DRDO developing world’s lightest bulletproof vest: Dr G Satheesh Reddy

New Delhi/ Chennai: India's premier Military Research and Development agency India's Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO) is working on developing the World's lightest bulletproof vest. The testing of the bulletproof vests will begin in about two months' time, Dr G. Satheesh Reddy, Chairman of DRDO said on Sunday. He was speaking at the concluding ceremony of the event "Defence & technology Expo Empowering MSME" organized by the Swatantra Foundation. Dr Reddy said that this bulletproof vest is being developed as a 'DIA' (DRDO Industry-Academia) effort, in one of the ten DIA centres in the country. The event, hailed as India's first-ever privately-run Defence Expo, was held in Chennai.

Referring to the ongoing changes in India's Defence industry, he said that the industry had reached a level where they were building to meet the specifications as put forth by the customers or users. He pointed out that missiles, bombs, radars, ammunition and guns are being manufactured in a big way by the private industry, as opposed to the earlier times, when solely state-run organizations used to perform this task.

Hailing the ongoing development of the 155 mm x 52 Cal Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS), Dr Reddy said that this Indian gun was going to be the world's longest-range artillery weapon of its kind. This weapon is being developed for the Indian Army, by DRDO in partnership with private firms Bharat Forge and Tata Power SED.

"As part of Government support for the private defence sector, nearly 300 private industries have used DRDO facilities for testing. There are also special funding schemes provided by the Departments of Defence Production and R&D to boost private sector capabilities" he elaborated. The DRDO chief also mentioned that there are nearly 2000 Tier 1 & 2 defence industries in India, while the Tier 3 industries are over 10,000 in number.

The event "Defence & technology Expo Empowering MSME", organized by Swatantra Foundation, was an effort to bring together Indian Micro Small and Medium Industries (MSMEs) and large defence manufacturers to create business opportunities, where the former can supply components for the latter. "Our focus for this event is to connect MSMEs with large Defence manufacturers through B2B meetings to create business opportunities," said S. Ramasubramanian, Founder & President of Swatantra Foundation.

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