DRDO and Zero mK Target an Indian 20-Millikelvin Refrigerator

Coverage date: 24 September 2026. Published as part of our 20–25 September catch-up.

DRDO has signed a development agreement with Alwar-based Zero mK India to build an indigenous dilution refrigerator in the 20-millikelvin class. The project addresses the extreme-cooling infrastructure used to operate and test several quantum-computing platforms.

The Ministry of Defence announced the agreement on 24 September. It places the work under DRDO's Technology Development Fund, with scientists from the Solid State Physics Laboratory providing technical monitoring, mentoring and support.

A cooling target, not a delivered machine

Twenty millikelvin is 0.020 kelvin. That number describes the intended temperature class of the refrigerator. It does not establish that the team has already reached the temperature, sustained it under an experimental heat load, or delivered a system to a customer.

The official announcement describes collaborative development. It does not publish cooling-power curves, a prototype test report or a delivery schedule. Those omissions matter because a temperature target alone cannot describe how a refrigerator will perform as part of a working quantum experiment.

The infrastructure behind the quantum device

The engineering value lies in creating a domestic capability for an enabling system, rather than announcing another processor. The ministry identifies ultra-low-temperature operation and testing as the intended application. It does not claim that every quantum architecture requires this particular refrigerator.

An Indian development programme could give local laboratories a closer route to technical support and iterative system development. That is a potential consequence of the project, not an outcome established by the agreement. Its practical contribution will depend on the capabilities of the finished hardware and its validation with users.

What the announcement's numbers mean

The ministry calls this the first high-value deep-tech project agreement under a Rs 500 crore corpus. That figure describes the wider corpus; it is not the disclosed contract value for Zero mK. Treating it as a Rs 500 crore refrigerator order would misstate the announcement.

The concrete milestone is the agreement and defined development objective, with SSPL involved in oversight. The next useful evidence would be measured performance from a prototype, including conditions under which the target temperature is reached and maintained. Until then, this is a substantive quantum-infrastructure R&D programme whose results remain to be demonstrated.

Source and image

Ministry of Defence announcement, 24 September 2026. The accompanying official photograph shows the agreement event, not cryogenic hardware. Image: Ministry of Defence / PIB, reproduced with source acknowledgement under the PIB copyright policy.