New Delhi: The Indian Army has signed a contract worth Rs 80.43 cr for the procurement of 223 Automatic Chemical Agent Detection and Alarm (ACADA) systems with L&T Ltd, under the Buy Indian (IDDM) category.
ACADA has been designed and developed by DRDO’s Defence Research and Development Establishment, Gwalior, and marks a significant milestone in the nation’s indigenisation initiative in the niche Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) domain, a Defence Ministry statement said here on Wednesday.
The ACADA system is used to detect Chemical Warfare Agents (CWA) and programmed Toxic Industrial Chemicals (TICs) by sampling the air from the environment.
It works on the principle of Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) and contains two highly sensitive IMS cells for continuous detection and simultaneous monitoring of harmful and toxic substances.
Induction of ACADA in the field units will substantially enhance the Indian Army’s defensive CBRN capability for operations, as well as for peacetime, especially for responding to disaster relief situations related to industrial accidents.
This will give a significant boost to the government’s Atamnirbharta drive since more than 80 percent of the components and subsystems of the equipment will be sourced locally.