Tamil Nadu has signed three Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to establish the country’s first three Defence Testing Centres under the Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme (DTIS) in the State.
The fourth testing centre is also under the final stages of MoU signing and is expected to be signed by this month-end. This initiative aims to bolster indigenous defence production by bridging critical gaps in testing infrastructure, with a particular focus on involving micro, small, and medium enterprises and start-ups. The cost of the four projects will be around ₹183 crore, says a release.
The establishment of these testing centres will commence soon and operations are expected to commence early next year, says a release.
The DTIS is designed to facilitate indigenous defence production. It seeks to address this challenge by setting up Greenfield Defence Testing Infrastructures (DTIs) as common facilities under private sector management, with government assistance in Defence Industrial Corridors (DICs) and other priority industrial clusters. The new defence testing centres include Unmanned Aerial Systems test facility at Vallam Vadagal, Electronic Warfare test facility and the Electro Optics test facility at the Chennai Aerospace Park Ltd - Aerohub facility, and Mechanical and materials testing facility at TREAT, Tiruchirappalli.
