Slowly but surely and steadily, India is becoming a Missile Power and soon should be second to none.
The Mangalyaan and the Chandrayaan have shown to the World the capabilities of ISRO.
Combine this with the missile development programme of the DRDO and the results are visible to every one.
The DRDO missiles per force are tested over the high seas.
Also after induction of land based missiles now both DRDO and the Navy are concentrating on indigenisation of maritime systems and several new naval missiles of varying range are being developed at the moment.
Therefore a need has arisen to have a ship equipped with sensors, which can be deployed at sea to track the full flight path of longer range missiles that are under development.
The mega block assembly of the hull blocks of Ship No. 20, the Technology Demonstration Vessel (TDV) being built for the Indian Navy for use by DRDO tests has begun at the Cochin Shipyard, marking a major milestone in the construction of the ship.
S. Christopher, Chairman of DRDO, launched the assembly. The vessel, with a length of 118.4 metres, width of 20 metres, draft of 7.1 metres, and having a steel weight of approximately 3,900 tonnes, was contracted in August 2015.
The vessel will have a rare capability to track the full flight of future long-range naval missile systems. The contract for the construction of the vessel worth Rs.365 crore was signed between the yard and the end-user in August 2015.
The ship would have an array of secret sensors and radars with undisclosed capability to track flight of long-range missiles during test-firing and probably more.
“Just as the DRDO is jointly developing the long-range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM), also called Barak 8, with the Israel Aerospace Industries, naval weapons development in India is set for a huge leap with the ‘K’ series of submarine-launched missiles such as K-15 and K-4.
To be fitted on board the Arihant-class of submarines, the K-15 missile is said to have a range of over 720 km while the bigger K-4s will have an operational range of 3,500 km. Missiles with longer ranges are also under development.
