DRDO Opens Indigenous Thermal Tank Target Technology to Indian Defence Industry

The Defence Research and Development Organisation has opened an indigenous thermal target system developed for tank-related weapons testing to Indian industry, creating a route for private manufacturers to produce specialised targets that replicate the infrared signature of a real armoured vehicle.

Developed by DRDO’s Defence Laboratory, Jodhpur, the Low Cost Plug-n-Play Thermal Target System, or LC-TTS, has been placed under DRDO’s Transfer of Technology programme. The technology was published for industry participation on September 10, 2026, with two licences currently available.

The system is designed to provide a realistic thermal target for evaluating weapons and sighting systems that detect objects through their infrared or heat signatures. Instead of using an actual tank during every firing or evaluation exercise, the LC-TTS can reproduce a controlled thermal representation of one, allowing weapon systems and thermal sensors to be tested under field conditions.

Why Thermal Targets Are Required

Modern battlefield sensors increasingly depend on heat rather than visible light to detect and identify targets. Tanks, armoured vehicles, aircraft engines and other military equipment generate distinctive infrared signatures because different components operate at different temperatures.

A tank, for example, does not appear as a single uniformly hot object when viewed through a thermal imaging system. Its engine compartment, exhaust, hull, tracks and other surfaces can produce different heat patterns. A useful thermal target therefore has to reproduce not merely the approximate temperature of the vehicle, but enough of its spatial heat distribution to resemble the real object when observed through infrared equipment.

DRDO says thermal targets are particularly useful for testing heat-seeking missiles because live missile firing cannot routinely be conducted against actual vehicles. They can also support the assessment of weapon systems that employ thermal sights, including evaluations of firing accuracy and overall effectiveness.

Depending on the equipment being tested, thermal targets can range from relatively simple zeroing targets to more sophisticated imaging targets capable of reproducing a recognisable thermal pattern.

LC-TTS Replicates Frontal Thermal Signature of a Tank

The system developed by Defence Laboratory Jodhpur has initially been configured to reproduce the frontal thermal signature of a tank.

According to DRDO, the LC-TTS represents the average thermal characteristics of the frontal view of a real tank under field conditions. The target is designed to generate sufficient signature detail while maintaining its average operating temperature within a narrow range corresponding to the thermal behaviour of an actual vehicle.

This gives the system considerably greater utility than a simple heated plate. A thermal imaging sight or infrared seeker looking at the target receives a two-dimensional heat pattern intended to approximate the thermal appearance of an armoured vehicle from the front.

Such a capability can support training, calibration and evaluation without repeatedly placing operational vehicles on a test range purely to provide an infrared target.

Portable and Designed for Field Use

DRDO describes the LC-TTS as portable and rugged, with high thermal inertia and a high brightness index. These characteristics are important for equipment intended to operate on firing ranges and test sites, where targets must continue producing a stable thermal signature despite changes in environmental conditions.

High thermal inertia helps a target resist rapid temperature fluctuations, while sufficient infrared brightness allows thermal sensors and seekers to distinguish the simulated target clearly from its surroundings.

DRDO has also specified a maximum storage period of two years when the system is kept under termite- and moisture-treated storage conditions.

The low-cost and plug-and-play approach is intended to make such thermal simulation equipment easier to deploy without depending on expensive or highly elaborate range infrastructure.

Useful for Testing More Than One Type of System

Although the present LC-TTS has been developed around the thermal profile of a tank, the underlying principle has wider significance for modern weapons development.

Infrared seekers used in missiles must be tested against representative target signatures before operational deployment. Thermal imaging sights fitted to tanks, anti-tank systems, surveillance equipment and remotely operated weapon stations also require realistic targets for calibration and performance assessment.

Simulated thermal targets allow engineers to repeat tests under controlled conditions. The same target can be observed by different sensors, from different distances and under varying environmental conditions, making it easier to compare results than when relying exclusively on operational vehicles.

They can also reduce the logistical burden associated with moving armoured vehicles to ranges simply to provide targets for sensor or sight evaluation.

DRDO Seeks Manufacturers With Thermal-System Experience

The technology-transfer document places specific capability requirements on companies seeking to manufacture the LC-TTS.

Participating firms must have facilities including electric-arc thermal spraying, an XY manipulator and a CNC engraving machine. DRDO has also asked prospective manufacturers to demonstrate previous experience in areas such as thermal-signature generation and management, high-power heating elements, or infrared-signature augmentation and simulation.

The requirement shows that DRDO is not looking merely for a conventional fabrication contractor. Producing a repeatable infrared signature requires control over materials, heating characteristics and the spatial distribution of heat across the target surface.

Companies seeking the technology must also demonstrate relevant infrastructure, qualified personnel, testing facilities and the ability to undertake developmental work.

Three Prototypes Required for Technology Absorption

A selected industry partner will have to manufacture three LC-TTS prototypes for evaluation by Defence Laboratory Jodhpur before receiving the Technology Absorption Certificate.

The cost of manufacturing the samples and conducting the necessary testing and evaluation is to be borne by the company receiving the technology.

This stage is important because transfer of documentation alone does not demonstrate that an industrial partner can reproduce a DRDO-developed system consistently. Prototype production allows the laboratory to determine whether the recipient has properly absorbed the manufacturing process and can meet the required performance standards.

Part of DRDO’s Wider Push to Move Military Technology Into Production

The LC-TTS is listed by DRDO as a Category A military technology under its Transfer of Technology programme. DRDO’s policy allows Indian companies to express interest in such technologies, after which the organisation evaluates their technical and industrial capabilities before entering into a formal licensing arrangement.

The broader objective is to move technologies developed inside DRDO laboratories into serial production through Indian industry rather than requiring research establishments themselves to function as manufacturing agencies.

DRDO revised its technology-transfer policy in 2025 with the stated objective of making the process faster, improving ease of doing business and expanding India’s domestic defence manufacturing base.

The LC-TTS is a comparatively small system when measured against missiles, radars or combat vehicles, but technologies of this kind occupy an important place in the defence ecosystem. Advanced weapons cannot be developed or maintained solely through the production of the weapon itself; they also require test equipment, calibration systems, realistic targets and specialised range infrastructure.

By moving the thermal target technology into industrial production, DRDO is attempting to create that supporting capability domestically as well.

For India’s expanding electro-optical and missile industry, the significance of the LC-TTS therefore lies less in the physical target itself than in the capability it represents: an indigenous means of reproducing realistic battlefield heat signatures for the testing and evaluation of increasingly sophisticated infrared sensors and weapon systems.

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