*‘Weapon’ to be of immense use in counter-insurgency, riots control
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 9: In a major development towards meeting the stringent requirements of the armed forces, the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has developed portable non-lethal laser dazzlers, multi-sensor airborne surveillance system, autonomous underwater vehicle and anti-laser and anti-thermal screening smoke grenades, which would be shortly inducted in the Army, Air Force and Navy for much better defence, attack and surveillance.
Among these indigenously designed and developed technologies, non-lethal hand-held laser dazzlers would be of immense use for the armed forces in Jammu and Kashmir during the counter-insurgency operations and riots/mob controlling as these dazzlers produce randomly flickering green laser output sufficient to cause a temporary dazzling effect on a person or group of persons.
DRDO sources told EXCELSIOR that hand-held portable laser dazzler is a weapon intended to temporarily blind or disorient its target with intense directed radiation. “These dazzlers have in-built safety/interlock features against unauthorized use’, they said while disclosing that the device has been tested under simulated conditions.
“Soldiers engaged in counter-insurgency operations can make immense use of these dazzlers. This device is also meant for use in riots/mob control as the target person(s) will remain disoriented till the device is on”, they said, adding “by making use of this device anyone can be overpowered that too without causing any physical injury unlike in the use of water cannons or rubber bullets”.
Responding to another question, they said that the device can be used both during day and night hours and it will be shortly inducted in the armed forces. “There are basically two versions of the non-lethal dazzlers—hand held and weapons mounted and they have a maximum range of 50 meters and 500 meters respectively”, they added.
“We have also developed optical target locator, which is a laser based portable device for detection of active and passive surveillance systems”, they said, adding “the potential applications of this device are protection of VIPs, active scanning monitoring of specific area and stand off detection of pointed optics viz snippers”. This indigenous device has range of 50 to 300 meter and can be used in day as well as night.
The DRDO has also developed indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control India, which is a compact state-of-the-art airborne surveillance system onboard an executive jet class of aircraft.
“This aircraft has the capability to detect and track, identify and classify targets in the surveillance volume and act as a command control centre to support air defence operations”, sources said, adding “the system integrates sensor data and presents the air situation picture for situational awareness to mission operators onboard and communicates with the ground command and control network via multiple ground exploitation stations”.
In response to a question, they said, “this is basically meant for surveillance along the borders to track down any activity and provide information within 10 to 15 seconds”, adding “through this onboard multi sensor surveillance system we can track the movement of tanks, vehicles and even fighter aircrafts as aircraft can carry out surveillance on its line and 10 degrees above its line”.
They disclosed that initial operational clearance of the airborne surveillance system will be carried out in June this year before its induction in the Indian Air Force.
Another milestone achieved by the DRDO is Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions by the Navy and agencies like the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited for safeguarding offshore installations.
According to Dr C H Suryanarayana, a scientist, who played key role in development of this vehicle, this flatfish-shaped reconfigurable vehicle has the capability of carrying payloads of up to 500 kg. About the potential roles of the AUV, he informed that it can be used for intelligence collection, search and surveillance, deployment of leave behind sensors and ship escort and scouting.
The combat engagements of AUV include delivery system for torpedoes, mines or other weapon, target for torpedo trials and expendable mine/neutralization device, Dr Suryanarayana said. “We have furnished the specifications of this AUV to the Navy and conveyed them that AUV of this size can be made of any specification in order to fully meet the requirement of Navy”, he informed.
In yet another significant development, DRDO has developed Anti Thermal-Anti Laser smoke grenades, which enhance survivability of the Army tanks in the battlefield by way of creating a smoke screen, which is effective even against visual, thermal imagers and laser range finders.
Stating that at present Indian Army doesn’t have such type smoke grenades, DRDO sources said, “the re-trial of Anti Thermal-Anti Laser smoke grenades will be conducted next month following which the same would be inducted in Army”.
“The grenade is mounted on either side of the turret of tank and electrically actuated from the MBT grenade launcher. The grenade forms a smoke screen within 4 to 5.4 seconds at about 90 meter distance on bursting above the ground. A white dense smoke screen is formed from a single grenade, which is capable of providing obscuration in the visible and infrared range”, they informed.
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