The Hindu Business Line : Naval lab launches radar centre for stealth ships

The Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) here has taken a step forward in its efforts to design advanced models of stealth ships, with the launching of work on instrumentation radar centre atop Dolphin hills overlooking the Bay of Bengal here on Thursday.

The centre, being developed at a cost of Rs 10 crore on a one-acre site allotted by the Navy, would be an advanced facility for measuring the radar signature of ships by NSTL. Ships can evade attacks during hostilities if they are undetectable by enemy radars.

The centre will help NSTL in studying various stealth design features of ships.

The new facility, expected to be ready by May next year, will help reduce radar signature of ships by using newly-developed stealth material.

Laying the foundation stone for the centre, Dr A. Sivathanu Pillai, Scientist and Chief Controller (R&D), Defence Research and Development Organisation, said: "I know, a few years ago, NSTL embarked upon an integrated stealth technology programme. As part of it, NSTL developed a lot of stealth hardware, software and stealth materials."

Dr Pillai, CEO and Managing Director of BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd, said that some of the stealth materials developed by NSTL and Mumbai-based Naval Material Research Laboratory (NMRL) were inducted into the stealth ship, INS Shivalik, and certain material could not be evaluated in real conditions for want of a facility such as the one being built here.

He said the Navy would be in an advantageous position once it had a good fleet of ships with stealth features.

The Navy should be geared up to achieve self-reliance.

The NSTL Director, Dr V. Bhujanga Rao, said Dolphin hill site was selected as radar located on such a place could oversee the ships and take snapshots.

"The radar will cover wide frequency range of naval interest. NSTL scientists are well-trained to analyse and interpret these snapshot signatures of ships."

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