Bangalore-based Aeronautical Development Establishment ( ADE ). The motor had been type- approved by DTD & P ( Air ). This was a small but significant step towards developing missile hardware that is not only functional but also acceptable to the user agencies . A private sector firm was engaged to produce a reliable , airworthy , high thrust-to-weight ratio rocket motor with technology input from DRDL . We were slowly graduating from single laboratory projects to multi-laboratory programmes to laboratory-industry exercises . The development of PTA symbolized a great confluence of four different organizations . I felt as if I was standing at a meeting point and looking at the roads coming from ADE , DTD & P ( Air ) and ISRO . The fourth road was the DRDL , a highway to national self-reliance in missile technology .
Taking our partnership with the academic institutions of the country a step further , Joint Advanced Technology Programmes were started at the Indian Institute of Science ( IISc ), and Jadavpur University . I have always had a deep regard for academic institutions and reverence for excellent academicians . I value the inputs that academicians can make to development . Formal requests had been placed with these institutions and arrangements arrived at under which expertise from their faculties would be extended to DRDL in pursuance of its projects .
Let me highlight a few contributions of academic institutions to the various missile systems . Prithvi had been designed as an inertially guided missile . To reach the target accurately , the trajectory parameters have to be loaded into its brain — an on-board computer . A team of young engineering graduates at Jadavpur University under the guidance of Prof . Ghoshal developed the required robust guidance algorithm . At the IISc , postgraduate students under the leadership of Prof . IG Sharma developed air defence software for multi-target acquisition by Akash . The re- entry vehicle system design methodology for Agni was developed by a young team at IIT Madras and DRDO scientists . Osmania University ’ s Navigational Electronics Research and Training Unit had developed stateof-the-art signal processing algorithms for Nag . I have only given a few examples of collaborative endeavour . In fact , it would have been very difficult to achieve our advanced technological goals without the active partnership of our academic institutions .
Let us consider the example of the Agni payload breakthrough . Agni is a two-stage rocket system and employs re-entry technology developed in the country for the first time . It is boosted by a first-stage solid rocket motor derived from SLV-3 and further accelerated at the second stage with the liquid rocket engines of Prithvi . For the Agni , the payload gets delivered at hypersonic speeds , which calls for the design and development of a re-entry vehicle structure . The payload with guidance electronics is housed in the re-entry vehicle structure , which is meant to protect the payload by keeping the inside temperature within the limit of 40oC , when the outside skin temperature is greater than 2500oC . An inertial guidance system with an on-board computer guides the payload to the required target . For any re-entry missile system , three-dimensional preforms are core material for making the carbon-carbon nose tip that will remain strong even at such high temperatures . Four laboratories of DRDO and the CSIR achieved this in a short span of 18 months — something other countries could do only after a decade of research and development !
Another challenge involved in the Agni payload design