L&T developing radars for space missions

Larsen and Toubro Ltd is building satellite tracking radars for ISRO to be used in India's future space missions.

Engineering major Larsen and Toubro Ltd is building satellite tracking radars for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which will be used in the country's future space missions.

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These instrumentation grade radars will also be capable of tracking space launches and will be located at the Satish Dhawan Spaceport at Sriharikota on the Eastern coast, from where ISRO's rockets fire satellites into space.

L&T is developing these radars with basic design and technical assistance from ISRO's Radar Development Center (ISRAD) and inputs from other ISRO laboratories and launch stations, L&T Senior Vice President M V Kotwal told PTI in Mumbai.

The space agency is providing the basic design and L&T is doing engineering, development and integration of the radar, he said.

"We expect to complete the development work, installation commissioning and hand it over to the space agency in about two years," he said.

These radars will be equipped with advanced sensors developed by L&T at its inhouse technology centre for accurate tracking of deep space satellites for ISRO.

Last year, L&T joined hands with Bharat ELectronics Ltd (BEL) to begin work on surveillance radars for the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy.

Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE), a Bangalore-based DRDO lab, is working as the nodal agency for the project. "These surveillance radars have already entered into series production phase and orders have been placed with BEL as primary contractor," Kotwal added.