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DRDO chief: Missile man, again | Deccan Chronicle
Bengaluru: Sixty two-year-old missiles' specialist Avinash Chander is tipped to succeed Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat as the Chief of Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) and Scientific Adviser to the defence minister, on Friday.
Dr Chander, now serving as Chief Controller R & D (missiles and strategic systems), DRDO, is known for his contribution to the missiles programme-first as mission director of 'Agni' series of ballistic missiles, which clocked a new benchmark in April last year when the ICBM-class 'Agni-V' missile was tested for the first time, and subsequently as the Chief Designer of long-range missiles.
He and Dr Saraswat were colleagues in DRDO for more than four decades and were part of the team responsible for design and development of various missiles. He was conferred the Padma
Shri award earlier this year.
Sources in the ministry of defence (MoD) told Deccan Chronicle that Dr Chander and Dr K Tamilmani, Chief Contr*oller R & D (Aeronautics), were short-listed from among more than a dozen contenders from DRDO and other organizations, by a search committee headed by the cabinet secretary and with renowned scientists like Dr R Chidambaram and Dr Anil Kakodkar, as its members.
Dr Chander, however, was the obvious choice as the missile development programme, including ballistic missile defence and design of cruise missiles, figures at the top of list of priorities of the Union government.
The sources said prior to his current assignment as Chief Controller, Dr Chander was Director of Advanced Systems Labor*atory (ASL), Hyderabad, the most glamorous DRDO facility where all strategic missiles including, including nuclear-tipped ones, are developed. Scientists at ASL are also designing the MIRVs or multi-independently-targetable re-entry vehicles or missiles with multiple warheads.
Bengaluru: Sixty two-year-old missiles' specialist Avinash Chander is tipped to succeed Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat as the Chief of Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDO) and Scientific Adviser to the defence minister, on Friday.
Dr Chander, now serving as Chief Controller R & D (missiles and strategic systems), DRDO, is known for his contribution to the missiles programme-first as mission director of 'Agni' series of ballistic missiles, which clocked a new benchmark in April last year when the ICBM-class 'Agni-V' missile was tested for the first time, and subsequently as the Chief Designer of long-range missiles.
He and Dr Saraswat were colleagues in DRDO for more than four decades and were part of the team responsible for design and development of various missiles. He was conferred the Padma
Shri award earlier this year.
Sources in the ministry of defence (MoD) told Deccan Chronicle that Dr Chander and Dr K Tamilmani, Chief Contr*oller R & D (Aeronautics), were short-listed from among more than a dozen contenders from DRDO and other organizations, by a search committee headed by the cabinet secretary and with renowned scientists like Dr R Chidambaram and Dr Anil Kakodkar, as its members.
Dr Chander, however, was the obvious choice as the missile development programme, including ballistic missile defence and design of cruise missiles, figures at the top of list of priorities of the Union government.
The sources said prior to his current assignment as Chief Controller, Dr Chander was Director of Advanced Systems Labor*atory (ASL), Hyderabad, the most glamorous DRDO facility where all strategic missiles including, including nuclear-tipped ones, are developed. Scientists at ASL are also designing the MIRVs or multi-independently-targetable re-entry vehicles or missiles with multiple warheads.
