Defence R&D- Indian perspective

[amardeep mishra]

Hi I wish to highlight some of the broad areas where DRDO is currently working on. Some of these areas have seen profound success and others not so much. Either way I will put forward some of the systems DRDO is working on.

• Radars:

This is one of those areas where DRDO have had substantial success during past one decade. DRDO first entered into the domain of phased arrays in early 90s with Rajendra-- The very first phased array radar designed in India. This gave way to AESA radars in early-mid 2000s and by late 2000s/early 2010s DRDO was already working on AESA with DBF(digital beam forming) technology.
(a) Arudhra- This is MPR(medium powered radar)

Arudhra was India's first AESA with Digital Beam Forming and hence capable of truly generating multiple beams for multiple tasks simultaneously. This has several advantages over the Israeli ELTA MPR in the sense that it has fully digital beam forming and this one has 4D. Arudhra has a range of 300kms against a small 2m^2 target and a max range of 400kms. According to the designers i.e LRDE, it has great potential to be used in Naval ships.
https://www.drdo.gov.in/drdo/English/mpr.pdf

(b) HPR- High power radar.
This will be used for long range tracking and detection. With a range of 460kms against a 2m^2 target it has substantially improved range compared to it's predecessor from which it has been designed. This will provide a very long range tracking capability to IAF and possibly used for detecting ballistic missiles.

(c) Ashwini: It is another AESA radar with DBF architecture designed specifically for low level tracking. It has a max range of 200kms.

(d) Army's ADTCR:
LRDE has also designed an AESA for army named ADTCR.

• Missile Systems

(a) Miniature Gas turbines: DRDO is actively working on mini gas turbine for cruise missile applications. This micro turbofan has higher thrust than the similar turbofan being used by ADE of russian origin. Static load cell trials of the micro turbofan have been successfully concluded and soon it'll be fitted onto nirbhay for actual flight trials. With the indigenous micro turbofan, Nirbhay will be able to easily traverse 1000+kms and possibly 1500kms in near future. They are already planning a family of missiles based around Nirbhay-- From air launched to ship launched. In my opinion, Indian conventional subs should be armed with conventional-nirbhay.

Courtesy: DRDO publications

(b) Liquid Ramjet.
One of the major component in Brahmos is still russian and that is the liquid ramjet. DRDO is actively working in this domain to design and develop an indigenous liquid ramjet that can be used in future missiles or even replace the russian liquid ramjet.

Courtesy: DRDO publications
(c) Man Portable ATGM: DRDO is actively working on a 2km range man portable ATGM.

With continued R&D, India is constantly developing various critical sub-systems. For instance design and development of micro turbofan will not only enable India to increase the range of CMs at will but also free up India's dependence on Russia for this key component on any sub sonic cruise Missile. Similarly in the field of radars, LRDE's continued growth has resulted in India designing various classes of AESA radars that have proved their designs in grueling trials by the user leading to their induction into the forces.
In my personal opinion, radar design and development is one of those areas where Pakistan needs to do a lot. They are dependent on China and USA for their needs of MPRs.
@Bilal Khan (Quwa) , @Nilgiri , @Oscar

 

[Water Car Engineer]

There's a rather quiet maturity being gained in several sectors, or the ball is rolling in others. The new DRDO chiefs dont talk much like the older ones. The production of these systems have more and more industry participation as well.

 

[amardeep mishra]

There's a rather quiet maturity being gained in several sectors, or the ball is rolling in others. The new DRDO chiefs dont talk much like the older ones. The production of these systems have more and more industry participation as well.

Also one more thing you'll notice these days is that strategic systems like A-5/K-4/K-5 etc are gradually dissappearing from DRDO publications. They are not revealing as they used to. Perhaps that is because now they have graduated to ICBM realm. Thats why?

 

[ni8mare]

@amardeep mishra There are several other ground based AESA radars namely ATULYA ADFCR and BSR/BFMR put details on them also