DRDO Arms Indian Navy With Three New Products

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India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is a much-maligned outfit for the work its has left unfinished for decades. But its successes come from several critical areas of military R&D that go unsung for reasons best known to its critics.

On March 24 this year, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley has had to opportunity to witness some of those successes and to applaud the efforts of India's defence scientists at length. Jaitley got to hand over three key naval systems that DRDO had developed for the Indian navy on the occasion.

The systems were handed over to Chief of the Naval StaffAdmiral Sunil Lanba. The naval systems, given to Indian Navy, were USHUS-II submarine sonar, directing gear for hull-mounted sonar array, and inertial navigation system for ship applications. Sonars detect objects on or under the water and the latest systems are expected to significantly enhance the navy's navigation and communication network.

Sonars are the eyes and ears of a submarine under water. DRDO has developed the State-of-the-Art submarine sonar suite, USHUS-II, a highly-evolved compendium of multiple sensors. The constituent sonars in the suite include passive sonar, active sonar, intercept sonar, obstacle avoidance sonar and underwater telephony.

USHUS is an integrated sonar system developed by the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) of the DRDO, for use in submarines of the Indian Navy. It is primarily designed to be used in Indian Navy’s Russian-origin Sindhughosh class submarines, though it is reported to be fitted in the Arihant-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines as well. USHUS is reported to be superior to its Russian equivalents. USHUS is used for detecting and