The Army on Tuesday got some supersonic firepower to take on enemy fighters, helicopters, drones and sub-sonic cruise missiles with the induction of the indigenous Akash surface-to-air missile system.
Akash gives Army supersonic edge
Published May 6, 2015 | By admin
SOURCE: TNN
The Akash missiles, which have an interception range of 25km, will progressively replace the obsolete air defence weapons in the Army, as was reported by TOI in March. The Army has initially ordered two Akash regiments, with six firing batteries and hundreds of missiles each, for around Rs 14,180 crore. While the first regiment will be fully in place later this year, the second one will follow by end-2016.
“The capability that we have with this system will ensure that it takes care of vulnerability of our assets. Akash is a step towards self-realization of indigenization,” said Army chief General Dalbir Singh Suhag.
As was first reported by TOI, IAF has already begun to deploy six Akash missile squadrons in the north-east to counter China’s build-up of military infrastructure all along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC), which includes eight fully-operational airbases in Tibet. IAF has ordered eight Akash squadrons for Rs 6,200 crore, with the first two coming up at the Mirage-2000 base in Gwalior and Sukhoi-30MKI base in Pune.
The Akash, incidentally, was one of the five core missile systems of the integrated guided missile development programme launched by DRDO in 1984. After long delays due to technical problems, the indigenous SAM — produced by defence PSUs Bharat Electronics and Bharat Dynamics — is finally now being inducted into the armed forces. |
发表于 2015-5-6 08:17
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