Visakhapatnam: Visakhapatnam-based Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) has successfully conducted the maiden flight trial of deploying Indigenous Instrumented Torpedo Advanced Light (TAL) with Parachute system from Indian Navy’s Aircraft IL-38SD off Visakhapatnam on Monday.

This is the Nation’s first such trial for firing the indigenous light weight torpedo from fixed wing aircraft ; HQ Eastern Naval Command said in a release here.

The Light Weight Torpedo was designed, developed, produced and inducted into services a decade ago and is used against underwater platforms as part of ASW.

To enhance the range of quick acquisition of the target, Navy scheduled launch of TAL from Fixed Wing Aircrafts of Navy, for precise attack at desired location.

The Torpedo along with Torpedo Release Mechanism (TRM) and Fire Control System (FCS) are designed and developed by NSTL.

The torpedo on safe separation from the aircraft descends with the help of the parachute and TRM detaches parachute, thus enabling the torpedo to continue its operation in waters.

The parachute is designed by ADRDE, Agra. The TAL can track multiple targets simultaneously using state-of-the-art processor based signal processing algorithms.

The trial team, led by Principal Project Director RVS Subrahmanyam and other members from NSTL and ADRDE Agra participated in the trial along with Indian Navy.

NSTL Director Dr O R Nandagopan, Outstanding Scientist congratulated the team and acknowledged the participation of Indian Navy and other DRDO establishments -- ADRDE, ADE, CEMILAC for this achievement thus enabling deployment of light weight torpedoes from aircraft as a commitment under Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan.

Agencies