K Rajalakshmi Menon appointed new Director General (Aero) of DRDO

Bengaluru, Sept 3 (PTI) K Rajalakshmi Menon has taken over as Director General (Aero) of DRDO with additional charge of Director, Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS).

“Dr K Rajalakshmi Menon as DG (Aero) will now be responsible for all programmes under Aero Cluster, which will function under her creative leadership,” an official statement said on Tuesday.

Menon joined DRDO as Scientist-B at CABS, erstwhile ASWAC, in 1988, after her MSc in Computer Science from University of Pune.

She further obtained her Masters in Engineering and a PhD from Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, the statement said.

Menon was instrumental in the design and development of Airborne Surveillance Systems.

Her areas of expertise include System Engineering of Complex Systems, Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR), Image Intelligence, Guidance and Control, Battle Management, System Design and System Analysis of Airborne Radars and Electronic Warfare sensors, it was stated.

She rose to the post of Associate Programme Director (Airborne Early Warning & Control) in 2015 and led the System Engineering, Mission System Integration and Flight Testing, which culminated into induction of AEW&C system into IAF in February 2017, resulting in India becoming the fifth country in the world to have an indigenous Active Electronically Scanned Array-based AEW&C system.

The new DG (Aero) led the design and development of Imaging Radars for UAVs, Fighters, Satellites and manned platforms.

Subsequently, as Associate Director, CABS, she led various projects and programmes on Air-to-Ground Surveillance, specifically towards developing the technologies for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), the statement added. PTI