Visakhapatnam: Delivery of first Varunastra flagged off

Visakhapatnam: Secretary of the Department of Defence R&D and Chairman of DRDO Dr G Satheesh Reddy flagged off the first Varunastra, the Heavy Weight Torpedo, being delivered to the Indian Navy, at a ceremony held at Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), Visakhapatnam unit on Saturday.

The foundation stone was also laid by Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO for setting up the state-of-the-art central stores at BDL, Visakhapatnam Unit.

Project Director of Ship Building Centre Vice-Admiral K Srinivas, Director General, Naval Systems & Materials (NS&M), DRDO, Dr Samir V Kamat, outstanding scientist and Director, Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) Dr OR Nandagopan and other dignitaries from DRDO were present.

Commodore Siddharth Mishra (Retd), Chairman and Managing Director, BDL, N P Diwakar, Director (Technical), BDL and other senior officials were also present.

Varunastra or the Heavy Weight Torpedo has been designed and developed by NSTL, Visakhapatnam. BDL, being the Production Agency, is manufacturing Varunastra at its Visakhapatnam Unit for the Indian Navy. This product is also being offered for export.

During his address, Dr Satheesh Reddy appreciated the synergy among the stakeholders, especially the design agency NSTL and the production agency BDL in completing the first Varunastra.