nThe Indian Navy on Friday achieved a major milestone in adding muscle to its anti-air warfare capability with the maiden network enabled cooperative engagement firing of the medium range surface to air missile (MRSAM) by two of its warships.
Cooperative engagement comprises of all the warships and platforms having common data link to have common picture of the battle field and enable them to thwart saturation attacks from incoming missiles and low flying aircraft. This test has put the Indian Navy in the select group of the navies like the US and Australia having this capability.
Giving details of the exercise, Navy officials said here the firing was undertaken on the Western Seaboard by Indian ships Kochi and Chennai wherein the missiles of both ships were controlled by one ship to intercept different aerial targets at extended ranges. The firing trial was carried out by the Indian Navy, Defence Research Development Organisation(DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries. India is manufacturing Barak missiles in collaboration with the Israel Aerospace Industries.
The successful conduct of the test firing was the result of sustained efforts by all stakeholders over the years. Defence Research and Development Laboratory(DRDL) Hyderabad, a DRDO Lab, has jointly developed this missile in collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries. The MRSAM is manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Limited, India.
These Surface to Air Missiles are fitted onboard the Kolkata Class Destroyers and would also be fitted on all future major warships of the Indian Navy. With the successful proving of this cooperative mode of engagement, the Indian Navy has become a part of a select group of Navies that have this niche capability. This capability significantly enhances the combat effectiveness of the Indian Navy thereby providing an operational edge over potential adversaries. The radars on the warships can detect a hostile target at a distance of 450km and guide the missile in destroying the threat.