The Defence Research Development Organisation is ready to set up new Labs in order to prepare Indian armed forces for future Hi-Tech warfare. The strategic and tactical defence capability of the country is all set to get a boost with defence research and development organisation (DRDO) as it all set to establish 5 Laboratories in the specialised area of quantum technologies, artificial intelligence, asymmetric technologies, cognitive Technologies and smart materials in order to get specialised in the area of futuristic Technologies. All of these Laboratories are located at Chennai Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
The futuristic area of Technology that will help in changing the way of work is based on the campus of Jadavpur University Kolkata on the other hand the research to be carried out in the critical areas of smart materials, as well as their application, will be based on Hyderabad.
Artificial intelligence is the core of future technology and heavy research is made on this rapidly evolving area will be carried out at Bangalore on the other hand all the research in the area of quantum technology will be carried out at IIT Mumbai.
Cognitive technology is said to be the future of Hi-Tech Warfare and hence all the research in this area will be carried out at the Laboratories of IIT Chennai.
All of these Laboratories and research is is carried out with the aim to have key advanced technology for developing the futuristic defence system in our country.
In order to take a big leap towards making India self-reliant and to make our country ready for futuristic defence technology, these Laboratories have been established to work on advanced and future technologies.
DRDO is of the view that science and technology have a great impact on the defence system and hence it becomes very important to have proper research on the related field and direction of the operational-tactical and strategic warfare paradigm has been continually defined in the edge of Technology. DRDO also stated that the evolving technology in the world is a great challenge towards the traditional norm of Indian technology and hence proper assessment and forecasting has to be done in the area to pace with the innovation of today’s world technology. For this purpose, it is very important to evaluate the future potential of Indian technology to contribute to the defence organisation. The DRDO also stated that the above-mentioned Laboratories will be known as young scientists laboratory where they contributed towards the research and development of future warfare technology.
Defence Technologies and security – the DRDO perspective
DRDO is widely regarded in the country as the custodian of Defence as well as R&D. Over the years DRDO has adapted itself to changing geopolitical scenario and adapt itself in the globalised world. The mission of DRDO is to develop and design the state of the art system and various technologies in order to provide a technological solution by developing infrastructure and quality manpower for the defence system of India. DRDO started working since 1958 and presently it has an umbrella of 50 labs having a wide variety of technological disciplines in various centres. DRDO has operated with the financial outlay of 6% of the Indian defence budget to the expenditure as compared to the world leaders like the USA at 15%, Israel at 9% and China at 20%. The whole budget is bifurcated in such a way that about one-third of it is utilised for technological development and various developmental projects about another third is used for strategic system development and the remaining one is utilised for infrastructure development and the training of Manpower.
DRDO has numerous Laboratories working in the field of life sciences in support of the man behind the machine. The area of interface covered the entire requirement of soldiers from selection and training to protection from a performance evaluation of clothing and nutrition in various hazardous environments. With the development of the Multi Battle Tank(MBT), Arjun 1 DRDO has achieved remarkable success and India became a few countries in the world that is capable of developing its own MBT.
The Technology produced by DRDO
Aeronautics
It covers various control laws for unstable Aircraft, image processing, jam resistant datalinks, open architecture avionics, FBW DFCS, mobile launch mechanism, composite structure. It includes system like combat aircraft: LCA Tejas, UAVs: Nishanth Aerostats avionics, Lakshya.
Missiles
It has developed strategic missiles named Agni, Dhanush, Prithvi as well as tactical missiles named Trishul, Akash as well as cruise which is named as Brahmos. The technology used under it are autonomous navigation, re-entry vehicle structure, liquid propulsion, folding fin mechanism, stabilization /launch from moving platform, command guidance and multi target tracking.
Naval
The system produced under it EW systems : Sangraha, Samyukta, Radars named 3D CAR, BFSR, Rajendra C41 systems, lasers, Communication. It used various Technologies like transducer arrays, Signal Processing techniques, on board computers fire control, non-skid and corrosion protection Paints, homing Technology.
Electronics
It has developed EW systems Samyukta, Sangrah and various Radar by using technology of direction finding, jamming techniques, network-centric information fusion, voice recognition, high accuracyTrx/ Rx models, secrecy systems.
Armament and combat engineering
It has combat vehicles: MBT Arjun, Bhim, Tank Ex MBRL Pinaka, BLTs, AERVs, ICVs and using technology of hydro gas suspension, flow formed rocket motor, propellants warheads, composite armour, Motar launcher mechanism.
For testing evaluation and special manufacturing Technologies development of infrastructure along with project development has been made by DRDO. Integrated test range at Balasore for missiles, electronic Warfare test ranges, structural dynamics vibration test facilities for aircraft, structures test tracks for land based combat systems, propulsion test facilities are some of the major test infrastructure established by DRDO. These technologies are considered to be the national asset as these Infrastructures state-of-the-art technologies are customised in order to meet the requirements of of Indian defence. But major challenges comes in the way of DRDO that includes the development of Advanced surveillance platforms, expanded air defence and ballistic missile defence capability extended reach next generation combat aircraft and various systems for land and water as well.
DRDO and its linkages
DRDO operates and made external linkages at various levels with different agencies. The major production partners of DRDO are defence PSU use who were the manufacturing partners of DRDO in previous times along with that the other production partners of DRDO are the ordnance factories. During the course of technological development, DRDO has also made good relations with private Industries including both medium and small-scale industry that plays a vital role in the development program of Light Combat Aircraft( LCA) & Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme(IGMDP). With the contribution, DRDO has upgraded to a large extent and its technological capabilities of the defence industrial base have achieved various heights.
DRDO also interacted with various top-level Indian academics that provide basic Research and Technology which serve as freedom for various project development. In order to meet the long-term technological requirement of the organization, the Directorate of extramural research initiates research activities in various academic institutes of India. Along with that for filling up the technological gap in the country DRDO has also created centre of Excellence in various key areas of interest that include computational fluid dynamics centre at IISc, Life sciences at Bharathiyar University, composite manufacturing at NAL and IIT Kanpur, Aerospace design at IIT Mumbai, high energy materials at the University of Hyderabad and Millimetric devices at the University of Calcutta. Along with that DRDO has also instituted the concept of research board in various areas including armaments, aeronautics, life sciences, and Naval Sciences. presently there are more than 100 academic institutes Are the part of DRDO academic network across the country. In order to carry out basic and applied research for a number of common applications, Deere yours has also developed linkages with other national agencies like DAE, DOS and CSIR.
Steps in technology development
The defence Technology building is not an easy task, it is a time-consuming process and it is very important that each step must be meticulously gone through in order to achieve the desired results. So in the development process of Technology, the DRDO operate with a three step formula.
Identify critical Technologies
The critical Technologies can be identified by keeping in mind basic tenets that are the long term plans and missions of the users as well as Global technological development. It should also be considered that these two you are properly aligned and co-ordinate so that The critical technological requirement for the future can be determined.
Assess the technology readiness level in the country
The TRL table that is widely used by NASA is also followed by Europe in the USA and now DRDO has accepted it after making several modifications. During the project proposal stage, this has been used as a decision-maker for evaluating the technology and will also help in deciding the development path to be taken.
Source:
DRDO official website(https://www.drdo.gov.in/)
