India To Export Hull-Mounted Sonars To Friendly Nations

India is interested in exporting indigenously developed hull-mounted sonars to three to four friendly nations, The Hindu reported today.

Three units of sonars (Sound Navigation and Ranging) were installed by Naval Physical and Oceanographic Lab (NPOL) of the Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO) and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) officials in Myanmar a fortnight ago as part of a $24 million (INR 150 crore) contract signed in 2013.

“There was a demand from other nations too. Naval officials from three to four countries came to India and negotiations are at an advanced stage,” Bhajanga Rao, Director-General, DRDO (Naval Systems and Materials) was quoted as saying by Hindu.

“Sonar for detecting intruders like divers had been developed for installation at harbor entry points and to protect offshore installations. It will be ready for deployment in a year. Similarly, ship-towed array sonar technology that could detect targets up to 100 km was ready for user-evaluation trials. Abhay, compact sonar for fitting on warships of smaller size or shallow watercraft, was currently undergoing technical trials on board INS Ajay,” he added.