After the success of Agni 5 missile, India is now developing new range of missiles that include surface-to-air with a range of 300 km, air-to-surface with a range of 400 km, and air-to-air missiles with a target range of 300 km

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad:  After the success of Agni 5 missile, India is now
developing new range of missiles that include surface-to-air with a
range of 300 km, air-to-surface with a range of 400 km, and air-to-air
missiles with a target range of 300 km.

At present India has surface-to-air missiles of 50 km range. Research
is going on to increase the range to 300 km to boost the defence
capabilities of the country.

According to Avinash Chander, chief controller, research and
development (missiles and strategic systems), “the era is to realise
micro and nano missiles using MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems)
and NEMS (nano-electromechanical systems) technologies. He was
addressing the silver jubilee celebrations of the Research Centre
Imarat here on Monday.

Avinash Chander said they were now focusing on low weight and low cost
nano missiles with world-class technology. “We are developing
air-to-surface missiles with a range of 400 km as against the present
available range of 30 km,” he said adding that seek-and-destroy class
of weapons with an accuracy of one metre were also being developed.

Referring to the achievements of HILS (hardware-in-loop simulation) at
RCI set up 25 years ago, Avinash Chander lauded the achievements of
the centre. The RCI has developed advanced technology of avionics
including navigation systems, system on chip, servo valves and seekers.

“RCI is now very close to development of navigation on chip, telemetry
on chip, seeker on chip and the entire avionics on a single board,” he
added.

Former president APJ Abdul Kalam, who is also the founder-director of
RCI, visited various facilities in the Centre including
Hardware-In-Loop-Simulation, Virtual Reality Lab, ERP Centre, and
avionic systems. He congratulated DRDO team and advanced simulation
centre scientists for the scientific and technological contribution in
the Agni 5 mission.

“When nano technology and ICT meet, integrated silicon electronics,
photonics are born and it can be said that material convergence will
happen. With material convergence and biotechnology linked, a new
science called Intelligent Bioscience will be born which would lead to
a disease free, happy and more intelligent human habitat with
longevity and high human capabilities. Convergence of bio-nano-info
technologies can lead to the development of nano robots,” Dr Kalam said.

Dr SK Chaudhuri, director, RCI, G Satheesh Reddy, associate director,
RCI, Agni 4 project director Tessy Thomas, Prof Akopyan of Moscow
Research Institute, Russia, and others were present.

Dr Chaudhuri said the simulation facility at RCI had transformed the
centre into a                     frontier aerospace technology for
performance evaluation of flight systems in more realistic scenario.