The Indian Army has proposed to buy two new regiments of the Akash Prime air defence missile system that will add more firepower to India’s missile arsenal.
Akash Prime, the new version of the Akash missile, is equipped with an indigenous active radio frequency (RF) seeker for improved accuracy. It is more reliable performance under low-temperature environments at higher altitudes.
The proposal is at an advanced stage before the government, sources told news agency ANI. The procurement of the two new regiments of the Akash Prime will help in further strengthening the air defence of the country and thwarting possible aerial attacks from both the Chinese and the Pakistani sides, they added.
The development comes amid multiple test firings of the existing version of the Akash missiles by the Indian Army’s Western and South Western commands. The results have been found outstanding even though the missiles used for the test firings had been deployed in an operational role during the recent conflicts, the sources said.
The Akash Prime system can be deployed at heights up to 4,500 metres and can take down targets at a distance of around 25-30 km.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation in September last year successfully test-fired Akash Prime from Odisha. The missile intercepted and destroyed an unmanned aerial target mimicking an enemy aircraft in its maiden flight test.
Akash is a surface-to-air missile with a range of 25 Kms. The missile was inducted in 2014 in the Indian Air Force and in 2015 in the Indian Army. It is country’s important missile with over 96 percent indigenisation, according to the government.
