The prestigious heavy weight torpedo, Varunastra, designed and developed by the Naval Science and Technology Laboratory here is all set to undergo user evaluation trials (UET) by the Navy by mid-year. The torpedo would be handed over to the Navy for UET, Director General, Naval Systems and Materials, V. Bhujanga Rao, Defence Research and Development Organisation, said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the National Science Day celebrations organised at Andhra University, Department of Physics, on Friday, he said it would take at least one year after the UET for Varunastra to go into production.

The 1500 kg torpedo would be manufactured at the Bharat Dynamics Ltd. facility here. The BDL team is observing the development and assembly of the prototypes at the Talwar facility at NSTL. The concurrent engineering would help BDL assimilate the technology faster and take it to production line after the technology transfer, he said.