Jagannath Nayak DRDO Appointment Places a Directed Energy Weapon Pioneer at the Head of Missiles and Strategic Systems

The Jagannath Nayak DRDO appointment took effect on July 1, 2026, with the Hyderabad scientist taking charge as Director General Missiles and Strategic Systems. Dr Jagannath Nayak, a Distinguished Scientist and Director of the Centre for High Energy Systems and Sciences, moves into one of the Defence Research and Development Organisation senior most technical posts. He succeeds U Raja Babu, who retired from the role.

Who is Dr Jagannath Nayak

Nayak brings more than 35 years in defence research and development. His name is tied to advanced avionics for defence and aerospace, and to a working life spent across inertial navigation systems, lasers and fibre optics.

He completed his master's degree and PhD in electrical communication engineering at the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. Between 2009 and 2014 he was a Distinguished Visiting Professor at IISc and at IIT Madras. He has published more than 125 research papers, authored several books, and guided over ten PhD scholars.

His specialisations run across directed energy weapons, inertial navigation systems, lasers and fibre optics.

The directed energy weapon and fibre optic gyro record

As Director of CHESS, Nayak led the development, field testing and technology transfer of India's first Directed Energy Weapon system. It was the first system of its type in the country to move from design into field trials under one roof, with the technology then passed out for further work. Within DRDO the programme is counted among the openings India has made into a weapon class it had not previously built.

Earlier, as Project Director at the Research Centre Imarat in Hyderabad, he led the indigenous development of Fibre Optic Gyroscopes. That technology now sits inside missiles, aircraft and main battle tanks. He is credited as the chief architect of the FOG based guidance system for Akash missiles, and of directed energy anti drone systems.

The fibre optic gyro effort matters for a plain reason. It replaced a navigation grade component India would otherwise have had to import, and put it into Indian hands across three fighting arms at once.

Both strands, the directed energy work and the anti drone systems, feed the goal DRDO has set under Aatmanirbhar Bharat of cutting dependence on imported guidance, sensing and countermeasure hardware. Nayak's laboratories carried several of those components from prototype into service, the same domestic sourcing push visible in DRDO's recent contract awards to Indian suppliers.

What the Jagannath Nayak DRDO appointment changes at the top

The DG MSS chair oversees the missiles and strategic systems cluster, the part of DRDO that carries much of the country's strike and deterrence engineering. Handing it to a scientist whose record is built on guidance, navigation and directed energy points to where the organisation wants its next phase of work, coming close on the heels of the reset of DRDO financial powers under DFP 2026.

Missiles and Strategic Systems is among the larger clusters DRDO runs, one of the Director General domains the organisation divides its work into. It gathers the design agencies behind India's tactical and strategic missiles, along with the guidance, propulsion and control work beneath them. Whoever holds the post sets technical direction for programmes that take years to reach the field, and much of the indigenous content effort runs through it, as seen in the organisation's homegrown systems reaching operational status.

Honours and fellowships

Nayak's awards include the Aryabhata Award from the Astronautical Society of India and the National Aeronautical Prize from the Aeronautical Society of India. He also holds the DRDO Agni Award for Excellence in Self-Reliance, the Nina Saxena Excellence in Technology Award, and the Aeronautical Society of India Swarna Jayanti Award.

Professional bodies

He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Optical Society of India and the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Aeronautical Society of India and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation in the United Kingdom. He currently serves as Vice President of the Optical Society of India and of the Sensor Research Society of India, and as Secretary of the INAE Hyderabad Chapter. He founded and chaired the Hyderabad Chapter of the IEEE Photonics Society.

Succession at DG MSS

Raja Babu's superannuation opened the post. The Jagannath Nayak DRDO appointment fills it with a candidate drawn from inside the organisation's own laboratory system rather than from outside it, a pattern DRDO has kept to for its senior technical directorates. Nayak assumed charge on Wednesday.