Time has come for collaboration between ISRO and DRDO for fusion of technologies. The net outcome will have manifold use for diverse purposes, ISRO Chairman K Sivan has said.
“While we (ISRO) talk about radar, you (DRDO) talk about sonar. The operating principles are the same. There exists a big platform for mutual cooperation,” he said while inaugurating ICONS 2018, an international conference on sonar systems and sensors, here.
Presiding over the function, DRDO Chairman S Christopher said his organisation is keen to enter into fruitful collaborations with academia and industries in India and abroad in the field of defence science and technology.
The Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), engaged in the research and development of sonar systems and allied technologies, has always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the Indian Navy. As a result, NPOL systems have been successfully deployed on naval ships and submarines, he said.
S Kedarnath Shenoy, Director, NPOL, said the thrust areas of its R&D are signal processing and imaging, underwater acoustics, electronics, engineering systems, transducers, materials and oceanography. The laboratory has developed hull-mounted sonar systems for ships and submarines, and towed-array sonar and airborne sonar for the Indian Navy.
NPOL has made it possible for the country to master the technologies and come up with indigenous innovations and solutions, and its success has contributed to the nation’s self-reliance in these vital fields, he added.
The three-day meet is being organised by NPOL, Kochi, the systems laboratory of DRDO.