The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will invest over Rs 1000 crore to create 4-5 new facilities for testing and quality. The investment and creation of these facilities will be over the next two-three years.
These include, a full-fledged launch control centre in Port Blair, a hypersonic wind tunnel testing facility near Hyderabad, a hi-tech electronic range in Andhra Pradesh and another centre for testing and calibration of materials.
These facilities will improve the country's capabilities in testing missiles, electronic components, materials, systems etc., according to Mr Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (R&D), Missiles and strategic systems of the DRDO.
Hypersonic Wind Tunnel
The hypersonic wind tunnel facility will come up in Shamirpet about 35 km from Hyderabad. It will be useful in simulating hypersonic flight speeds (up to Mach 10, a Mach number is the speed of sound) on the ground in the facility.
“With the next generation of missiles to be developed by India going to be in the hypersonic area, the facility is very important, Mr Chander told Business Line here.
The DRDO already has a project on hypersonic missile development technology. At present, BrahMos, the Indo-Russian joint venture developed cruise missile is in this class with speeds of Mach 2.8. The DRDO facility will require around Rs 600 crore investment. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is also building one such facility, he said.
Electronic Range
While it has been decided to locate the electronic range in Andhra Pradesh, the DRDO is looking out for suitable land. It will be a software-driven facility. In addition to simulation and evaluation of weapon systems, it would be possible to create complex battle field conditions in the range to test out various hardware and software.
The Defence Electronics Research Laboratory, Hyderabad along with a few other labs and national institutes has developed an electronic warfare platform. With future wars expected to be heavily dependent on software, complex electronics and communications, the national facility would be very critical, said defence scientists.