Boost To Make In India Program: DRDO To Develop Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Indigenously

Konkurs-M Anti Tank Guided Missile ATGM

The missiles currently in use are Konkurs and Milan 2T, both do not have night-fighting capabilities

The $500 million deal was scrapped after consideration was made stating that importing Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) would surely impact the indigenous development of the weapon system by DRDO. What's interesting is that before almost signing a deal with Israel, India had also rejected an offer from US-based Raytheon-Lockheed Martin for Javelin ATG. The missiles which will now be produced and developed by the DRDO are the 3rd generation Spike MR missiles. Being latest in technology, with Spike MR Missile the army just has to set the target fire the missile and forget it.

Defence scraps $500 million missile deal with Israel; asks DRDO to develop them indigenously

Coming out as a major boost to ‘Make in India’, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has scrapped the $500 million deal with its dear friend, Israel. Cancelling the deal, the MoD has asked the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to indigenously develop and produce the anti-tank missiles. Earlier, India was in talks to sign a deal with Israel to make the Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM) for the Indian Army indigenously.

The deal which was being seen as increasing defence cooperation between the two nations was expected to be signed after the price negotiations with the manufacturer — Rafael Advanced Defence Systems of Israel, were completed in 2016. Following the $500 million deal talks between India and Israel, Rafael Advanced Defence Systems had gone into a joint venture with Kalyani group for missile production in India. The venture which is based near Hyderabad was inaugurated in August 2017.

According to a report by Indian Express, the $500 million deal was scrapped after consideration was made stating that importing Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) would surely impact the indigenous development of the weapon system by DRDO. What’s interesting is that before almost signing a deal with Israel, India had also rejected an offer from US-based Raytheon-Lockheed Martin for Javelin ATG. Backing the decision of the defence ministry, a source said that DRDO had successfully produced the Nag and Anamika ATGMs in past and is confident of providing the Indian Army with MPATGM within the time period of 3-4 years.

Even though the move is aimed at boosting the ‘Make in India’ scheme by the Modi government, some say that this retraction of a proposal is a major blow to the Indian Army in terms of modernisation. The missiles which will now be produced and developed by the DRDO are the 3rd generation Spike MR missiles. Being latest in technology, with Spike MR Missile the army just has to set the target fire the missile and forget it. The ATGM come with a range of around 2.5 km and can operate both in day and night. On the other hand, the Indian army currently uses the second generation anti-tank guided missiles. The missiles currently in use are Konkurs and Milan 2T, both do not have night-fighting capabilities.

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