Science & Technology Quiz: DRDO and Defence Technology

Shaurya is the land based version of the submarine launched K-15 Sagarika, and it is stored and fired from a sealed canister, which lets it be moved by road and launched at short notice.

The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme was approved in 1983 and Kalam, then at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory, was made its head.

Nag is a third generation anti-tank guided missile of the fire and forget kind, which means that once the seeker has locked on to the target the operator need not keep guiding it, and the crew can move away at once.

BrahMos is built by BrahMos Aerospace, a joint venture formed in 1998 between DRDO and the Russian firm NPO Mashinostroyeniya, and the name joins a great river of each country.

DRDO was formed in that year by bringing together the Technical Development Establishment of the Indian Army, the Directorate of Technical Development and Production and the Defence Science Organisation, so that defence research would be done under one roof.

Nirbhay flies below the speed of sound but for a much greater distance than BrahMos, staying low to avoid radar, and it can change course in flight and loiter over an area before striking.

Astra is a beyond visual range air-to-air missile, which means it is fired from a fighter aircraft at an enemy aircraft the pilot cannot see with the eye, using radar to find and follow the target.

In Mission Shakti, on 27 March 2019, an interceptor developed for ballistic missile defence was used to destroy one of India's own satellites in low earth orbit, showing that the country could strike a target in space.

Trishul was designed as a quick reaction weapon to protect warships and forward army positions from low flying aircraft and from sea skimming missiles, so it needed very fast response over a short distance rather than long reach.

GTRE is the DRDO laboratory for aero engines, and the Kaveri turbofan was taken up there for the Tejas light combat aircraft.

CVRDE, near Chennai, is the DRDO laboratory for armoured fighting vehicles, and the Arjun main battle tank was designed there and is produced at the Heavy Vehicles Factory in the same town.

In a scramjet, short for supersonic combustion ramjet, the air taken in from the atmosphere stays supersonic while the fuel is burnt in it, which is what allows sustained flight at hypersonic speed.