As per the DRDO statement, “at around 4 am today, an incidence of fire was noticed in a ammunition magazine (storage area) of PXE Chandipur. It was promptly controlled. There was no harm to any individual. There has been no damage to the surrounding buildings / facilities. Investigations to ascertain the cause of fire are on.”

Ravi Gupta, DRDO spokesman said that the incident does not affect Interim Test Range, Balasore (ITR), which is India’s sole facility to test long range missiles.

Both PXE and ITR are housed in the same complex, but are two different divisions of DRDO.

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Tracing the development of night vision devices by DRDO from its earliest days, Dr. V K Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to defence minister, Secretary Deptt.of Defence R&D and DG DRDO highlighted the achievements of DRDO in the field of electro-optics. He also mentioned about the development of ‘Thermal Imaging based commander’s sight for T-72 and T-90 tanks as well as BMPs, thus removing the night blindness of these Armoured Fighting Vehicles. Mentioning about the progress made by IRDE in this critical area, he gave the example of recently developed Integrated Multi Functional Sight that weighs within 3.5 kg, as compared to the 1st generation devices of similar nature, that used to weigh around 55 kg.

Emphasizing the need to strengthen manufacturing infrastructure in the country, he stated that the country had to gear up to produce the advanced Thermal Detectors indigenously, “Our biggest weakness is the availability of infrared imaging detector fabrication facilities. In 80s we were chasing a sum of 60 crores(to establish this facility), in 90s we were chasing a sum of 100 crores and in 2000s we were chasing the sum of 1000 crores. There is a need to take a decision in regard to set up this facility with foreign collaboration, in order to fill this vital technology gap”. He also invited the industry partners, scientists, academicians to work together to overcome these gaps so that dependence on imports can be minimized.

Anil Kumar, CMD, BEL put forth the industry perspective and assured that BEL centres are always ready to support the indigenisation efforts of the country and will deliver the quality instruments in time to the armed forces.

The seminar aimed at familiarizing Armed forces with the capabilities of DRDO in thermal imaging field and understand their present and future requirements. The event is being attended by senior officers from the Armed Forces, the Ordnance factories, public sector giants like Bharat Electronics and private sector partners. Eight foreign firms from countries France, Belgium, Greece,Israel, Netherlands & USA also participated and exhibited their products.

The DRDO – BEL combine exhibited a variety of Thermal Imagers covering wide range of applications for Army, Navy & Air force. EOFCS for navy, HHTI with LRF, Commander’s TI sights for T-72, T-90 & BMP, Commander’s Panoramic sight for MBT, Holographic sight & Light-weight Laser Target Designator were the main equipment exhibited by IRDE.

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Brahmos Supersonic Cruise Missile took off vertically from the submerged platform for its full range of 290 kms, following a pre-defined trajectory. “The missile emerged from underwater, took a turn towards the designated target meeting all mission objectives. All the telemetry and tracking stations, including Indian navalships positioned throughout the flight path, confirmed the pin-point accuracy of the mission,” says official release.

India recently tested its underwater K-15 Sagarika missile from a submerged pantoon. Deferred for want of a test submarine, Brahmos underwater version borrowed Sagarika launch technique for test. This is the first time that any supersonic cruise missile is launched vertically from a submerged platform. BRAHMOS vertically installed in a modular launcher in the pressure hull of the submarine will increase the ‘offensive power’ of the vessel without compromising on its ‘defensive power’ as the torpedo tubes can be fully utilised for defence.

Dr. A Sivathanu Pillai, CEO & MD, BrahMos Aerospace said “BRAHMOS missile is fully ready for fitment in P75 (I) of Indian Navy in vertical launch configuration which will make the platform one of the most powerful weapon platform in the World.”

Defence Minister AK Antony congratulated the scientists of DRDO, Russian specialists and members from Indian Navy associated with the project for successful test launch of BRAHMOS missile from underwater platform.

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“With reference to the reports circulating in certain sections of media, it is stated that as per available information, no incidence of breach of security of DRDO’s computers has come to notice. Appropriate measures are in place for safety and security of computer systems,” said the official statement.

Defence Minister A K Antony, on being asked if there was hacking of DRDO computers, also side stepped the question by saying “Intelligence agencies are investigating the matter at this stage and I do not want to say anything else.”

Hacking sensitive information from DRDO would include accessing its centralised computing facility CHITRA (Center for High performance computing and Research) (Read here DRDO’s CHITRA centralised super computing facility is being upgraded). 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). CHITRA Centre is connected to all the DRDO laboratories through DRDO’s wide area network, called DRONA.

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“Long range cruise missile Nirbhay was successfully launched today at 1150 hrs from launch complex, Chandipur, Odisha, meeting the basic mission objectives successfully. After travelling approximately mid-way, deviations were observed from its intended course. Further, flight was terminated to ensure coastal safety,” said the MoD statement.

India already has a supersonic 299 Km cruise missile BrahMos, jointly developed by India and Russia. Nirbhay, is a 1000 km medium range loitering missile developed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratory based at Bangalore.

The missiles control and guidance lend it a high degree of accuracy and features stealth capabilities.

In development since 2007, the missile was developed secretly.

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“A proposal for diversion of forest land in Andaman & Nicobar Islands has been initiated by DRDO. A request has also been made to the Government of Andhra Pradesh to spare unassigned revenue land and reserve forest land at Nagayalanka. Both the projects for setting up of Missile Test Ranges are at the initial planning stages and land acquisition process is on,” stated Defence Minister AK Antony in the Parliament.

Nagayalanka falls in the new diamond zones in the country. It is located on the banks of Krishna River. Carin India has located oil in the area. The DRDO officials have inspected a 350 acre site in Nagayalanka mandal in Diviseema.

Rutland Island is located across the Macpherson Strait from South Andaman Island with an area of 109.3 km² and approx 60 km coastline.

The projects require nod from Ministry of Environment and Forest and Revenue Authorities.

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Most of such situations are dealt with lathi charge, tear gas, firing and end up in killing. To be in tune with new Govt. policy to deter such situations by inducing fear and using non- lethal techniques, Terminal Ballistic Research Lab (TBRL) of the DRDO has designed & developed Riot control ammunitions in four calibers for Police and law enforcing agencies.

These ammunitions have been developed for use with 7.62 mm SLR, AK 47, 9mm & .303” Rifles, which are currently being used by various such agencies in the country. This ammunition can be used by the service weapon without any modification and does not require any special training.

One of the main features of this ammunition is that it induces near similar sound effect as that observed during firing of the ball ammunition, thus creating fears and panic among the unruly mob. These ammunitions is already in use by various Police & Para-military Forces.

Salient Features

The main advantage of this bullet is that it is a non- metallic & non-poisonous bullet and therefore does not cause wound infections to rioters. Moreover, it is non- expanding after penetration and induces similar sound effect as that of ball ammunition hence, it creates same panic in the mob as that of service round.

It causes only superficial injuries at a distance of 60 m and beyond and recoil of the rifle is much less therefore no special training is required for operating the weapons by the soldiers. This ammunition available in four calibers: .303″, 7.62mm (SLR & Ak 47) and 9 mm and can be used by in-service weapons without any modification. Plastic ammunition can be tailored for specific lethality requirements just by reducing the charge.

Challenges Ahead

Existing ammunition is available in single shot mode of operation and has a lethal radius of 60m. The requirements posed by National Security Guard and J&K police are to use ammunition in automatic firing mode and should have lethal radius of 30m or less. To match these conflicting criterions TBRL has carried out new studies for the development of less lethal Plastic bullets which can be fired in auto mode.

There is one more interesting requirements from National Security Guards for sky marshals to prevent hijacking of aircrafts. In hijacking scenario, the bullet should be designed in such a way that it can kill the hijacker but should not damage the body of the aircraft.

Frangible Bullets

TBRL has come up with an innovative idea of developing frangible bullets using powder metallurgy technique. These bullets will be able to penetrate human tissues but will get fragmented into number of small pieces on impact on any hard target like, metallic objects, walls, concrete structures etc. Some preliminary tests have been carried out using metallic powder composition, which has shown encouraging results. In a span of 2-3years, plastic bullets with further improved lethality and enhanced automatic operations and frangible bullets for low intensity conflicts will be available for police and law enforcement agencies of the country.

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He said that MIRV will act as a force multiplier but refused to divulge the range. Last year, India tested Agni-5 with a range of 5500 kms.

In october 2012, Defence Minister AK Antony had deflected a question over future of Agni Missile program and if India was developing a longer range missile. “Don’t be impatient. Let the present Agni series stabilise,” he had said.

In addition, Saraswat said DRDO is also developing a cruise missile defence program which would enable the armed forces to defend against low-flying cruise missiles and enemy aircraft. India is already set to deploy a anti-ballistic missile shield developed by DRDO.

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DRDO officials said in Bangalore that after the approval, the DRDO will now work towards finalising the further details of the programmes and the number of such aircraft that the IAF would require for giving a complete coverage of India’s boundaries, they said.

India already has a fleet of three AWACS aircraft supplied by Israel deployed on the Ilyushin-76 aircraft procured form Russia. For the indigenous AWACS, the DRDO will look for an alternative aircraft of the size of the IL-76 and deploy its AWACS system on it.

On the difference between the Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft being developed by it and the proposed AWACS, they said the AWACS radar gives a 360 degree coverage while the AEW&C gives a coverage of 270 degrees.

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HAL’s rotorcraft division chief P. Soundara Rajan said, “In this particular case it involved four major groups of systems and weapons, involving eight countries: Israel, France, Belgium, South Africa, Germany, Italy, USA and India. Nearly 23 km of cables had to be laid and hundreds of hours of flight and ground tests were carried out.”

HAL Rudra Advanced Light Helicopter Mk-IV

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