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The state-owned Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is all set to offer business potential worth $500 million to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by making a landmark decision to allow transfer of technology related to nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) warfare.
DRDO has indicated that it has earmarked 30 industries in the SME sector and will issue RFPs (request for proposals) to them. DRDO aims to forge partnership with the SME on the fundamental research and development level and thereafter, the SME is free to tie-up foreign firms to manufacture NBC products.
“DRDO will spend $75 million on the NBC sector and around 60% of the work will be outsourced to SMEs,” said W Selvamurthy , the DRDO chief controller for research and development (life sciences and human resources). Current DRDO projects related to deter the lethal nature of future warfare include NBC Reconnaisance vehicle, unmanned robot-operated aerial and ground vehicles attached with NBC detection sensors, laser-based detection for chemical clouds, self-contained NBC shelters and sensors based on nanotechnology.
Some of the DRDO products that have recently found their way into the defence sector include NBC suits called ‘Mark 4’ which provides protective clothing like the ultra-light weight nuclear radiation blocking suits. The suit does not allow the permeation of particles which are more than one micron. DRDO has already supplied 200,000 suits to the defence forces.
The Indian Armed Forces has also placed an order for eight NBC reconnaissance vehicles with the DRDO worth $12 million, of which one NBC system was inducted in the army recently. In addition, about $140 million worth of equipment and 60 products have been given to the armed forces which includes masks, nuclear flash sensors to detect nuclear bombs, meters that detect the quantity of nuclear radiation and gas chromatographs to detect more than 20 gas agents or nerve agents. DRDO has dedicated 12 laboratories that are working on these projects.
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