Meet Chandramouli Gaddamanugu, scientist behind Akash's journey from 1983 to Op Sindoor

A scientist from humble beginnings, educated at NIT Warangal, dedicated 13 years alongside a team to forging an idea and preparing the blueprint for the Akash system. He received the Padma Shri in 2025 following the missile system's success in Operation Sindoor. Here's the journey of Dr Chandramouli Gaddamanugu.

In Short

• The indigenous air-defence project began with few engineers and no blueprint
• Integral ramjet propulsion demanded repeated manufacturing, examination and lengthy testing
• A 1994 full-duration flight restored confidence after thirteen difficult years

India has many scientists whose contributions are yet to be known to the public. From C. V. Raman and Homi J. Bhabha to the scientists who built India’s space and missile programmes, many have worked for years to advance the country. One such scientist is Dr Chandramouli Gaddamanugu, who began working on the Akash missile system in 1983 and continued for more than three decades.

The Akash missile system performance, witnessed by the nation during Operation Sindoor, bore testimony to the labour that had gone into safeguarding countless lives and defending the nation’s borders.

Dr Gaddamanugu’s contribution lies in the journey from which he began as a young scientist among a small team, to the man who helped carry the undertaking beyond its earliest trials and into a success that India could call its own.

In the year, 1983, when India returned from England with the Cricket World Cup, another contest had begun upon Indian soil.

Under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, India undertook the task of developing its own guided weapons. Despite the hardships of the early years from the blueprints to propulsion, Dr Chandramouli never looked back; he kept trying and trying.

THE LONG ROAD FROM DESIGN TO FLIGHT

At the Defence Research and Development Laboratory in Hyderabad, Dr Prahlada Rama Rao had been appointed to lead the Akash project in 1983. Chandramouli, then a young engineer, joined him as a scientist. There were few hands, no established Indian design to follow, and much that remained to be learnt.

The undertaking was not confined to the making of a missile.

A complete air-defence system required radars to discover approaching aircraft, computers to calculate their movements, launchers to prepare the weapon, and control systems to bring these separate parts into agreement. Every component had to perform its duty, and all had to work together. A fault in one could imperil the labour of many.

For Chandramouli, trained in mechanical engineering at the Regional Engineering College, Warangal, the early years became a long education in failure.

Before joining the Defence Research and Development Organisation, he had worked as an engineering trainee in the asbestos-cement industry. He now found himself engaged in a task for which the country possessed no ready-made answers.

The greatest trial lay in the missile's propulsion.

Akash employed an integral ramjet system, which required the missile first to attain the necessary speed and thereafter to sustain supersonic flight.

Its motor casings, composite liners and other parts had to endure forces that could not be judged by drawings alone. Each design demanded manufacture, examination and testing.

A single trial might consume months; an unsuccessful one could send the team back to the beginning.

THE MAKING OF A MISSILE, THE MAKING OF A TEAM

For nearly thirteen years, the engineers laboured through successive trials and alterations.

During this period, Dr APJ. Abdul Kalam, who guided several missile projects, visited the team. He sought to understand their difficulties and reminded them of the necessity of patience, mutual respect and cooperation. The lesson was plain: no single specialist could complete a work that belonged to so many.

Chandramouli carried this understanding to the workshop and the testing ground. He worked alongside technicians, examined hardware, traced faults and brought designers together to find remedies.

His colleague T. Balakrishna Rao later recalled how closely he dealt with workers at every level. The work often extended from morning until late at night, for each flight trial required preparation that could not be hurried.

Then, in 1994, came the successful full-duration flight that changed the temper of the undertaking. Chandramouli served as vehicle director, overseeing the integration and testing of the missile.

After years of uncertainty, the system had demonstrated that the team could succeed. It was not the conclusion of the journey, but it gave the men reason to proceed.

The years that followed brought further trials, evaluations and improvements. By 2009, production had begun. The Indian Air Force formally inducted Akash in 2015, while the Army had also taken the system into service.

Chandramouli's own life had been bound to this labour. His wife, Seeta, bore the burdens of a household often deprived of his company during trials and prolonged journeys.

Their children grew up beside a vocation that demanded much from the family, though its rewards were shared by them all.

In 2026, following Akash's role in Operation Sindoor, Chandramouli received the Padma Shri for his contribution to science and engineering. The honour recalled not one man's achievement alone, but the labour of generations who had carried the project forward.

And so the story returns to its beginning.

In 1983, a young scientist entered a small room where an immense undertaking awaited him. Decades later, the work stood in the service of the nation. The missile was visible to the world; the patient hands behind it were less so.

- Ends