Aatmanirbhar Bharat: Software Defined Radios for the Armed Forces to be made in India – Defence News

In a bid to meet the demand of the Indian Armed Forces in a wide range of operations, the indigenous deployment of the Software Defined Radios (SDRs) will now be fast tracked. SDR is capable of multiple waveform types, including wideband and narrowband applications.

How will local development of this important tool help the armed forces?

Once made in Indiathis local technology will be available for execution by the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force. This SDR is used by the forces to transfer high-speed voice, data and video information.

How does it help?

“Troops on the ground carrying handheld SDR versions will be able to integrate with higher echelons to achieve real C4I capabilities.

Now with indigenous SDR technology, the possibility of swarms of drones operating on future battlefields seems possible,” a C4I expert explained to Financial Express Online.

READ ALSO | ‘Made in IndiaSoftware Defined Radio: The “Mother” of all Armed Forces tactical communications solutions

According to an official statement issued by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) on Tuesday, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) are working together for the indigenous establishment of the SDR.

In the statement issued by the Mod, Defense Minister Dr. Ajay Kumar said that the indigenous development of SDR technology is a milestone that is important for achieving ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ in this field.

The process of life cycle management is very important and necessary to protect and secure sensitive SDR technology and products. And this whole process includes local development, manufacturing, design, testing/certification and support ecosystem.

READ ALSO | Armed Forces Tactical Information Communication Network: The Key to India’s Military Capabilities

Financial Express Online had earlier reported that the three services – the Indian Army, Air Force and Navy are working to develop a family of modular and interoperable versions of the SDR – Manpack (SDR-MP) and SDR-HH (Hand Held), Airborne ( SDR-AR), Naval Combat (SDR-NC) and Tactical (SDR-TAC).

Since last February, in the Make-II category, the Indian Army has been in the process of replacing legacy radios with indigenously developed V/UHF Manpack SDRs. In the coming years, CNR for Armored Fighting Vehicles (CNR-AFV) will also be based on SDR.

Two important elements of native SDR technology are — standardized operating software environment (OE) and applications (these are also known as waveforms) and associated waveform storage and testing/certification facility.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the OE standard enables waveform portability and interoperability between multiple SDR vendors and a decision has been taken by the Ministry to develop and define a reference implementation of an India-specific operating environment. This is known as the Software Communication Architecture (SCA) profile of India.

The idea of ​​creating a ‘SCA Profile in India’ was floated by IIT Kanpur Director Dr. Abhay Karandikar, who is the Chairman of the SCA Committee of the Ministry of Defence.

To help fast-track the indigenization process, DEAL/DRDO has already prepared a draft project report clearly indicating the timelines and roadmap.

Who will manage the project?

The Directorate of Standardization (DoS) of the Ministry of Defense Production will be involved in the development of IRSA. Industry, academia and DRDO will help in three to six months. And additional months that will be used for testing, compliance certification tools, as well as reference implementation.

Meaning of IRSA

To be notified of DoS, it will help Indian software vendors to integrate and make the protection of SDRs scalable and interoperable. And will be shared with industry for the development of SDRs to be used by the Indian Armed Forces and also exported to friendly nations.

The three institutions involved in the development namely DEAL/DRDO, IIT-Kanpur and DoS have already started the work as per the DPR and it is expected to be completed within a certain time frame.