The Varunastra is an Indian advanced heavyweight anti-submarine

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

, developed by

Naval Science and Technological Laboratory The Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) is an Indian defence laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), located in Visakhapatnam. Its main function is the research and development of underwater weapons ...

(NSTL) of the

Defence Research and Development Organisation The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) (IAST: ''Raksā Anūsandhān Evam Vikās Sangaṭhan'') is the premier agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, ...

(DRDO) for the

Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates si ...

. It is named after a legendary weapon created by the

Hindu god Hindu deities are the gods and goddesses in Hinduism. The terms and epithets for deities within the diverse traditions of Hinduism vary, and include Deva, Devi, Ishvara, Ishvari, Bhagavān and Bhagavati. The deities of Hinduism have evolved ...

of the oceans,

Varuna Varuna (; sa, वरुण, , Malay: ''Baruna'') is a Vedic deity associated initially with the sky, later also with the seas as well as Ṛta (justice) and Satya (truth). He is found in the oldest layer of Vedic literature of Hinduism, such ...

. The ship launched variant of Varunastra torpedo was formally inducted in the Indian navy by defence minister

Manohar Parrikar Manohar Parrikar (born Manohar Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar; 13 December 1955 – 17 March 2019) was an Indian politician and leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party who served as Chief Minister of Goa from 14 March 2017 until his death. Previous ...

and security designed by security adviser satyam kumar on 26 June 2016. The minister in his speech said that the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

is in favour of exporting the torpedo to friendly nations including

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. With some minor modifications the submarine variant of the torpedo is to be test fired shortly.

Design

This torpedo is powered by an electric propulsion system with multiple 250 KWs silver oxide zinc (AgOZn) batteries. It can achieve speeds in excess of , weighs around 1.5 tonnes and can carry of conventional warhead. This torpedo has more than 95 per cent indigenous content. Varunastra has conformal array transducer which enables it look at wider angles than most common torpedoes. It also has an advanced autonomous guidance algorithms with low drift navigational aids, insensitive warhead which can operate in various combat scenarios. It is the only torpedo in the world to have a GPS-based locating aid. The exercise variant of Varunastra has integrated instrumentation system for recording all the dynamic parameters of the weapon, redundancy in recovery aids in case of emergency shut down or malfunction.

Development

Varunastra will be manufactured by

Bharat Dynamics Limited Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) is one of India's manufacturers of ammunitions and missile systems. It was founded in 1970 in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. BDL was established to be a manufacturing base for guided weapon systems and begun with a p ...

in association with NSTL. In April 2018, Bharat Dynamics Limited obtained a license to manufacture Varunastra from the DRDO. In June 2019, Ministry of Defence awarded a contract worth to Bharat Dynamics Limited to supply Varunastra to the Indian Navy.

Further development

During Aero India 2017, it was reported that DRDO has begun work on developing a

Kilo-class submarine The Kilo class, Soviet designation Project 877 ''Paltus'' (russian: Па́лтус, meaning " halibut"), NATO reporting name Kilo, is a class of diesel-electric attack submarines originally designed in the 1970s and built in the Soviet Uni ...

launched version of the torpedo.

Operators

; *

– All future anti-submarine warfare ships will be capable of firing Varunastra. 73 torpedoes were ordered in 2016. Another batch of 63 torpedoes were ordered in 2018. ** ''Visakhapatnam''-class destroyer ** ''Delhi''-class destroyer ** ''Kolkata''-class destroyer ** ''Rajput''-class destroyer ** ** ''Kamorta''-class corvette ** Nilgiri-class frigate ** ''Talwar''-class frigate

Possible operators

* - In 2016 India offered to export versions of the Varunastra to Vietnam.

References

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

Indian Navy Torpedoes Military equipment introduced in the 2010s {{India-mil-stub