India, on 8 April, offered the indigenous Akash air defence missile system to the UAE, even as the two countries decided to step-up their bilateral defence cooperation in fields ranging from military exercises and training exchanges to defence-industrial collaboration, joint projects, R&D and technology transfer.

The offer for the Akash system, which can intercept hostile aircraft, helicopters, drones and subsonic cruise missiles at a range of 25-km, was made at the delegation-level meeting between defence minister Rajnath Singh and the visiting Dubai crown prince and UAE deputy PM Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

This is in keeping with India’s ongoing thrust to export the Akash system, Pinaka multi-launch rocket systems and the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile to “friendly countries”, especially in the Gulf and Asean regions.

While India has already exported BrahMos coastal batteries to the Philippines, Armenia has become the first foreign customer for the Akash, Pinaka and 155mm artillery guns.

India and the UAE at the meeting acknowledged that bilateral defence cooperation needs to be scaled up to match the progress made in other areas such as trade and business, in line with “the vision and determination of the two leaders”, PM Narendra Modi and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The two leaders “identified training exchanges as one of the key areas of defence cooperation which would enable understanding of each other’s defence ecosystems and accelerate strengthening of bilateral defence ties,” an official said.

The two sides decided that close collaboration between their defence industries should be an integral part of the bilateral cooperation and discussed opportunities for enhancing partnerships in defence manufacturing.

They welcomed the India-UAE Defence Partnership Forum, which has the potential to result in strategic joint ventures and co-production projects benefiting the two countries. “They also agreed to focus on complementarities in the Make-in-India and Make-in-Emirates initiatives,” the official said.

Significantly, apart from bilateral military exercises and initiatives, India and UAE have also teamed up with France to collaborate in a trilateral framework launched in 2022 in several areas including defence, technology, energy and environment, in tune with an ambitious roadmap chalked out by them.

In the military arena, the three countries, in December last year, had conducted a major air combat exercise “Desert Knight” over the Arabian Sea to strengthen trilateral defence cooperation and enhance military interoperability amid the ongoing geopolitical churn.

The navies of the three countries had also conducted their first-ever maritime partnership exercise to hone their combat skills against traditional as well as non-traditional threats through a wide spectrum of operations on the high seas in June 2023.

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The Akash Prime is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) system developed by the DRDO and produced by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL).

The Akash SAM was developed to replace the Russian 2K12 Kub (SA-6 Gainful) missile system, currently in service. Like the Russian 2K12 Kub, it utilizes an integrated ramjet-rocket propulsion system, which, after initial rocket motor burnout, provides sustained thrust for the missile throughout its flight until interception.

In comparison to the existing Akash system, Akash Prime is equipped with an improved active radio-frequency (RF) seeker to further increase the accuracy. DRDO has also incorporated additions to make Akash Prime a more reliable performer under a low-temperature environment at higher altitudes.

The Indian Air Force has deployed Akash at its bases in Gwalior (Maharajpur AFS), Jalpaiguri (Hasimara AFS), Tezpur, Jorhat and Pune (Lohegaon AFS). Indian Army deployed Akash air defence system along Line of Actual Control in Ladakh as tension rose between India and China 2020 China–India skirmishes.

Earlier this year, DRDO tested the New Generation Akash Missile (Akash-NG). The missile was tested from a land-based platform with all weapon system elements.

Each battery of the Akash missile system consists of 4 launchers. Each launcher carries 3 missiles. Thus, there are always 12 missiles ready to be fired. Apart from these missiles each battery also carries loaders with extra missiles. The total number of missiles in each battery is 48. Each battery contains the main radar. This main radar is Rajendra Radar which is a 3D PESA radar. It provides command guidance to the missile. Each launcher is also equipped with its own fire control radar which works with the main radar and Battery Search Radar in a synchronized manner. All these systems are governed by Battery Command and Control Centre.

The Indian Air Force already operates 10 squadrons of Akash missile systems. Each squadron has two batteries and a total of 125 missiles each. The army has two operational regiments of the Akash system with 2000 missiles in total.

The first generation of Akash Prime missiles relied on the Rajendra Radars of their batteries for command guidance. That means that the missiles had no seeker of their own and were guided to the targets by the Rajendra radar throughout their trajectories. DRDO previously worked on Akash 1S variant with a radio frequency seeker for terminal guidance. Now, this Akash Prime variant is a further improved variant of the 1S variant. It is equipped with an improved indigenous RF seeker for terminal active radar homing. Previously the missile had a single-shot kill probability of 88%. Now with terminal guidance, it will increase even further making the missile deadlier.

The new system is optimized for low temperatures and higher altitudes. That means it is now more suitable to be deployed in Ladakh. All the components of the Akash systems can be mounted on BMP chassis if required. Thus, the system is highly mobile and can be deployed rapidly. In general, the components of the systems are mounted on BEML Tatra trucks.

Keeping China in mind this is a significant development as this system can be now deployed in harsh terrains like Ladakh. In 2020, there were reports that the Indian Army had deployed Akash SAMs in Ladakh during the standoff. But keeping the missiles battle-ready in such tough terrain is a difficult task. Moreover, Akash missiles are not packed in canisters which makes the maintenance even tougher.

Once inducted Akash Prime will be a crucial weapon for high altitude warfare. No additional infrastructure will be needed as it will be compatible with the current launchers and other components of its batteries. Akash Prime will play a crucial role in defending India’s airspace in future conflicts and standoffs in areas like Ladakh.

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