Important Facts For Prelims
SMART System: DRDO
- 06 Oct 2020
- 3 min read
Why in News
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted a successful flight test of the Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo (SMART) from Wheeler Island off the coast of Odisha.
- This follows the successful test firing of indigenously developed nuclear capable hypersonic missile ‘Shaurya’.
- In 2017, the Odisha government formally named the Outer Wheeler island in Bhadrak district as APJ Abdul Kalam Island as a tribute to the former President on his second death anniversary.
Key Points
- About: SMART is a missile assisted release of lightweight Anti-Submarine Torpedo System for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) operations far beyond torpedo range.
- Functioning:
- SMART, when launched from a warship or a truck-based coastal battery, takes off like a regular supersonic missile.
- It covers most of its flight in the air at lower altitudes with two-way data link from the warship or an airborne submarine target detection system and provides the exact location of the hostile submarine to correct its flight path midway.
- Just when it approaches close enough to the submerged submarine, the missile will eject the torpedo system into the water and the autonomous torpedo will start moving towards its target to take out the submarine.
- Torpedo is a cigar-shaped, self-propelled underwater weapon, launched from a submarine, surface vessel, or airplane and designed for exploding upon contact with the hulls of surface vessels and submarines.
- Varunastra is the first indigenous heavyweight ship launched anti-submarine electric torpedo.
- Significance:
- Strengthens the country’s maritime strategic capabilities.
- A major breakthrough for stand-off capability in anti-submarine warfare.
- Project 28, approved in 2003, is a class of anti- submarine warship corvettes currently in service with the Indian Navy. It includes INS Kamorta, INS Kadmatt, INS Kiltan and INS Kavaratti.
- Project 75 is a programme by the Indian Navy that entails building six Scorpene-Class attack submarines (Kalvari, Khanderi, Karanj, Vela, Vagir and Vagsheer).
