Distinguished scientist P. Srihari, programme director of the Advanced Defence (AD) segment of India’s Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) programme, has been appointed director of the Research Centre Imarat (RCI), a premier DRDO laboratory in Hyderabad.
Srihari earned a mechanical engineering degree from Nagarjuna University in 1990, a Master of Engineering from PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore, and a Ph.D. from Osmania University in Hyderabad.
He joined DRDO in October 1992 at the Electronics and Radar Development Establishment in Bengaluru, where he worked on the Multi‑Mode Radar for the Light Combat Aircraft programme and helped design a multilayer slotted array antenna. In December 2003 he moved to the Defence Research and Development Laboratory in Hyderabad to work in the Liquid Propulsion Division, leading the design of the Divert and Attitude Control System for interceptor missiles and the Cold Gas Reaction Control System that was deployed in target missiles during interceptor trials.
In 2015 Srihari joined the Advanced Defence programme and became part of the core team that executed India’s Anti‑Satellite mission in March 2019, which intercepted a low‑Earth orbit satellite. He was appointed Project Director of the Medium‑Range Surface‑to‑Air Missile (MRSAM‑IAF) project in 2019, a joint initiative with Israel Aerospace Industries, according to a press release.
