n a significant update, the Defence Research and Development Organisation has developed a new category of lightweight autonomous underwater vehicles that can be carried and deployed directly by personnel. The defence ministry shared the announcement on Friday.
What capabilities does this system offer?
These advanced vehicles consist of multiple underwater drones equipped with side-scan sonar systems and sub-surface cameras. According to a report by PTI, they can detect and flag suspicious or mine-like objects in real time.
How do these underwater vehicles operate?
The defence ministry explained that the AUVs rely on sophisticated deep-learning algorithms installed onboard, enabling them to identify and classify underwater targets on their own. This cuts down the need for continuous human supervision and speeds up mission completion, the report noted.
The Naval Science and Technological Laboratory in Visakhapatnam, a key DRDO research centre, is responsible for designing and manufacturing these portable AUVs.
Earlier DRDO developments
The organisation recently made headlines after deciding to incorporate advanced features seen in China’s PL-15 air-to-air missile into the Astra Mark-2 programme. Experts reached this decision following a detailed analysis of a PL-15 that failed to explode when a Pakistani aircraft fired it during Operation Sindoor in May. The missile was found completely intact in a field near Hoshiarpur in Punjab on May 9.
