DRDO to invest Rs 1,000 crore in three key projects

Investment will be made in three sanctioned programmes of the premier defence research agency, Director General of DRDO, V K Saraswat said.

"Around Rs 600 to Rs 650 crore will be spent on missile manufacturing augmentation, Rs 300-Rs 350 crore will be spent on hypersonic wind tunnel programme for testing scramjet engine, which will be six times faster than sound velocity, and the remaining will be invested on RF (radio frequency) testing centre," he said.

Saraswat was speaking to the media on the sidelines of announcement of 'Aviation Conclave' to be held from tomorrow. The missile augmentation programme had been taken up in collaboration with another defence establishment, Bharat Dynamics Ltd, he said.

To a question on the Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA-70) programme, he said the project report will be completed by 2011. "This will a public-private-partnership and international aviation giants like Bombardier and GE Aviation have also evinced interest in the project."

India's ambitious civil aviation programme RTA-70 is aimed at building planes for carrying 70-100 passengers on short-haul flights.