Major Upgrade of Naval Environmental Test Facility Inaugurated by Deputy Chief of Naval Staff

The Defence Testing Infrastructure required for realisation of ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ in Defence sector, got a major boost with inauguration of the upgraded Naval Environmental Test Facility (NETF) by Vice Admiral MS Pawar, Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff on 04 Feb 21.

While common test facilities for Climatic and Dynamic testing of military equipment are available in public and private sector, a critical gap existed in the country with regard to qualifying the equipment for turbulence experienced by ships and submarines at higher sea states which induce platform motion in six degrees of freedom – Roll, Pitch, Yaw, Heave, Surge and Sway.

This capability gap has been overcome by the Chief Quality Assurance Establishment (Warship Equipment) Bengaluru, with major augmentation of its infrastructure, which includes a first-of-its-kind, indigenously developed Ship Motion Test Platform (SMTP). The SMTP has been indigenously designed and developed to meet qualification requirements for ship motion in extreme marine conditions up to Sea State 7.

The upgraded NETF also includes a number of other state-of-the-art test facilities such as High Ramp Rate Thermal Cycling Chamber for accelerated climatic testing, Mould Growth Test Chamber and Dust/Salt/Tilt/Drop/Immersion test facilities for military equipment.

Vice Admiral MS Pawar appreciated the efforts put in by Naval QA team in augmentation of the test facilities and adoption of global best practices in Quality Assurance domain.

All test facilities at NETF, Bengaluru are open for use by the Defence and Aerospace industry, including MSMEs and Start Up firms.