Preparing against chemical warfare threat, Indian Army has signed a contract for procurement of 223 Automatic Chemical Agent Detection and Alarm (ACADA) systems from L&T Ltd at a cost of ₹80.43 crore.
Designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO’s) Gwalior-based lab Defence Research and Development Establishment, the ACADA system is used to detect chemical warfare agents (CWA) and programmed toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) by sampling the air from the environment.
The system will be procured under the Buy Indian (IDDM) category to give a significant boost to the government’s atamnirbharta drive since more than 80 per cent of the components and sub-systems of the equipment will be sourced locally, the Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday.
The Ministry said it marks a significant milestone in the nation’s indigenisation initiative in the niche chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) domain.
The ACADA system works on the principle of Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) and contains two highly sensitive IMS cells for continuous detection and simultaneous monitoring of harmful/ toxic substances.
Induction of ACADA in the field units will substantially enhance the Indian Army’s defensive CBRN capability for operations, as also during peacetime, especially for responding to disaster relief situations related to industrial accidents.
The Indian Army has a CBRN training establishment at the College of Military Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra.