On December 18, 2020, Union Minister for Defence, Rajnath Singh handed over 3 New Indigenous Systems – Border Surveillance System (BOSS), Indian Maritime Situational Awareness System (IMSAS) & ASTRA MK-I Missile all developed by Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) to the Chiefs of 3 Armed Forces – Indian Navy, Indian Air Force (IAF) & Indian Army at a function held in DRDO Bhawan, New Delhi.
i.BOSS was handed over to Chief of Army Staff General, MM Naravane, IMSAS was handed over to Admiral Karambir Singh, Chief of Naval Staff & ASTRA Mk-I Missile handed over to Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, Air Chief Marshal.
ii.Shripad Yesso Naik, Minister of State for Defence was the Guest of Honour of the handing over ceremony, while General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff , Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Chairman of DRDO were present during the event.
Gist of 3 Defence Systems:
Border Surveillance System (BOSS):
i.It is an all-weather electronic surveillance system designed for automatically detecting the intrusion in harsh high-altitude sub-zero temperature areas.
ii.It has a 20 Kilometre remote operation capability and has been deployed to Ladakh border for Day & Night surveillance.
iii.Designed and Developed by Instruments Research & Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun and will be produced by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Machlipatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
Indian Maritime Situational Awareness System (IMSAS):
i.The IMSAS is a modern, high performance intelligent software system which provides Global Maritime Situational Picture, Marine Planning Tools & Analytical capabilities to Indian Navy.
ii.IMSAS provides an overall Maritime Operational Picture from the Naval Headquarters to each individual ship of Indian Navy to enable Naval Command & Control (C2).
iii.Conceptualised and Developed by Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIR), Bengaluru & Indian Navy. BEL, Bengaluru (Karnataka) has implemented it.
iv.IMSAS has been deployed across Indian Navy operation centers at Delhi, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Kochi, Port Blair, Chennai, Goa & Karwar.
ASTRA Mk-I:
ASTRA Mk-I is an indigenously developed first Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile capable of being launched from Sukhoi-30, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Mig-29 & Mig-29K.
i.It is the 1st Air-to-Air missile developed by India.
ii.It has been developed by Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad & produced by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad.
iii.The missile is capable of engaging targets at varying range – Short-range targets at a distance of 10 Kilometres & Long-range targets upto a distance of 110 Kilometres.
DRDO Awards Ceremony:
Rajnath Singh Felicitated 45 eminent Scientists from DRDO for their extraordinary research work & Contribution. Excellence awards were given to academic & industry for technology absorption. Individual awards, team awards, technology spin-off awards, tech managerial award and other categories were given.
i.DRDO Lifetime Achievement Award 2018 – N V Kadam for contribution towards development of control and guidance schemes for missiles.
ii.Agni Award for Excellence in Self-Reliance 2018 – Amit Sharma, he is the youngest awardee to receive the award in the cyber-security domain.
iii.Defence Institute of High Altitude Research (DIHAR), Leh conferred Defence Technology Spin-off Award for helping increase farm productivity in Ladakh, Dr OP Chaurasia, Director, DIHAR received the award.
Amit Sharma & Team have made contributions in the field of open source data analysis, reverse engineering, crash analysis & counter advanced persistent threats.
Recent Related News:
i.On October 17, 2020 In order to augment its Research and Development(R&D) capabilities,CRPF has collaborated with IIT Delhi, DRDO, and Joint Advanced Technology Centre (JATC), a joint initiative of DRDO and IIT Delhi.
ii.July 6, 2020 DRDO will establish a research cell at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad(IIT-H), ‘DRDO – IIT-H Research Cell’ to meet the future defence technological requirements of the country.
About Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO):
Chairman – Dr G Satheesh Reddy
Headquarters – New Delhi
