DRDO's P. Srihari takes charge as director of Research Centre Imarat
Distinguished DRDO scientist P. Srihari, who headed the Advanced Defence segment of India's BMD programme, has been appointed director of the Research Centre Imarat in Hyderabad.
Distinguished scientist P. Srihari has been appointed director of the Research Centre Imarat (RCI), a premier laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) located in Hyderabad. He was serving as programme director of the Advanced Defence (AD) segment of India's Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) programme.
Mr. Srihari graduated in mechanical engineering from Nagarjuna University in 1990 and went on to complete a Master of Engineering at PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. He later earned a doctorate from Osmania University, Hyderabad.
He joined DRDO in October 1992 at the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (LRDE) in Bengaluru. In his early years, he worked on the Multi-Mode Radar (MMR) for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme and contributed to the design and development of a multilayer slotted array antenna.
In December 2003, he moved to the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) in Hyderabad, where he worked in the Liquid Propulsion Division. He led the design and development of the Divert and Attitude Control System (DACS) for interceptor missiles under the BMD programme. A Cold Gas Reaction Control System (RCS) developed under his leadership was deployed in target missiles during interceptor trials.
Mr. Srihari joined the Advanced Defence programme in 2015 and was part of the core team behind India's Anti-Satellite (ASAT) mission, which intercepted a low-Earth orbit satellite in March 2019. In 2019, DRDO named him Project Director of the Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM-IAF) project, a joint initiative with Israel Aerospace Industries.