DRDO to invest in Rs1,000-crore defence avionics facility

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) plans to invest around Rs1,000 crore in Hyderabad over the next five years to boost missile production and build a world-class hypersonic wind tunnel facility to serve the growing demands of strategic systems.

While a sum of Rs600 crore would be invested on expansion of missile production which is being taken up in collaboration with
Bharat Dynamics Limited, another Rs350 crore would be made available towards the setting up of the wind tunnel.

The wind tunnel would be used to test systems for missiles, aircraft and re-entry vehicles flying at hypersonic speed – (above Mach 5) as against the present facilities to test vehicles of speed upto Mach 5.

The plans were disclosed to the media at an international aviation conclave by scientific advisor to Defence Minister and director-general, DRDO, VK Saraswat in Hyderabad yesterday.

According to Saraswat, another sophisticated facility was recently set up near Dundigal for testing electronic warfare systems. Avinash Chander, director, Advanced Systems Laboratory, added that the Open Range Facility near Dundigal would be one of the finest in the world.

Sarawat further said a project had been sanctioned for design and development of a 100-seater Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA) to provide connectivity between towns that had airports with smaller runways, in the country.