New Delhi, July 18 (IANS) Minister of State for Defence, Sanjay Seth, commended the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientists for their recent achievements and exhorted the scientific community to continue strengthening the armed forces, an official said on Friday.

During a visit to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Missile Complex, DRDO, in Hyderabad, MoS Seth said that scientists of the DRDO are playing a crucial role in building an Aatmanirbhar Bharat through realisation of state-of-the-art weapon systems.

He also pointed to the security challenges in the current scenario and called upon scientists to add to the armed forces’ strength.

The MoS, who visited the DRDO complex on Thursday, reviewed the Missiles and Weapon Systems programme being pursued by the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Research Centre Imarat (RCI) and Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) of Missile Cluster Labs.

Seth also visited various work centres of DRDL – Astra Mk I & II, Vertically-Launched Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile and Scramjet Engine facilities and was briefed about the status of the projects by Director General (Missiles and Strategic Systems) U. Raja Babu and Director, DRDL G.A. Srinivasa Murthy.

The MoS also visited various critical work centres of RCI, where Director, RCI, Anindya Biswas apprised him of the progress of the Indigenous Navigation/Aviation Systems, Onboard Computer Division and Imaging Infra-Red Seeker facilities.

His two-day visit to the DRDO complex culminated on a day when the country successfully carried out the test-firing of two of its key strategic assets — the short-range ballistic missile Prithvi-II and the ballistic missile Agni-I.

The test-firing was carried out from the Integrated Test Range in Odisha’s Chandipur.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the launches were conducted under the aegis of the Strategic Forces Command as part of routine training and validation exercises.

Both missiles successfully met all operational objectives and technical parameters, the Ministry said in a statement.

The tests validated key capabilities, reaffirming the reliability and accuracy of India’s Nuclear-capable delivery systems, it said.

–IANS

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