India becomes 1st nation to destroy 4 missiles at once

India has become the first country in the world to demonstrate the capability to destroy four incoming aerial threats simultaneously at 25-kilometre range using a single firing unit of surface-to-air Akash missile system.

The test was conducted by the Indian Air Force (IAF) during the recent Exercise Astrashakti 2023. Current firing was done from the system inducted in the Indian Air Force in 2019.

“India became the first country to demonstrate the capability to engage four aerial targets simultaneously at 25 km range by command guidance using a single firing unit,” said DRDO on Sunday in a post on social media X.

A visual demonstration, accompanying the post by DRDO, showed four aerial threats coming from the same direction in a close formation and then split to attack assets from multiple directions simultaneously. However, Akash missiles engaged them in air and destroyed them before they could attack assets on ground.

The Akash firing unit was deployed with Firing Level Radar (FLR), Firing Control Centre (FCC), and two Akash Air Force Launcher (AAFL) launchers having five armed missiles. Two Akash missiles were launched from two launchers and the same launcher was assigned for the next two targets. In all, four missiles were launched to destroy the incoming threats.

Akash Weapon System is designed and developed by DRDO and produced by BEL/BDL along with other industries.

Akash is the country’s important missile system with over 96 per cent indigenisation.the missile was inducted in 2014 in the Indian Air Force and in 2015 in Indian Army.

In 2020, the Union Cabinet had approved the export of Akash missiles to friendly nations and created a committee for faster approval of exports. India has deployed Akash missiles in Eastern Ladakh to deal with any threat coming from air from China.

Indian Air Force has also carried out the successful firing trials of its in-house designed and developed SAMAR air defence missile system during the exercise.