New Delhi, November 29. Dynamatic Technologies Limited has officially handed over an indigenous Vertical Launch Unit (VLU) to Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) for complex naval applications.
The handover on November 27 marks a key public-private partnership milestone for India’s naval defence systems, specifically the DRDO’s Vertical Launch Short Range Surface-to-Air Missile (VL-SRSAM).
This development advances India’s self-reliance in defence technology as VL-SRSAM trials have demonstrated over 90 percent hit probability in recent tests, enabling rapid deployment against low-flying threats like drones and cruise missiles.
A VLU (often one element of a ship’s Vertical Launch System or VLS) is the mechanical and electrical subsystem that houses missile canisters and provides the interface to the ship’s weapon-control and fire-control systems. Its core functions typically include the following:
- Mechanical structure to secure canisterised missiles and absorb launch loads
- Cells or quad-pack arrangements to hold multiple missiles
- Electrical and data interfaces to the weapon control system (WCS) for target/launch commands and health/status monitoring
- Ignition/egress pathway and blast/venting arrangements for safe vertical (hot) launches
- Local controllers and diagnostics for pre-launch checks.
For India’s VL-SRSAM, the missile is canisterised and designed for vertical launches from VLS modules; the VLU is the hardware that enables those canisters to be mounted, electrically integrated, and fired from a shipboard installation.
BEL handles major sub-systems, canisters, electronics, and launcher-related work for the Navy’s VL-SRSAM.
