Indian Navy Successfully Tests Sahayak Air Droppable Containers; To Improve Operational Logistics At Sea

Indian Navy today (23 April) successfully tested its Sahayak air droppable containers developed in collaboration with Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The test was carried off the coast of Goa where a payload of 50 kgs was air-dropped into the sea. The container descended with the help of an attached parachute, reports Defence News.

The air droppable containers will enhance operational logistics capability of the Indian Navy and will provide the wherewithal to supply spares and stores to ships which are deployed more than 2000 Km from the coast.

This will also increases the deployment duration of vessels as the vessels need not to return to coast for spares.

With the success of these trials, series production of Sahayak containers and parachutes would be undertaken and seen having very high export potential.

The containers system has P4M Pyro Cutter Mechanism, designed and developed by NSTL, for separation of the pilot parachute from the main parachute which helps to control the rate of descent of the container.

Indian Navy has been working to increase its logistics capabilities in the Indian Ocean by getting into agreements with many friendly nations and has signed agreements with the US, Singapore, France since 2016 and will sign similar agreements with Russia and Japan soon.