Army inducts Akash missile

New Delhi: More than three decades after the project was initiated, the Army Tuesday inducted the indigenously- developed supersonic surface-to- air missile Akash, capable of targeting enemy aircraft and UAVs from a range of 25 km.

More than three decades after the project was initiated, the Army on Tuesday inducted the indigenously-developed supersonic surface- to- air missile Akash, capable of targeting enemy helicopters, aircraft and UAVs from a range of 25 km.

The missiles, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation ( DRDO), will be a boost for the Army Air Defence Corps, which had been grappling for years with obsolete air defence weapons.

“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- realisation of indigenisation,” Army Chief Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag said while presiding over the formal dedication ceremony here. He added that the Army was in the process of reinventing the command and control and battlefield management system of the Army air defence.

Akash Missile System is an indigenously- developed short- range surface- to- air missile system with the capability to engage a wide variety of aerial threats like aircraft, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles up to a maximum range of 25 km and up to an altitude of 20 km.

The system, which has 96 per cent indigenisation, is capable of simultaneously engaging multiple targets in all weather conditions and is capable of providing comprehensive short range missile cover to the vulnerable assets in the field force of the Army.