Faulty power supply creates most glitches in missiles: DRDO

Most of the problems that occur in missile systems are caused due to snags in power supply devices and power related faults, a senior DRDO official said today.
"Power distribution problems are enormous. There are varying demands of power by different components and you will see that there is single source of power for all of them... 90 per cent of the time the problem is through the power supply," DRDO's Director General (Missiles and Strategic Systems) V G Sekaran said here.
"Suppose we use the power which is not the desired power, for instance if the voltage goes below the required level the system refuses to function. That all depends on the onboard management of the system... I still repeat, many of the failures (in missiles) occur because of power only," he said.

Sekaran was speaking at the inaugural event of Multisphere Power Solutions company, which claims to be India's first firm to indigenously manufacture power supply products for defence and aerospace applications.
The DRDO scientist, who has served as Director for Agni missile project, also noted that the power supply components, unlike its size, play a vital role in the systems and said it is time we start manufacturing such components here only.
"They (the company) have started assembling here, it is a world class facility. The components they manufacture here may look small but it is very critical part in the system - aircraft, missile, aerospace, any system -- it plays a very vital role.

"So far, we have been importing them but now it is time to break from that and try to make it here with all the technology available," he said.
Meanwhile, on joint ventures with foreign countries to prodcue defence equipment, Sekaran said DRDO's vision is to shift to domestic production of defence equipments.