Centre for Research and Development (Sri Lanka)

Centre for Research and Development (CRD) is a Sri Lankan Research and Development (R&D) institute under the Ministry of Defence responsible for the development technology for the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka. The CRD cooperates with various branches of the military as well as other entities and is engaged in the development of both military and civilian technologies.

History

During the Sri Lankan Civil War the separatist militants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam made extensive use of Claymore mines and improvised explosive devices which were often detonated wirelessly and the Sri Lankan government was finding it hard to procure enough jammers from international markets. Thus the CRD was founded in 2006 at the Panagoda cantonment consisting of a group of army personnel working together with engineering faculties of various universities. These allowed to both disrupt the signals as well as detect and detonate mines planted by the LTTE. known as the K3 Jammer the initial manpack version was effective up to a modest 100m and later K3V vehicular version was subsequently used by the army when providing security to VIPs. CRD later developed mobile phone jammers for prisons as well as GPS jammers and satellite phone jammers.[1][2][3][4]

Most of CRD's early projects involved the modification of the military's existing equipment such as the development of rugged RA 400 Cougar Fist Microphone developed for Cougar Radios by the CRD and also modified to be used with the PRC 1077 VHF Tactical Radios. However, since then the CRD has been expanding and has begun new projects and also begun R&D projects involving civilian or dual use technologies.[1][5]

The CRD has developed a helium balloon-based stationary surveillance platform equipped with pan–tilt–zoom and infrared cameras, demining machines, voice encryption devices for telephones and radios, high nutrition/ high caloric ration packs alongside packaging material and containers, GPS-based vehicle tracking devices and fleet management Systems, WS30 stabilized weapon system for naval vessels developed in cooperation with EM Digital. The CRD has also developed numerous simulators for training including realistic flight simulator, flight control simulator, field artillery simulator, simulators for jungle lane firing etc. CRD also developed civilian use technologies such as a Train Tracking and Operating Information System for Sri Lankan Railways, Braile to Sinhala converter, GPS-enabled quadcopters alongside 3D modeling tools for drone mapping and disaster management as well as a web-based Global Disaster Risk Analysis, Prevention and Mitigation Application.[6][7][8][9]

CRD is currently designing and developing unmanned vehicle systems including a medium range unmanned aerial vehicle, avionics and a ground control station and has built several prototypes such as UX-I, UX-II B, UX-IIC and UX-IIC Extended UAVs as well as an unmanned underwater vehicle for the Navy called Magura. CRD Multiple rocket launcher project resulted in a locally developed 122mm MLRS system with rockets including fuel, launcher, hydraulic control unit and digital fire control system which was displayed on the 71st Independence Day Parade. CRD is also developing a naval variant of the MLRS. Further a missile guidance system is also being developed.[10][11][12]

However the CRD is constrained by the lack of resources including funding, facilities and researchers and as of 2018 only 8 of 15 wings are active and several projects have been suspended due to the lack of resources. [12]

Organization structure

The Headquarters CRD acts as the Command and Control arm of the CRD headed by a Director General equivalent to a Major General and assisted by staff consisting of a Deputy Director General and Staff Officers. The CRD is organized into four main Divisions with the Technical & Material Division being responsible for conducting research and development. The Technical and Material Division is composed of 15 Wings, each headed by a Chief Coordinator in the rank of Colonel or equivalent, however as of 2018 only 8 Wings are fully operational. The Divisions and fully operational Wings as of 2018 are,[13]

  • Technical & Materials Division
    • Radio and Electronics Wing
    • Combat Engineering Wing
    • Missile Wing
    • Surveillance Wing
    • Explosive/Pyrotechnics Wing
    • IT Wing
    • Marine Wing
    • Aeronautical Wing
  • Admin & Logistic Division
  • Finance Division
  • Training Division

References
  1. "Military boffins now into R&D to meet peacetime situations". Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  2. "K3 Manpack Bomb Jammer". crd.lk. Archived from the original on 2018-01-15. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  3. "K3V Jammer Vehicular Version". 2018-01-15. Archived from the original on 2018-01-15. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  4. "Thuraya/GPS Jammer". crd.lk. Archived from the original on 2018-01-15. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  5. "Economic/Rugged RA400 Cougar First Handset for PRC1077". 2018-01-15. Archived from the original on 2018-01-15. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  6. "Projects". crd.lk. 2018-03-19. Archived from the original on 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  7. "Impressed Commander Wants CRD to Begin Mass Production for Tri-Services | Sri Lanka Army". www.army.lk. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  8. "Drone Mapping". Archived from the original on 2018-03-18.
  9. "Global Disaster Risk Analysis, Prevention and Mitigation Application". Archived from the original on 2018-03-18.
  10. "Middle Range UAVs". Archived from the original on 2018-01-15.
  11. "First locally-made MBRL takes pride of place at parade".
  12. "Performance Report of the Ministry of Defence for the year 2018" (PDF).
  13. "Approved Organization". crd.lk. 2018-03-19. Archived from the original on 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
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