DRDO and Defence Technology: Missiles and Labs

The correct answer is C, Shaurya. 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. It leaves the canister by a gas charge, then its own motor takes over, and it re-enters at hypersonic speed, which is what the question means by hypersonic tactical missile.

Option A, Astra, is a beyond visual range air-to-air missile fired from a fighter aircraft, not a surface to surface weapon. Option B, Akash, is a medium range surface to air missile of the IGMDP that works with the Rajendra radar and is meant to shoot down aircraft. Option D, Trishul, was the short range surface to air missile of the same programme, built for ships and forward positions. Only Shaurya is fired from the surface at a surface target.

The correct answer is C, A P J Abdul Kalam. The Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme was approved in 1983 and Kalam, then at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory, was made its head. Five missiles of different classes were taken up together so that common technologies such as propulsion, guidance and materials could be shared, and the success of the programme earned him the title Missile Man of India. He later became President of India and had received the Bharat Ratna in 1997.

Option A, Homi Jehangir Bhabha, was the father of the Indian atomic energy programme and died in 1966. Option B, Vikram Sarabhai, founded the Indian space programme and died in 1971. Option D, Satish Dhawan, headed ISRO after Sarabhai and the launch centre at Sriharikota is named after him. All three belong to the atomic or space story, not to the missile programme.

The correct answer is A, Nag. 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. It is carried on a tracked launcher called NAMICA, and the helicopter launched version is named HELINA.

Option B, Trishul, was the short range surface to air missile of the same programme, meant to defend ships and forward posts against low flying aircraft. Option C, Prithvi, is a short range surface to surface missile, with the first version for the Army and the second for the Air Force. Option D, Akash, is the medium range surface to air missile that works with the Rajendra phased array radar. Only Nag is built to kill armour.

The correct answer is A, the Brahmaputra and the Moskva. 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. It is a supersonic cruise missile flying at nearly three times the speed of sound, and versions have been made for ships, submarines, land launchers and aircraft.

Option B names the Volga, the longest river of Russia, but the Moskva is the river of the Russian capital and is the one used. Option C replaces the Brahmaputra with the Beas, a Punjab river of the Indus system. Option D names the Brahmani, a river of Odisha whose name sounds close to Brahmaputra and so makes a good distractor. The pair to remember is Brahmaputra and Moskva.

The correct answer is B, 1958. 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. It began with a handful of laboratories and now runs more than fifty, arranged in clusters such as missiles, aeronautics, armaments, naval systems, electronics and life sciences.

Option A, 1947, is the year of independence but not of this organisation. Option C, 1969, is the year ISRO was formed, which is the commonest confusion in this question. Option D, 1983, is the year the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme was approved, twenty-five years after DRDO itself came into being. The order to remember is DRDO 1958, ISRO 1969 and IGMDP 1983.

The correct answer is B, a long range subsonic cruise missile. 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. That combination of range and manoeuvre is what a subsonic cruise missile offers, and it is powered by a small turbofan engine rather than a rocket motor.

Option A describes BrahMos, which is supersonic but of shorter range, so the two are exactly the pair examiners set against each other. Option C, an intercontinental ballistic missile, follows a high arching path outside the atmosphere and belongs to the Agni class, of which Agni-V crosses five thousand kilometres. Option D, a surface to air missile, is a weapon against aircraft, such as Akash or Trishul, and not a strike weapon at all.

The correct answer is B, air to air. 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. It is carried on Indian Air Force fighters and was developed to replace imported missiles of the same class, giving India a weapon it can make and improve at home.

Option A, surface to surface, covers Prithvi, Agni and Shaurya, which are fired from the ground at ground targets. Option C, surface to air, covers Akash, Trishul and QRSAM, which are fired from the ground at aircraft, so the direction is the reverse of Astra. Option D, anti-tank, is the class of Nag and HELINA. Keeping the first word as the launch place and the second as the target makes these questions easy.

The correct answer is B, an anti-satellite weapon. 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. A low orbit was chosen deliberately so that the debris would fall back into the atmosphere quickly, and India became one of the very few nations with this proven ability.

Option A is wrong because the hypersonic demonstrator flew separately, in September 2020, using a scramjet engine. Option C, a nuclear device, refers to the tests at Pokhran in 1974 and 1998, which were held underground and are a different story altogether. Option D, a submarine launched ballistic missile, describes the K-15 Sagarika and K-4 tests for the Arihant class, which are naval weapons and not a space intercept.

The correct answer is A, a short range surface to air missile. 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. It was one of the five missiles taken up together under the IGMDP in 1983.

Option B, a long range ballistic missile, is the Agni family, which runs from Agni-I to Agni-V. Option C, an anti-ship cruise missile, is the role BrahMos performs, and BrahMos was never part of the IGMDP since it came from a later joint venture with Russia. Option D, an air to air missile, is the class of Astra. Within the IGMDP, both Trishul and Akash were surface to air, the first short range and the second medium range.

The correct answer is A, the Gas Turbine Research Establishment at Bengaluru. GTRE is the DRDO laboratory for aero engines, and the Kaveri turbofan was taken up there for the Tejas light combat aircraft. Bengaluru is the aeronautical cluster of DRDO, with the Aeronautical Development Agency, the Aeronautical Development Establishment and the Centre for Airborne Systems in the same city, alongside Hindustan Aeronautics.

Option B, ARDE at Pune, works on guns, ammunition and rockets, and gave the Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher. Option C, the Research Centre Imarat at Hyderabad, works on missile guidance and avionics within the missile cluster. Option D, CVRDE at Avadi, developed the Arjun main battle tank and other armoured vehicles. Each laboratory keeps to its cluster, which is how these pairs are best remembered.

The correct answer is B, the Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment at Avadi. 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. The tank carries a one hundred and twenty millimetre rifled gun and composite armour developed in India.

Option A, the Vehicle Research and Development Establishment at Ahmednagar, works on wheeled military vehicles and their testing rather than on the main battle tank. Option C, the Defence Research and Development Laboratory at Hyderabad, is the lead missile laboratory. Option D, the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory at Chandigarh, studies what a projectile does when it strikes a target, including armour penetration, but it does not build tanks.

The correct answer is C, a scramjet. 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. The HSTDV was lifted by a rocket booster and then flew on its own scramjet for some seconds, proving the intake, the combustion and the materials that must survive the heat.

Option A, a turbofan, is an engine with fans and compressors used by airliners and by the subsonic Nirbhay, and it cannot work at such speeds. Option B, a ramjet, slows the incoming air to subsonic speed before burning it, which limits it to the lower supersonic range; BrahMos uses a ramjet. Option D is wrong because a plain rocket motor carries its own oxidiser and was used only as the booster here.