DRDO Hands Over NBC Recce Vehicle To Indian Army

(Chindits) : Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) threat is a global concern in the wake of terrorism and several nations having acquired the capability to build these weapons of Mass destruction. Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) has already delivered more than 35 state-of-the-art products and systems for NBC Defence, to the Armed Forces, of the production value of Rs. 500 crores. Four NBC Recce Vehicles were handed over by Dr. W Selvamurthy, Distinguished Scientist & Chief Controller Research & Development (Life Sciences), DRDO HQrs to Lt Gen MC Badhani, VSM, Engineer-in-Chief, Indian Army during a flagging-off ceremony held today, the 21st December 2010 at 1500 hrs at Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), Pune. Shri Ashwani Kumar Datt, Chairman and Managing Director, BEL and Shri RK Jain, Addl. Director General Ordnance Factory Board also flagged off the vehicle.

These vehicles based on BMP-II are equipped to monitor radiologically and chemically contaminated areas. Various sensors such as Roentgenometer, Gas Chromatograph, Dosimeter, Solid State Anemometer and Chemical Sensor are integrated on to this vehicle. Vehicle provides protection to the crew while monitoring for NBC contaminants and also allows to fix flag marks without the need for crew to come out from the protected vehicles. NBC Recce Vehicles have been designed and developed by DRDO with its Defence Lab, Jodhpur as nodal agency and Vehicle Research & Development Establishment (VRDE), Research & Development Establishment (Engineers) (R&DE(E), Defence Research & Development Establishment (DRDE) and Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) (all DRDO labs) as the other major work centers. These BMP IIK have been manufactured at Ordnance Factory, Medak and NBC instruments are integrated by BEL, Pune. As four vehicles along with the training module and 2 Nos of NBC Control Centre were already supplied to the Army earlier, this marks the completion of Limited Series Production (LSP) order of eight recce vehicles. Army has also placed order for sixteen more NBC Recce vehicles.

DRDO-DPR