| Details : | Wing Commander Sattaru Bhanoji Rao (18243) Aeronautical Engineer (Mechanical) was commissioned on 21 Feb 1986. In his 22 years of service, he held key appointments as Chief Engineering Officer of a fighter base and Deputy Director Weapons (Technical) at Air HQ. Presently he is Joint Director Weapons (Technical) at Air HQ since 19 May 2005. Wg Cdr Rao has exceptional knowledge on all aspects of air armament stores. During his eight years of work in the field of air armaments, he immensely contributed for overall improvement of operational capability of the IAF Noteworthy achievements are integration of AVU-ETM fuze as a 'Universal Fuze' for all indigenous bombs on all types of aircraft, which has reduced bombs preparation time. From the life expired weapons, he recovered 14,000 rockets of 80 mm calibre worth Rs. 72 Crores and 600 BME-300C cluster bombs by conducting life extension trials. A large number of life expired weapons were disposed-off to create additional weapon storage space. He prepared policies on Laser Guided Bombs/pods matching codes and utilization. He formulated 'fusing policy' and issued it as an Indian Air Publication No. IAP1499-00-00. With his professional acumen, he identified the reasons for failure of 57 mm rocket due to which the vendor has agreed to replace the 1,25,000 propellants of 57 mm rockets free of cost despite expiry of warranty period, thus saving more than Rs.112 Crores worth of inventory. He carried out extensive tests and rejected the new propellant offered by the vendor and also identified an alternate propellant, which would be suitable to the Indian environment. For his distinguished service of high order, Hon'ble President is pleased to award 'Vishisht Seva Medal' to Wing Commander Sattaru Bhanoji Rao. 97 |
