Visakhapatnam: After the successful induction earlier this month of anti-submarine heavyweight torpedo, Varunastra, into the Indian Navy, the Vizag-based Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) has now set its sights on developing a variant that can be fired from the submarine.
The sea trials of the submarine variant of Varunastra are expected to begin in two months. NSTL is also working on an advanced version of an electric guided heavyweight torpedo for which the first set of sea trials are expected to begin by year-end, NSTL director C.D. Malleshwar told reporters here on Wednesday.
The Navy had issued an Expression of Interest (EoI) to procure 73 Varunastras costing around Rs 1,200 crore which are expected to be made by the Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL). Indian Navy will also procure 33 of the anti-decoy system, Maareech, developed by NSTL that costs around Rs 800 crore.
Asked to comment on the delay in developing Varunastra, Mr Malleshwar, said, "There are so many challenges in developing underwater systems and testing them. Since electromagnetic waves don't go into the water we need to depend on acoustic waves for feedback. There are so many systems involved in making this heavyweight torpedo for the first time in India -- India is the eighth country in the world to have designed and built such a heavyweight torpedo indigenously.
Around 120 sea trials were done on Varunastra. For each trial, we need to go at least 100 km into the sea from the coast. And sea trials can be taken up only between October and April. With the experience we have gained, the period for developing such a torpedo can be reduced." Mr Malleshwar will be retiring at the end of this month after putting in 35 years of service at NSTL.
Varunastra weighs around 1.25 tonnes and can carry about 250 kg of explosives at a speed of around 40 nautical miles an hour. It can travel 20 km and hit the target at a range of 2,000 to 3,000 m.
The final evaluation trials, it is learnt, were delayed by a few months as in November 2014, during one such trial, one of the development torpedoes was lost at sea. It was nearly after a month, in a first of its kind underwater operation in the country, that NSTL, with the help of expertise from the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), recovered the torpedo, worth a few crores of rupees, that was lying on the seabed.
