The 1.18-million strong Army, grappling with critical operational deficiencies on several fronts, is finally going to get some much-needed missiles, thermal imagers, weapon-locating radars and multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS).
Defence ministry sources on Friday said the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has cleared four long-pending arms deals worth 6,600 crore, while two others for over 8,300 crore are on the verge of getting the final nod.
“Contracts for the four cleared deals will now be inked,” said a source. They will include the 1,200 crore acquisition of 65,000 new-generation 84mm rockets, with greater range and better armour-penetration capabilities, for the Swedish-origin Carl Gustaf man-portable rocket launchers.
The other contracts are for 4,000 hand-held thermal imagers with laser-range finders ( 1,400 crore), 5,000 Milan-2T anti-tank guided missiles ( 2,000 crore) and 30 indigenous ‘Swati’ weapon-locating radars ( 2,000 crore).
The two projects headed for CCS nod are for two more Pinaka MLRS regiments for 3,300 crore and another regiment of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles for over 5,000 crore.
The two Pinaka regiments, which will add to the two such regiments already inducted by the Army, will help plug gaps in the force’s medium-range, high-volume firepower. With a strike range of 40km, the Pinaka is manufactured by the Tatas and L&T based on technology developed by DRDO.
Similarly, the BrahMos land-attack missile, which flies almost three times the speed of sound at Mach 2.8 to targets 290km away, will help boost the Army’s precision-strike capabilities.
With the Army already having three BrahMos regiments, the government has approved deployment of the missile’s Block-III version in Arunachal Pradesh to counter China’s huge build-up of military infrastructure all along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control. This missile variant has “trajectory maneuver and steep dive capabilities” for mountain warfare, as reported by TOI earlier.
But the lack of third-generation anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs), with fire-and-forget capabilities, remains a big operational gap on the western front with Pakistan. The case for inducting these shoulder-fired tank-killers has been meandering for almost a decade now.
The acquisition of ‘Spike’ ATGMs from Israel, however, is still stuck in the commercial negotiations stage. Consequently, infantry battalions are making do with the second-generation Milan (2-km range) and Konkurs (4-km) ATGMs, which are produced by defence PSU Bharat Dynamics under licence from French and Russian companies. Being wire-guided, they have to be directed to the target.
Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) has cleared four long-pending arms deals worth 6,600 crore, while two others for over 8,300 crore are on the verge of getting the final nod.
