- Over the past three years, the Army and IAF have quickly bought a few Russian Igla-S MANPADS through emergency purchase rules.
- The Army signed the last deal like this in May of last year for 100 Igla-S missiles and 48 launchers.
On Wednesday and Thursday, India successfully tested its own man-portable air defense missile system, which is meant to shoot down enemy planes, drones, and helicopters at very close ranges.
The very short-range air defense system (VSHORADS) missiles had flight tests by DRDO. The tests were done from a portable launcher on the ground at the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur, which is off the coast of Odisha. The range of the missiles is up to 6 km.
“These tests were done with fast unmanned aerial targets in a variety of settings for interceptions.” “The mission goals were met because the targets were hit and destroyed by the missiles during all of the test flights,” an official said.
Researchers at the Research Center Imarat (RCI) worked with other DRDO labs and Indian business partners to create and build VSHORADS.
“The VSHORADAS missile uses a lot of new technologies, such as miniature reaction control systems and built-in avionics that have been shown to work well in tests,” he said.
“The missile is powered by a dual-thrust solid motor and is meant to destroy low-level air threats at short ranges.” “The design of the missile and launcher has been greatly improved to make them easy to move,” he said.
In a speech praising the successful development trials, Rajnath Singh, the defense minister, said that this new missile with current technologies will give the armed forces even more technological advantages.
In January of last year, the defense purchasing council led by Rajnath Singh gave its “acceptance of necessity” for the purchase of the Rs 1,920 crore infrared homing VSHORADS missiles that were being designed and built by DRDO.
While this is going on, the armed forces are bringing in a small number of similar Russian weapons to fill in operational gaps in the ongoing military conflict with China in eastern Ladakh.
Over the past three years, the Army and IAF have quickly bought a few Russian Igla-S MANPADS through emergency purchase rules. The Army signed the last deal like this in May of last year for 100 Igla-S missiles and 48 launchers. The Army and IAF have had the old Igla-1M systems since 1989. The Igla-S is a better version that can detect up to 6 km away.
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