SPRINT SCHEME - GOVERNMENT SCHEME
News: Indian
Navy signs contract for autonomous armed boat swarms under SPRINT scheme
What's in the news?
● The
Indian Navy has signed an agreement with Sagar Defence Engineering Pvt. Ltd for
armed autonomous boat swarms under ‘SPRINT’ Scheme.
Key takeaways:
● The
agreement refers to an Indian Navy
project of the Defence India Start-up Challenge (DISC 7) SPRINT initiative,
and the Indian Navy expects to place an order for 12 systems after the
construction of the weaponised autonomous unmanned boat.
● The
platform will be able to conduct a range of navy and security tasks including
○ High-speed
interdiction
○ Surveillance
○ Constabulary
operations
○ Command,
Control, Communications, Computers (C4) Intelligence, Surveillance and
Reconnaissance (C4ISR) and
○ Low-intensity
maritime operations.
● This
is the 50th contract under ‘SPRINT’, which aims at the development of 75
indigenous technologies by the industry for the Navy.
● Sagar
Defence Engineering has the know-how to create the nation’s first armed
autonomous unmanned boat with swarming capabilities.
SPRINT Scheme:
● ‘SPRINT’
stands for Supporting Pole-vaulting In R&D through Innovations for Defence
Excellence (IdeX), Naval Innovation and Indigenisation Organisation (NIIO) and
Technology Development Acceleration Cell (TDAC).
● It
is an initiative to promote development
of niche defence technologies by domestic companies.
● NIIO,
in conjunction with the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO), aims to induct
at least 75 new indigenous technologies/products into the Indian Navy in a bid
to achieve ‘Aatmanirbharta’ in defence and as part of ‘Azadi ka Amrit
Mahotsav’.