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Muntra:- India’s First Unmanned Tank Rolls Out in Cheenai

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The newest achievement for the Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has come in the form of Muntra, an unmanned, remotely operated tank with three variants – surveillance, mine detection and reconnaissance in areas with nuclear and bio threats. Although this has been developed specifically for the Army by Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) in Avadi, Tamil Nadu, India’s paramilitary force has expressed a keen interest in using the same at troublesome Naxal-hit areas of the country.

These two remotely operated vehicles, which have been designed like an armored tank, were recently on display at an exhibition called “Science for Soldiers”, which was organized by the DRDO as a special tribute to the erstwhile president of the country, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

Of the three variants, the Muntra-S is India’s first tracked unmanned ground vehicle developed for unmanned surveillance missions. The Muntra-M is helpful for detecting mines whereas the Muntra-N is helpful for operating in areas which run at a greater risk from nuclear radiation and bio weapons.

It is also called as Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV), these vehicles or tankers operate without on board human presence. They are extremely useful where it is inconvenient for humans to operate. Where there is extreme danger or impossible for a human to operate in a particular area, these tanks can be sent to get the work done as it won’t harm any human life. They are decorated with some sensors which are used to detect the useful information and get back. The details about one of our very first such kind of creations are given below.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has recently developed India’s first unmanned tank ‘Muntra’, which is just been passed out of the Chennai Lab. It is called Mission UNmanned TRAcked.

The unmanned tank muntra has three alternatives:

  • Surveillance.
  • Mine detection
  • Investigation of areas with nuclear and bio threats.

The tank will not only be used by the army, but also by the naxal hit areas of India. Even though the tank has been developed and tested for the army by Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) in Avadi, paramilitary has requested for it’s use in naxal hit areas as well.

Coming back to the three alternatives of Muntra:

Muntra –S has been developed for the unmanned surveillance mission.
Muntra –M is built for detecting mines.
Muntra-N is created to detect nuclear radiations or bio weapon risks in the suspected areas.
The testing and validation of the tanks has been done at Mahajan field firing range in Rajasthan, where temperatures touch 52 degrees and is very dusty. The Muntra tank has an integrated camera along with laser range finder and surveillance radar. The integrated camera and the laser range finder will help in spying on ground targets about 15 kilometers away ranging from crawling men or heavy vehicles.

Two of these remote operated vehicles were on display at the exhibition namely, ‘Science of Soldiers’ which was organized by DRDO. IT was a tribute to our former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.at CVRDE n Avadi.

With this new addition to the weapons, Indian military is going to develope huge benefits from these tanks.

 

 

 

 

Source:- Times of India

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