The indigenously developed Laser-Guided Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) was successfully test-fired from Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun by DRDO and the Army at the latter’s field ranges in Ahmednagar district on 28 June.
The test was conducted at the KK Ranges with support of Armoured Corps Centre and School (ACC&S) of the Army in Ahmednagar. “In the test, the ATGM hit the bull’s eye with textbook precision and successfully defeated the target at minimum ranges. Telemetry systems recorded the satisfactory flight performance of the missile.
The all-indigenous ATGM uses a ‘tandem’ High Explosive Anti Tank (HEAT) warhead. The term tandem refers to the missiles using more than one detonation in order to effectively penetrate the protective armour of the adversary tanks.
The missile has the capacity of defeating armoured vehicles which use Explosive Reactive Armours (ERA), which are specially designed armour plates that can counter the impact of the attack projectile.
The ATGM has been developed with multi-platform launch capability and is currently undergoing technical evaluation trials from the 120 mm rifled gun of MBT Arjun. The Laser Guided ATGM has the capability to defeat the protected armoured vehicles in ranges from 1.5 to 5 kilometre, officials said.
This Laser Guided ATGM has been developed by two Pune based facilities of the DRDO’s Armament and Combat Engineering (ACE) Cluster — the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) and High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) — in association with Instruments Research and Development Establishment (IRDE), Dehradun.
