S.Sundaresh, is presently the DRDO Distinguished Fellow and is seated at DRDO Research and Innovation Centre, at IIT Madras Research Park. He is guiding and mentoring the DRDO Project teams in Technology domains of Futuristic Combat vehicles, Armament Systems and Unmanned Ground vehicles.
He superannuated in March 2014 as Distinguished Scientist and Director General, Armament & Combat Vehicles and Engineering. Earlier he led the MBT Arjun programme as Director, Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment, one of the labs of DRDO, located in Avadi, Chennai..
He did his engineering graduation in Electrical engineering with electronics electives in GCT, Coimbatore, of the then Madras University in 1971. He joined IIT Madras in 1971 and did post_graduation, in Electrical Engineering with specialisation in Control systems in 1973. He joined DRDO and served in DRDO for 40 years. His professional experience includes the areas of control and guidance systems of torpedoes, Integrated Fire control systems for battle tanks and several technologies for battle tanks, Project management and Technology management
After his post-graduation from IIT Madras in 1973, he joined Naval Science and Technological Laboratory, Vishakapatnam. During his tenure at NSTL from 1974 to 1986, he pioneered the design and development of control and guidance systems for underwater weapons successfully.
He was with Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment, Avadi since 1986, and he was responsible for the success of Integrated Fire Control System for the Main Battle Tank Arjun. He guided his team in the successful development of indigenous electro-hydraulic gun control system, gunnery training simulator. He led his team in qualifying the Aircraft mounted Accessory gearbox and the hydraulic filters for the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas.
He was Director, Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment (CVRDE), Avadi, from Sep 2005 to March 2010 when the main focus of the lab was on MBT Arjun Transfer of Technology and production. He ensured smooth production and subsequent induction of TWO Regiments of of MBT Arjun into the Indian Army. He led his team in the operational deployment trials in early 2010, where one squadron of Arjun tanks met all the objectives of the trials, leading to an additional indent for 124 Arjun Mk II.
As Chief Controller R&D and Director General, he had steered and guided many Combat Vehicle and Armament projects, and evolved new strategies for the growth of DRDO and for better synergy with the Armed Forces and Production Agencies
He received the DRDO Performance Excellence Award in 2008 as the leader of the Battle tank Arjun team. He received the DRDO Technology Leadership Award for 2010 for his contribution to Combat Vehicles Technologies development. He was awarded Doctor of Science (honoris causa) in 2011 by Sathyabhama University.
He is a Senior Member of IEEE, Fellow of IETE and Member in SAE. He is presently Chairman of IEEE Technology & Engineering Management Society of Madras Chapter.
Presently his interests are in the area of all electric drive gun control system for battle tanks, hybrid drive technology for armoured vehicles and unmanned ground Vehicles, tele operated and autonomous armoured vehicles.
SPAC 2019 