Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) : News and Updates

Indian pvt players are minions compares to Global players like Apple, Google,Microsoft , IBM and LM,Boeing, Northrop Grumen, Dassault etc who actually do path breaking research and invent things and are almost 100 years old and have access to huge funds (both internal and Govt grants)

Its foolish to expect Indian newcomers to invest in such resource intensive path breaking projects.
Its mostly done by Govt funded labs like DARPA and NASA even in USA
I agree for most of the projects which currently dont have any path to commercialization govt should step in and invest. But for others private sector should take the lead especially in software industry. The companies that you pointed out google and microsoft were not supported by govt initially to start with. But infosys, wipro, TCS have been there for a quite a long period of time, its only that they are still stuck to the shitty service sector instead of moving to product domain or take on challenging projects. They make enough money that can be plowed into R&D , they are simply becoming another ambani in software industry.

By the way intel and TCS were both founded in 1968, not to deny that intel got some serious backing from US govt but post liberalization TCS should have grown to be more innovative or path breaking company that simply has not happened.

Look every other sector you need strength in hardware but software industry is one where we could have done better bcos it is more of a human resource intensive. Our ability to create, collaborate , co-ordinate or lead to build orgs/institutions or initiatives is still a big suspect. We will simply remain a mid level country without realizing our potential.
 
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I agree for most of the projects which currently dont have any path to commercialization govt should step in and invest. But for others private sector should take the lead especially in software industry. The companies that you pointed out google and microsoft were not supported by govt initially to start with. But infosys, wipro, TCS have been there for a quite a long period of time, its only that they are still stuck to the shitty service sector instead of moving to product domain or take on challenging projects. They make enough money that can be plowed into R&D , they are simply becoming another ambani in software industry.

By the way intel and TCS were both founded in 1968, not to deny that intel got some serious backing from US govt but post liberalization TCS should have grown to be more innovative or path breaking company that simply has not happened.

Look every other sector you need strength in hardware but software industry is one where we could have done better bcos it is more of a human resource intensive. Our ability to create, collaborate , co-ordinate or lead to build orgs/institutions or initiatives is still a big suspect. We will simply remain a mid level country without realizing our potential.
My take on this subject is that, if ISRO can achieve, what it has achieved (obviously with help from Russians), I think our private sector companies can achieve more and quicker, provided they have the backing of the government. The key here is that both the government and private sector is to have a skin in the game with both parties investing in such projects.
 
But infosys, wipro, TCS have been there for a quite a long period of time, its only that they are still stuck to the shitty service sector instead of moving to product domain or take on challenging projects.
They are incapable of any innovation. Innovation for them is some shitty process innovation in their own already established process. To put it plainly they are the janitors and electricians of the tech world. Why just them, most Indian companies are incapable off innovation.

To give you a simple example. When I was working for a company I was asked to setup a team for coming out with products/services which we could sell to the world. So made a business case. Presented it. Told them we need to recruit skilled people (meaning better trained) and get them incentives to stay on board. Like give them share of profits/IPR from the products the team developed.

They balked. Said salary is more than enough. Why share IPR? And why not do it with existing personnel.

Indian management like the ones you stated have zero risk appetite. And negative rating in innovation.
 
They are incapable of any innovation. Innovation for them is some shitty process innovation in their own already established process. To put it plainly they are the janitors and electricians of the tech world. Why just them, most Indian companies are incapable off innovation.

To give you a simple example. When I was working for a company I was asked to setup a team for coming out with products/services which we could sell to the world. So made a business case. Presented it. Told them we need to recruit skilled people (meaning better trained) and get them incentives to stay on board. Like give them share of profits/IPR from the products the team developed.

They balked. Said salary is more than enough. Why share IPR? And why not do it with existing personnel.

Indian management like the ones you stated have zero risk appetite. And negative rating in innovation.
We as a community are too socialist-ified to venture into high risk-high reward capitalistic paradigm.

We just want secure jobs that will foot the bills. Even the business men too don’t like to come out of their comfort zones here due to fear of getting robbed off by Govt-bureaucracy complex.
 
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They are incapable of any innovation. Innovation for them is some shitty process innovation in their own already established process. To put it plainly they are the janitors and electricians of the tech world. Why just them, most Indian companies are incapable off innovation.

To give you a simple example. When I was working for a company I was asked to setup a team for coming out with products/services which we could sell to the world. So made a business case. Presented it. Told them we need to recruit skilled people (meaning better trained) and get them incentives to stay on board. Like give them share of profits/IPR from the products the team developed.

They balked. Said salary is more than enough. Why share IPR? And why not do it with existing personnel.

Indian management like the ones you stated have zero risk appetite. And negative rating in innovation.
The question that needs to be asked is, if we are honest as a nation. When anyone starts a business or ventures into a new area, they look for opportunities, identify one's customer/s and their appetite / capability to buy. In case of defense procurement, India has the following problems.

1) Limited budget
2) Bureaucracy that doesn't understand defense
3) Armed forces which are so used to foreign imports (add the trips and deputations to foreign countries to oversee manufacturing / training)
4) Brokers
5) Lobbyists

All the orders / purchases to date have either succumbed to any or all of the above factors or had to navigate through all the above to find its way to be ordered from an Indian vendor. That said, the government has to create the environment where the private players have a level playing field against the OFB's and defense PSU's. The procurement process has to be further simplified and the never ending testing for locally manufactured defense equipment by Armed forces should end. Unless we create such an environment, we can't blame our business houses in establishing R&D budgets to the levels of countries who are leading the defense industry.

As an earnest effort, the Indian government can start with the order for Rifles for the Indian armed forces. If Russia doesn't come to terms on AK-203, we can look at local private players and choose one of the rifles in the same caliber as AK-203 and place an order for 1 lakh rifles. This will provide SSS defense or a Punj Lloyd to get a firm footing. For the Navy, we can give the order for the next set of Corvettes to L&T. For the Airforce, let us create a JV company between HAL and a private entity and start manufacturing LUH or a Sitara or a HTT-40. Small, earnest but firm steps is the way to go.
 
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Nothing in public yet. BEL had attempted something about that around Aero India 2013-14. Their representative said so during the event. Nothing much was heard of it later. BEL had started license building the Thales Damocles LDP at that time & they were saying that the experience they had from making various land based laser dazzlers with DRDO's IRDE would come in very handy in making a DIRCM.
Damocles LDP at BEL Pavilion.jpg


They also added that the miniaturization of the laser units might take a few years. At that time they were pinning their hopes on the DRDO's Nd:YAG laser unit.
Pic4.jpg

Pic1.jpg

There were some ifs & buts about the laser unit. It was a KW scale laser unit & DIRCM doesn't need that much power. Then everything went quiet.

airborne FCR
Uttam AESA ?!?
 
Nothing in public yet. BEL had attempted something about that around Aero India 2013-14. Their representative said so during the event. Nothing much was heard of it later. BEL had started license building the Thales Damocles LDP at that time & they were saying that the experience they had from making various land based laser dazzlers with DRDO's IRDE would come in very handy in making a DIRCM.
View attachment 18958

They also added that the miniaturization of the laser units might take a few years. At that time they were pinning their hopes on the DRDO's Nd:YAG laser unit.
View attachment 18952
View attachment 18953
There were some ifs & buts about the laser unit. It was a KW scale laser unit & DIRCM doesn't need that much power. Then everything went quiet.


Uttam AESA ?!?
drdo has developed number of land based laser dazzler system so they can develop airborne too.

FCR for helicopter.
 
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DRDO hands over indigenous highly mobile bridges to Indian Army, makes SAHAYAK-NG for Navy​

The year ends with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) handing over highly mobile bridges to the Indian Army. The bridges which have been developed by the Research and Development Establishment (Engineers) under DRDO and is part of Armament and Combat Engineering technology cluster, which is the Pune-headquartered.

What is so special about the bridges?
These will help in fulfilling the requirement of mobility to the Indian armed forces and will bridge the gaps during operations.

These are 10-meter short-span mechanically launched bridges and the first three were handed over to the Indian Army earlier this week at the facility of Larsen & Toubro Ltd at Talegaon in Pune, where these are being manufactured.

These bridges have been developed based on the requirement of the armed forces and are being done in coordination with the Corps of Engineers, Indian Army.

Also, the DRDO has developed different variants of the bridges — five-meter and 15 meters. And these have been inducted in the Indian Army.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) “It is a step towards weaning away of our armed forces from foreign manufactured equipment. These have been designed and developed indigenously and are being delivered as per the schedule.”

This belongs to the Military Load Classification — 70 load class. It is capable of bridging smaller caps and canals up to 10 meters in length.

It has a high mobility launching platform which is suitable for heavy military traffic.

There is a double-A shaped trestle that provides heavy military vehicles stability.

These can be used for quick construction which requires minimum crew and lighting arrangement for deployment at night.

DRDO has also successfully conducted the maiden Flight Trial of SAHAYAK-NG, Air Droppable Container
Along with the Indian Navy, DRDO on Thursday has successfully conducted the test trial of ‘SAHAYAK-NG’.
It is India first indigenously designed and developed Air Dropped Container. It was dropped from IL 38SD aircraft (Indian Navy) off the coast of Goa.

The purpose of the test?
To further enhance Indian Navy’s operational logistics capabilities and to also provide critical engineering stores to ships.

For collecting spares and stores, the ships which are deployed more than 2000 km from the coast, may not have to come close to the coast any more.

Which DRDO labs are involved?
There are two labs — NSTL, Visakhapatnam and ADRDE, Agra.

These two labs developed SAHAYAK-NG container along with the industry partner M/s Avantel for GPS integration and can carry a payload up to 50 kg and can be dropped from a heavy aircraft.
 

DRDO, Indian Navy conduct successful maiden test trial of SAHAYAK-NG​

Defence Research and Development Organisation, DRDO along with Indian Navy conducted the successful maiden test trial of SAHAYAK-NG India’s first indigenously designed and developed Air Dropped Container from IL 38SD aircraft of Indian Navy off the coast of Goa.

The trial was conducted by Indian Navy to enhance its operational logistics capabilities and provide critical engineering stores to ships which are deployed more than 2000 kilometres from the coast. It reduces the requirement of ships to come close to the coast to collect spares and stores.

Two DRDO laboratories, NSTL, Visakhapatnam and ADRDE, Agra were involved in the development of SAHAYAK-NG container along the industry partner M/s Avantel for GPS integration. SAHAYAK-NG is an advanced version of SAHAYAK Mk I. The newly developed GPS aided air dropped container is having the capability to carry a payload that weighs upto 50 kg and can be dropped from heavy aircraft.

Chairman DRDO Dr G Satheesh Reddy has congratulated DRDO scientists, Indian Navy and the associated industry partners involved in the successful maiden trial.