Major Boost: 7 Technologies Developed Under TDF Handed Over To Armed Forces By DRDO

New Delhi: In a big move, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has handed over seven technologies to the armed forces, the government said.

Ranging from long-life seawater battery system to waterjet propulsion system, these technologies have been developed under Technology Development Fund (TDF) scheme, the defence ministry said in a statement. The ministry added each that each of these products or technologies has been designed, developed and "tested" by the Indian Army with close collaboration and guidance of DRDO's domain experts and tri-services.

The technologies were handed over on December 2 during the meeting of the Empowered Committee of DRDO held at DRDO Bhawan under the chairmanship of Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman of DRDO, Samir V Kamat.

 The meeting was attended by senior representatives from the armed forces, Department of Defence Production and the DRDO. Furthermore, 12 new projects covering strategic, aerospace, naval and electronic warfare technologies were also approved, the ministry said.

The technologies include high-voltage power supply for aircraft jammers, tide-efficient gangway for naval jetties, advanced very low frequency-high frequency switching matrix systems, VLF loop aerials, indigenous waterjet propulsion system, a novel process for recovery of lithium precursors from used lithium-ion batteries and a long-life seawater battery system for sustained underwater sensing and surveillance applications, added the ministry in its statement.

The Committee reviewed the approval process for different categories of projects under TDF and underscored the importance of accelerating end-to-end processing to ensure alignment with the Services’ evolving strategic and technological needs.

The roadmap of  successfully developed technologies and the ways which the subsequent acquisition process needs to be streamlined and executed seamlessly was also stressed upon. The committee also recommended policy changes to make the acquisition process smoother, as per the ministry. 

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