. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is the research and development arm of the Ministry of Defence. It was created in 1958 by merging the units of Defence Science Organisation, which was set up in 1948 to advise and assist the Defence Services on scientific problems and to undertake research in areas related to defence, with the then existing Technical Development Establishments of the three Services. Subsequently, a separate Department of Defence Research and Development (DDR and D) was formed in 1980 to improve administrative efficiency. Starting from a cluster of about 10 laboratories in 1958, DRDO today has 46 laboratories which are spread far and wide; from Tezpur in the east to Mumbai in the west, from Leh in the north to Kochi in the south. DRDO’s mandate is to provide assessment and advise on scientific aspects of weapons, platforms and surveillance sensors; to carry out research and to develop cutting-edge technologies leading to production of state- of the-art sensors, weapon systems, platforms and allied equipment for our Defence Services.
In the recent past, the mandate has been widened to support national cyber security architecture which includes testing capabilities, security solutions, networking systems and cyber defence tools. In this process, it has also established national infrastructure, enhanced defence industrial capability and developed committed quality human resources.
DRDO is headed by the Scientific Adviser to Raksha Mantri who is also the Secretary, Department of Defence Research and Development and Director General RandD (DGRandD). Based on the RandD work carried out by the 46 laboratories of DRDO, they are grouped into seven technology clusters namely, Armament and Combat Engineering Systems (ACE), Aeronautical Systems (AERO), Missiles and Strategic Systems (MSS), Naval Systems and Materials (NS and M), Electronics and Communication Systems (ECS), Micro Electronic Devices and Computational Systems (MED and CoS) and Life Sciences (LS).