Satheesh Reddy's smart soldier concept for Indian Army

[Lions Of Punjab]

India to launch radar satellite in 2020

Gandhinagar: India will launch in 2020 an advanced satellite equipped with synthetic aperture radar, the first of its kind in the world, that the country is developing in collaboration with NASA, said Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) former chairman K.Radhakrishnan. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) director Dr G.Satheesh Reddy said the "smart soldier" concept for the country's armed forces was at a critical stage in its development. The two were showcasing India's scientific achievement at the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas.

The radar satellite was a key link in India's space research collaboration with NASA. The satellite will incorporate advanced instruments to study in detail climate change, the melting of ice and glaciers, earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides and volcanoes, among others. The studies are important as these phenomena are still not fully understood or can by accurately predicted.

The satellite will use two different radar frequencies. The launch vehicle, the launch, the satellite bus, etc. will be India's responsibility. NASA will develop the radar, the communications sub-system, and the GPS receiver, among others.

Radhakrishnan said India now occupies the top spot in several areas of space research. The country's 25 satellites now orbit the earth. He said with the Mark III engine, which was successfully tested recently -- getting ready, the country will become self-sufficient in launching heavy satellites. He was greeted with thunderous applause by the audience when he said he can foresee a time when delegates from Mars will attend the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas meet.

Satheesh Reddy's smart soldier concept can revolutionise warfare. It includes a battlefield attire incorporating technologies that can spot and neutralise the enemy's moves and launch a counter-attack. Reddy said the "robo soldier" concept, which aims to field bots in the battlefield, was also in the works.

From one that possessed zero capability to build missiles, India has now transformed itself into a country that has top-notch missiles in all categories, he said. Earlier, with each achievement, scientists used to take pride in the fact that the country was one of the five, or one of the four, possessing that technology. Then DRDO chief Dr APJ Abdul Kalam used to ask at those times, "Funny fellows, don't we have to be first in the world?" Today, the country is top on supersonic missiles and anti-missile technologies, and have fulfilled Kalam's dreams, Reddy said.

Union science and technology minister Dr Harshvardhan introduced Dr K Radhakrishnan to the delegates of the Youth Pravasi Bharatiya Divas meet as "the great man." In the special session to describe India's scientific achievements, the minister took special care to praise ISRO. He also wondered if it was correct to call someone who had retired just a few days back as ISRO's former chief. He invited Radhakrishnan for his lecture with the introduction that the scientist will not be allowed to "retire and rest".

 

[Lions Of Punjab]

Actually this article is about satellite , but the highlighted part in red caught my attention . can anyone explain what it is talking about ? i never heard of it .

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Terrorists fighting the army in insurgency-hit areas will soon have to face a new combatant that they cannot kill. The Research and Development Establishment (R&DE), Dighi, is developing a weaponised version of the 'bomb hunter' Daksh robot specifically for fighting militants alongside soldiers.

The R&DE is one of the several laboratories of the Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO),.country's premier weapons maker. The Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Daksh was originally developed for handling bombs like Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and officially inducted into the army in December last year.

Christened Gun Mounted Robot (GMR), it will have a 7.62 mm light machine gun with 'belt-fed ammunition' and a 30 mm grenade launcher. The GMR will not only pack lethal firepower but will also have night vision and thermal imaging equipment.

Dr. Alok Mukherjee, who heads the Robotics Development Center of R&DE, said that the robot could replace soldiers in sensitive locations in insurgency-hit areas thereby minimising human losses. "The original platform, which carried the Daksh was too slow for a weaponised version. So we designed a much faster and silent electrical engine that is four times powerful than the original. The batteries will also be replaced with newly developed ones which can last longer along with the range which will be increased to 1km from 0.5 km," Mukherjee said.

He, however, refused to divulge technical and performance details of the engine citing security reasons. 2 varieties of tyres GMR will also have two types of tyres, one for urban environment and the other will be pneumatic tyres for crosscountry terrains. However, the notable feature is not the weapons but the Target Tracking System where the guns can move in direction of a moving target after 'locking on' with the camera. "We are trying to enhance the accuracy of the TTS and fine-tuning the integration with the camera so that it cannot miss fast moving targets," he said.

R&DE has already completed the prototype version and it will be another 2 years until the final product is ready after a series of tests and alterations. "We are open to selling the robot to paramilitary and other state police forces," he said.

More here: :: Bharat-Rakshak.com - Indian Military News Headlines ::

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India may soon come out with its series of robotic soldiers to man difficult war zones and save loss of lives along borders.

The move will hoist India into the next level of unmanned fighting league under a project being developed by the DRDO. The robot soliders would be equipped with a keen intelligence to detect a threat from a friend and respond to it in required manner with precision and accuracy. India's Iron Men can then be deployed along the Line of Control (LoC) to guard Indian borders and adjoining territories.

"It is a new programme and a number of labs are already working in a big way on robotics," said DRDO chief Avinash Chander. The newly-appointed DRDO chief listed the project for development of robotic soldiers as one of his "priority thrust areas" saying that "unmanned warfare in land and air is the future of warfare. Initially, the robotic soldier may be assisting the man."

He said in the initial phase of the project, the robotic soldier would be required to be told by the human soldier to identify an enemy or a combatant but "slowly in due course of time, the iron soldier would be at the front."

It may be recalled that United Nations expert Christof Heyns had recently pushed for a moratorium on testing and use of automated armed robots that can kill targets without needing human command.

Heyns had told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that a decision to allow machines to be deployed to kill human beings worldwide, whatever weapons they use, deserved a collective pause. He even urged the council to set up a high-level panel to report on advances in the development of "lethal autonomous robotics."

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DRDO begins testing gun-mounted robot

February 21, 2012: After the success of the Daksh ordnance disposal and surveillance robotic vehicle that was recently inducted into the Army, and receiving good reviews from the user, DRDO laboratory R&D(E) has finished prototyping a combat robot codenamed GMR (gun-mounted robot), that it intends to offer to the Army, paramilitary forces and police forces in the next two years. ( 2013 or 2014 ) First displayed at Def Expo 2010, the GMR has now matured enough for development trials in simulated scenarios.

The robot's primary weapon will be an indigenous remotely operated 7.62-mm gun along with a grenade launcher. DRDO scientists, in cooperation with academic institutions and private incubation firms, are confident that the GMR will be comparable with similar systems already deployed by the US forces, especially in Iraq. Fitted with sensors for around-the-corner targetting and damage assessment, the GMR will be offered in both tracked and wheeled variants. The GMR and Daksh are only two of a substantial list of robotic vehicles being developed in-house. The most ambitious of these is a full-sized remote-controlled armoured vehicle. Last year, the DRDO even held a nationwide competition to pick the best unmanned ground vehicle developed by academic institutes across the country. Technologies from these will be infused into future programmes.

Source : DRDO begins testing gun mounted robot - SP's Land Forces

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Prototype of Rudra 2012

Prototype of Rudra 2014

The progress is continues ..

Actually this article is about satellite , but the highlighted part in red caught my attention . can anyone explain what it is talking about ? i never heard of it .

 

[ezsasa]

i would wish they also work on mortars which can auto-adjust elevation and range for border skirmish retaliation.
or this kind of thing already exist?