DRDO Advanced Technology Chaff: India’s state owned defence laboratory Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed an advanced chaff technology to safeguard Indian navy ships against enemy missile attack, the government announced on Monday.
Defence Laboratory Jodhpur (DLJ), a DRDO laboratory, has indigenously developed three variants of this critical technology, Short Range Chaff Rocket (SRCR), Medium Range Chaff Rocket (MRCR) and Long Range Chaff Rocket (LRCR) meeting the Indian Navy’s qualitative requirements, the DRDO said in a statement.
The successful development of Advanced Chaff Technology by DLJ is another step towards a self-reliant India in defence (Atmanirbhar Bharat).
The DRDO said the Indian Navy recently conducted trials of all three variants in the Arabian Sea on Indian Naval Ship and found the performance of the DRDO developed systems to be satisfactory.
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DRDO Advanced Chaff Technology
Chaff is a passive expendable electronic countermeasure technology used worldwide to protect naval ships from enemy’s radar and Radio Frequency (RF) missile seekers.
The importance of this development lies in the fact that very less quantity of chaff material deployed in the air acts as decoy to deflect enemy’s incoming missiles for safety of the ships.
The DRDO said it has gained the expertise to meet the futuristic threats from India’s enemies. According to the officials, the technology is being given to the industry for production in large quantities.
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India’s defence import-export matrix
The advanced chaff technology developed by the DRDO and transferred to private defence industry will save foreign currency outgo on the import of these items.
Prime Minister Modi’s government has laid emphasis on import substitution by developing the local defence industry under its flagship Make in India in Defence policy.
As a result, India’s defence imports have declined by one-third between 2011-15 and 2016-20, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). At the same time, the country’s defence export went up by 228%, making the country the world’s 24th largest arms exporter.
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However, as a total percentage of global arms trade, India’s arms export was just 0.2% but it the substantial decline in arms export and encouraging sign in defence exports suggest reversal of the trend.
According to the SIPRI database, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Mauritius were the top recipients of Indian military hardware.
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