Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar at the launch of the first Indigenous Composites Sonar Dome at Defexpo-16 in Goa on Tuesday. (PTI Photo) Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar at the launch of the first Indigenous Composites Sonar Dome at Defexpo-16 in Goa on Tuesday. (PTI Photo)

India’s first indigenous composites sonar dome, a ship’s underwater eyes and ears, was today flagged off by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar from here to be delivered to Mazgaon docks in Mumbai.

Designed and produced by a Defence and Research Development Organisation (DRDO) lab in Pune, the sonar dome is a first of its kind in the country and has been manufactured by a composites manufacturing company.

This is a huge contribution by Indian Industry to the ‘Make in India’ movement, Defence Ministry officials said.

Only a couple of companies worldwide have the capability of realising such structures.

All anti-submarine warfare (ASW) ships have a sonar array fitted to the ship structure below the waterline. The sonar functions as the ship’s underwater eyes and ears.

The sonar dome is a structure fitted over the sonar array so that its electronics and sensors are not exposed to surrounding hostile environment and has to be structurally sound as well as acoustically transparent.

It has been designed by Research and Development Establishment (Engineers), a DRDO laboratory based in Pune and manufactured by Goa-based composites manufacturing company Kineco.

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