Trichy: The radome designed by a research scholar at the National Institute of Technology, Trichy, (NIT-T) has come first in the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (

) dare to dream contest.

The radome, a structural, weatherproof enclosure that protects a radar antenna, designed by V Krushnakanth, research scholar in the ECE department, shields the aircraft’s radar from getting detected by enemy radar. His was awarded commendable certificate and a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh from defence minister Rajnath Singh last week in the 41st DRDO Directors Conference in New Delhi on Technology Leadership for Empowering India. The project stood first among 3,000 odd projects presented at DRDO’s dare to dream contest – a scheme to foster innovation and technology development in defence and aerospace. The front nose cone of an aircraft accommodates radar for scanning and identifying targets for bombing. This needs to be protected from enemy radar from identification. His design on selective frequency can make the radar in combat aircraft invisible from enemy radars.

“Signals coming from radar is the main source of detection by enemy aircraft. The radome designed by me will only allow reception of selective electro-magnetic frequency and thereby remains undetected by enemy radar,” said Krushnakanth.

“The radome is designed in such a way that it will allow only certain electro-magnetic frequency. “This basically means we can see others but enemies should not see us. Our radome works in specific frequency which will be known only to us,” he said. Saying that there has not been much research in this area in the country, he said the exposure he gained in CSIR - National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru, as project assistant before joining NIT-T helped his work in the area. Saying his guide S Raghavan was a driving force, he said that he is planning to take up projects under DRDO apart from exploring the possibilities on doing post-doctoral research.