IIT Madras, Navy Partner on EW and High-Energy Weapons

• IIT Madras, Indian Navy, and Apollo Micro Systems partner to advance defence tech
• Focus on electronic warfare, precision guidance, and high-tech systems across all domains
• IIT leads research, DGNAI validates, Apollo handles engineering and manufacturing

IIT Madras has formed a strategic alliance with the Indian Navy along with Apollo Micro Systems Limited to hasten the creation of advanced defence technology within India. The MoU for the Joint Development was signed at the Indian Navy's 'Swavalamban 2025' programme that held recently, in New Delhi, with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in attendance.

The three organisations are combining IIT Madras' research capabilities, the Indian Navy's operational expertise and Apollo Micro Systems' engineering and manufacturing capabilities to promote a collaboration that will create an integrated innovation ecosystem that supports India's 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' initiative in providing self-sufficient, high-tech defence solutions.

“This strategic MoU establishes a collaborative framework to jointly address current and emerging technological problem statements of the Armed Forces. The partnership is designed to accelerate the transition of laboratory innovations into real-world, deployment-ready products tailored for the Nation’s defence needs”, stated Professor PA Ramakrishna, Department of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras.

IIT Madras will lead basic research and early-stage design of the defence platform prototype. IIT Madras defence research is advancing Navy electronic warfare and high-energy weapon systems India through a defence innovation and military technology partnership, strengthening Indian Navy R&D capabilities.

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Under the above-mentioned agreement, IIT Madras has been designated as the primary research institution for leading the basic research stage, early-stage design, developing and establishing intellectual property (IP), and prototyping new technology concepts that have application to defence platforms.

The Directorate-General of Naval Ammunition Inspection (DGNAI) will give operational support to the basic research and prototyping of new technologies.

As Apollo Micro Systems will serve as the Technology Development and Manufacturing Partner, the results from research will be converted into production-ready systems through a process that supports rapid engineering, integration and manufacturing for the armed forces.

According to officials, this collaboration will help speed up the transfer of new technologies from academics to operational settings and increase India's strategic technology capabilities, thereby advancing its goal of becoming a centre of defence innovation.