Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO, G. Satheesh Reddy, flagged off the first Varunastra, the heavy weight torpedo, which was delivered to the Indian Navy, at a ceremony held at BDL, Visakhapatnam unit, here on Saturday.
Varunastra has been designed and developed by NSTL, Visakhapatnam. BDL, being the production agency, is manufacturing Varunastra at its Visakhapatnam unit for the Indian Navy. This product is also being offered for export.
BDL is associated with the DRDO for its various missile programmes. BDL is also the production agency for Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM), for which, trials were conducted successfully recently.
BDL is also the production agency for Astra Air- to- Air Missile System and has commenced manufacturing of these missiles.
The missile system will be fully indigenous and has been developed by the DRDO for the Indian Air Force. Dr. Satheesh Reddy appreciated the synergy between all stakeholders, especially the design agency NSTL and the production agency BDL, in completion of the manufacture of the first Varunastra.
He said that BDL should gear up for new programmes of ALWT and EHWT.
Commodore Siddharth Mishra, CMD, BDL, said that BDL is poised to take on the manufacture of futuristic weapon systems. Towards this the BDL team is committed to hone new skills and create the necessary infrastructure.
Dr. Sateesh also laid the foundation stone for setting up of state-of-the-art Central Stores at BDL, Visakhapatnam Unit.
Vice Admiral K. Srinivas, Project Director, Ship Building Centre, Samir V. Kamat, Director General, Naval Systems & Materials (NS&M), DRDO, O.R. Nandagopan, Director, Naval Science and Technological Laboratory, and other dignitaries from DRDO were present.
