Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) is a laboratory of the

Defence Research and Development Organisation The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) ( IAST: ''Raksā Anūsandhān Evam Vikās Sangaṭhan'') is the premier agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in Ministry of Defence of the Government of India ...

(DRDO). Located at

Avadi Avadi () is a suburb of Chennai within Chennai Metropolitan Area limit, located in the Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu, India. It is a municipal corporation west of Chennai, about from Chennai Central Railway Station. It is surrounded by ma ...

, in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. It is the main DRDO lab involved in the development of

Armoured fighting vehicle An armoured fighting vehicle (AFV) is an armed combat vehicle protected by armour, generally combining operational mobility with offensive and defensive capabilities. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked. Examples of AFVs are tanks, armoured ca ...

Tank A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful e ...

s, Automotive electronics and many other.

History

After the

Independence of India The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...

, the Chief Inspectorate of Mechanical Transport Establishment (MTE), which was previously located in

Chaklala Chaklala is a major suburban town of Rawalpindi in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is situated astride the Airport Road, to the east of Grand Trunk Road on the main railway line. The town has its own railway station Chaklala Railway Station w ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, was moved to

Ahmednagar Ahmednagar (), is a city located in the Ahmednagar district in the state of Maharashtra, India, about 120 km northeast of Pune and 114 km from Aurangabad. Ahmednagar takes its name from Ahmad Nizam Shah I, who founded the town in 1 ...

. It was later renamed as Vehicle Research & Development Establishment ( VRDE), Ahmednagar. In 1965, the

Heavy Vehicles Factory The Heavy Vehicles Factory (HVF) located at Avadi in Chennai in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu is a armoured vehicle and battle tank manufacturing factory of Armoured Vehicles Nigam Limited. HVF was set up in 1961 by the Ordnance Factory Board ...

under the

Ordnance Factory Board Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), consisting of the Indian Ordnance Factories, now known as Directorate of Ordnance (Coordination & Services) was an organisation, under the Department of Defence Production (DDP) of Ministry of Defence (MoD), Gover ...

was set up at Avadi to manufacture Vijayanta Tanks. A detachment of VRDE was established there to provide R&D support. In March 1976, the VRDE detachment at Avadi was split off from VRDE and re-designated as Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment (CVRDE), as an independent DRDO laboratory responsible for Research & Development of Armoured Fighting Vehicles.

Areas of Work

CVRDE has been tasked with the design, development and testing of tracked combat vehicles and specialized tracked vehicles. It has also designed certain aircraft subsystems, mainly related to the engine and hydraulics. Like many DRDO labs, it also develops civilian technologies based on spin-offs of the defence related products developed by it. It has recently started developing Unmanned Ground Vehicles of the tracked category.

Projects and Products

CVRDE is the main research lab responsible for the development of the Arjun MBT, 248 of which have been ordered by the Indian Army. It has also developed the Tank-EX, Bhim Self Propelled Artillery, based on the Arjun Chassis, and the Combat Improved Ajeya, an upgrade of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four ...

T-72 The T-72 is a family of Soviet/Russian main battle tanks that entered production in 1969. The T-72 was a development of the T-64, which was troubled by high costs and its reliance on immature developmental technology. About 25,000 T-72 tanks ...

Tanks. Apart from these, CVRDE has also developed other combat and

Engineering Vehicles Heavy equipment or heavy machinery refers to heavy-duty vehicles specially designed to execute construction tasks, most frequently involving earthwork operations or other large construction tasks. ''Heavy equipment'' usually comprises five e ...

, like Armored Cars, Bridge-layer Tanks, Armoured Recovery Vehicles and a Mortar Carrier based on the BMP-2 chassis. CVRDE is also working on many technologies related to Armoured Fighting vehicles. CVRDE has a division dedicated to development of Automatic transmissions for Armored Fighting Vehicles. It has developed transmissions of various power ranges viz. 1500, 800, 150 hp. It has developed various subsystems of transmission like torque converter, Fluid coupling and retarder, Steering units, Final drives etc. Muntra, India's first ever unmanned

armored vehicle Military vehicles are commonly armoured (or armored; see spelling differences) to withstand the impact of shrapnel, bullets, shells, rockets, and missiles, protecting the personnel inside from enemy fire. Such vehicles include armoured fighti ...

was developed here.

References

External links

CVRDE Home Page

Products developed by CVRDE
Defence Research and Development Organisation laboratories Research institutes in Chennai Research institutes in Tamil Nadu Research institutes established in 1975 1975 establishments in Tamil Nadu {{india-mil-stub

History

Areas of Work

Projects and Products

See also

References

External links