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Indigenous Akash inducted into army's arsenal

Akash SAM for army is one of five projects of the integrated guided missile development programme, launched by DRDO in 1984. Though it has taken three decades to fructify, it has a 96 per cent indigenous content and will replace the Russian missile systems which the army has been using since 1970s.

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India on Tuesday added into its army's arsenal the indigenous anti-aircraft surface to air -missile (SAM) Akash, putting it into the league of select countries like the USA, Russia, Israel and a few others to have such an effective system that can engage multiple targets simultaneously.

Akash SAM for army is one of five projects of the integrated guided missile development programme, launched by DRDO in 1984. Though it has taken three decades to fructify, it has a 96 per cent indigenous content and will replace the Russian missile systems which the army has been using since 1970s.

The Indian air force has already inducted Akash missiles.

To be deployed on India's western front, Army has initially ordered two regiments of Akash at a cost of nearly Rs 20,000 crore that will be manufactured by the state-owned Bharat Dynamics Limited (BEL). While the first regiment - each regiment having six firing batteries- is likely to be functional within a couple of months, the second regiment will not be ready before the end of 2016, army officials said.

The all-weather supersonic missile system has the capability to engage a wide variety of aerial threats like aircrafts, helicopters and unmanned aerial vehicles up to a maximum range of 25 km and up to an altitude of 20 kilometres.

According to DRDO, Akash has been designed to hit targets with precision from both static and mobile platforms. That it can be mounted on army's Tatra trucks will help mobility and swift response during operations.

Besides BEL, a large number of medium and small scale industries have contributed in the Akash missile that relies on sophisticated radars and control systems to guide it to its targets.

It is a fully automated missile system designed to detect a target and destroy it on its own.
 

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