But MLRS is mostly for shoot&scoot volley attacks on area targets, like that or infantry concentration or forward headquarter or ammo dump.

Depends.. If rocktes are more precise and have longer range than your longest artillery gun, .. then think that those Precision Rockets can be used as extended range Artillery. Just like Krasponol and Excalibur exist among standard artillery shells. In Same fashion precision rockets can exist among standard rockets

 

[ezsasa]

Yes, a 50km range drone/infantry guided ATGM or simply suicide missile drone (@ezsasa better than IR/laser guided) is a better option today than attack helo in a connectional war's AAA saturated sky.

But MLRS is mostly for shoot&scoot volley attacks on area targets, like that or infantry concentration or forward headquarter or ammo dump.

Over the past two years, IA chiefs have been emphasising that PGM are the direction they want to take.
Since we know that the next war is going to be a hybrid war, PGMs are the way to go.

scenario can be IBG moving forward in PoK, arty can give precision guided support 60-70 km behind forward lines instead of sending costly assets like apache or rudra in anti personnel role.

 

[Bleh]

Depends.. If rocktes are more precise and have longer range than your longest artillery gun, .. then think that those Precision Rockets can be used as extended range Artillery. Just like Krasponol and Excalibur exist among standard artillery shells. In Same fashion precision rockets can exist among standard rockets

Over the past two years, IA chiefs have been emphasising that PGM are the direction they want to take.
Since we know that the next war is going to be a hybrid war, PGMs are the way to go.

scenario can be IBG moving forward in PoK, arty can give precision guided support 60-70 km behind forward lines instead of sending costly assets like apache or rudra in anti personnel role.

Possibly, but i doubt PGM arty shells or rockets can outdo glidebombs or simpler directly guided drone munitions for point targets in cost:range:accuracy

Guided shells may prove too costly, compared to replacing forward observer with permanent spy sat (especially needed for LOC) feeding live aerial view of target directly to artillery crew.

 

[AnantS]

Possibly, but i doubt PGM arty shells or rockets can outdo glidebombs or simpler directly guided drone munitions for point targets in cost:range:accuracy
View attachment 43817
Guided shells may prove too costly, compared to replacing forward observer with permanent spy sat (especially needed for LOC) feeding live aerial view of target directly to artillery crew.

Drones aircraft shall never be available in number nor readily available to every troops in war time unlike artillery. And in case "peacetime situations" like LoC Skirmish.. Armed Drone shall be an escalation (notwithstanding fact we dont have a drone with long range ammunition right now) that included drones like Harpy