Armament Research and Development Establishment
In India, the Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE) is a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Located in Pune, it is the main DRDO lab involved in the development of conventional armaments. ARDE was established in 1958, with the goal of achieving self-sufficiency in the field of Armaments. ARDE started working from a rudimentary facility within the campus of Ammunition Factory, Khadki of the Ordnance Factory Board. Personnel were drawn from the erstwhile Technical Development Establishment (Weapons) located in Jabalpur and Technical Development Establishment (Ammunition) at Khadki of the Indian Ordnance Factories. In 1966, ARDE moved to its present location at Pashan, on the outskirts of Pune, next to the National Chemical Laboratory, a major CSIR Laboratory. ARDE's main area of research is in the design and development of Conventional Armaments for the Indian Armed Forces. This stretches over the whole gamut of research, development, prototyping, test and evaluation, and transfer of technology activities. This includes basic and applied research, modeling, simulation and software development of armaments. Additionally, life extension and upgradation of in-Service equipment is also carried out. Being a research laboratory, ARDE does not carry out large-scale production activities, except for limited scale pilot-plant production of crucial items. After an initial production, the technologies developed by it are transferred to manufacturing agencies like BEL, OFB and other manufacturers. In this capacity, ARDE supervises the Transfer of Technology to these plants, and aids in initial productionization and Quality Assurance of these products. With the Indian Armed Forces using many weapons from foreign vendors, it is necessary to integrate them and make them compatible with other existing systems in service. ARDE is involved in advising the Services regarding induction and indigenisation of Weapon Systems of Foreign Origin.