Secretary DDR&D and Chairman DRDO Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh today laid the foundation stone for the SONAR Engineering Assembly, Test & Evaluation Center (SEATEC) at the SAROVAR Campus of the Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL) in Kochi.

The SEATEC facility will feature an underwater simulation channel and state-of-the-art machinery and equipment for the development, assembly, testing and evaluation of advanced SONAR and underwater surveillance systems.


NPOL, a DRDO laboratory based in Kochi, specialises in Sound Navigation And Ranging (SONAR) and allied technologies, with thrust areas spanning signal processing, electronics, engineering systems, transducers, materials and oceanography.

The new centre is expected to strengthen India's indigenous capabilities in anti-submarine warfare and underwater domain awareness, supporting the design, integration and production of sonar suites for naval platforms.

Indigenous sonar systems developed by NPOL are already deployed on newly commissioned warships, serving as the "eyes and ears" of naval vessels to detect, classify and track hostile submarines and underwater threats in the complex acoustic environment of the Indian Ocean region.

The SEATEC project aligns with broader DRDO efforts to expand test and evaluation infrastructure for critical defence technologies, including recent initiatives such as System Integration & Evaluation Rigs for electronic warfare and the construction of an Acoustic Research Ship at Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers in Kolkata.

Agencies