More than 30 years after it was conceptualised, the Army on Tuesday inducted the indigenously-designed and produced Akash surface-to-air missile, which is capable of hitting enemy helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and aircraft at a range of 25 km. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) developed the missile.
Akash system is a supersonic short range surface-to-air missile system with the capability to engage a wide variety of aerial threats in all weather conditions besides providing comprehensive short range missile cover to the vulnerable assets in the field force of the Army.
It will be deployed at the western borders facing Pakistan and the Army had initially ordered two Akash regiments, with six firing batteries. The total cost of the order is about Rs19,500 crore and the first regiment will be ready by July end and the second one by the end of 2016. IAF has already inducted its own version of the missile system. Akash is one of the five core missile systems of the integrated guided missile development programme, launched by DRDO in 1984.
Inducting the missile system, Army Chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag said: “The journey of Akash has not been easy. It took more than three decades for this moment to arrive. There have been numerous challenges, number of setbacks, ups and downs.” But the cycle of development continued, he added.
While DRDO designed it, Bharat Dynamics limited is the lead integrator for the Army Akash Weapon System. Besides this, a large number of medium and small-scale industries were involved in this indigenous development programme, Defence officials said.
Special Secretary of Defence Production in the Defence Ministry, Ashok Kumar, said some countries like Thailand and Belarus have evinced interest in Akash adding the indigenisation content is more than 96 per cent.
Suhag said modernisation of air defence system is one of the seven critical schemes that the Army has identified as part of its modernisation programme adding the Army is also in the process of reinventing the command and control and battlefield management system of the Army Air Defence.
Don’t clap when in uniform: Army Chief
Taking a cue from Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag on Tuesday directed his officers and others not to clap after his address. “After I finish my address please do not clap. Hereafter, we will maintain the decorum of not clapping in uniform,” Gen Suhag said at an Army event here. He also referred to Parrikar, who after his address at Commanders’ Conference last month, had said he was under the impression that people in uniform don’t clap after an individual’s address.