Armaments Research & Development Establishment

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.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.

The weapons developed by ARDE include the Ishapore Self-Loading Rifle used in the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars,the Pinaka Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher used in the Kargil wars, the Arjun MBT Tank gun and many more.