Systems Handed Over to Defence Services

• 19 Dec 2020

Why in News

Recently, the Defence Minister has handed over the Indian Maritime Situational Awareness System (IMSAS), ASTRA Mk-I and Border Surveillance System (BOSS) to the Navy, Air Force and Army respectively.

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) laboratories have indigenously developed these three systems which will lead to higher self-reliance in defence technologies.
• The Defence Minister has also given away awards to DRDO scientists for outstanding contributions in various categories.

Key Points

• Indian Maritime Situational Awareness System (IMSAS):
  
  • It is a state-of-the-art and high performance intelligent software system that provides Global Maritime Situational Picture, marine planning tools and analytical capabilities to Indian Navy.
  • It also provides Maritime Operational Picture from naval headquarters to each individual ship in sea to enable naval command and control.
  • Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR), Bengaluru and Indian Navy has jointly conceptualised and developed the product and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Bengaluru has implemented it.
• ASTRA Mk-I:
  
  • It is the indigenously developed first Beyond Visual Range (BVR) Missile, which can be launched from Sukhoi-30, Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Mig-29 and Mig-29K.
    
    • Globally, very few countries have expertise and capabilities to design and produce this class of weapon system.
  • The missile is designed to engage and destroy highly manoeuvring supersonic aircraft. The missile has all weather day and night capability.
  • Successful development of ASTRA weapon system by Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) Hyderabad and production by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Hyderabad is a major contribution towards Atmanirbhar Bharat.
• Border Surveillance System (BOSS):
  
  • It is an all-weather electronic surveillance system successfully designed and developed by Instruments Research and Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun.
  • The system has been deployed at Ladakh border area for day and night surveillance and facilitates monitoring and surveillance by automatically detecting the intrusions in harsh high-altitude sub-zero temperature areas with remote operation capability.
• Awards for Outstanding Contributions:
  
  • DRDO Lifetime Achievement Award, 2018:
    
    • Awarded to N V Kadam for his contributions for developing control and guidance schemes for missiles.
  • Excellence awards were given to academia and industry for technology absorption.
  • Besides, individual awards, team awards, technology spin-off awards, techno managerial awards and awards in other categories were also given.

Source: PIB