Anti-tank missile project goes phut
SOURCE: DHNS
Huge money wasted; buy from Russia still on, Eleven years after acquiring the Russian technology, India is yet to come up with a fully functional unit to produce adequate quantities of anti-tank missiles, which are capable of piercing protective plates shielding tanks.
Because of the failure of Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) in supplying these Konkur-M missiles, the Indian Army in January this year had to place an import order of Rs 1,233 crore to procure 10,000 such missiles from Russia.
This, says the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its new report tabled in Parliament, defeats the purpose of avoiding dependence on foreign suppliers.
But way back in 2002, Bharat Dynamics Limited had signed a Rs 249-crore agreement with a Russian manufacturer to produce the missiles in the India after assembling a few thousand of them over a period of 15 years.
Between 2003 and 2008, the Army placed five indents to BDL for 28,000 of these missiles.
Till January 2013, BDL supplied only 14,722 missiles, creating a backlog in supply of 13,278 missiles.
Shortage of anti-tank ammunition is one of the issues red-flagged in a letter written by former Army chief Gen V K Singh to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh months before the former retired. Leaking of the letter led to a big controversy.
Failed missiles
BDL had produced a previous generation of Konkur missiles for tanks and armoured vehicles that could not penetrate explosive reactive armour (ERA) plates.
But Konkur-M can defeat these ERA plates, which the Army requires for its mechanised regiments.
The Hyderabad-based defence public sector unit planned to increase its production capacity from 3,000 to 4,500 missiles per year by 2012, and up to 6,000 missiles by 2013. In reality, the capacity was augmented by only 500 missiles per annum till February 2013.
The delay in supply created a capability gap in the Army to fight tanks fitted with ERA panels, thereby impacting its operational preparedness, says CAG in its report.
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Nag passed all parameters except seeker in high ambient temp. Recent tests have even corrected that flaw. Now Helina derivative should not be far off.
To add to that CLGM was successful as well, wasn't it? That means SAMHO derivative should not be too far off as well.
@Kunal Biswas @sayareakd
. Integrated blast fragmentation sleeve warhead works both as a shaped charge as well as a fragmentation warhead, it was specifically designed to cut down multiple warhead inventory of hellfire missiles. I am not sure how it works, probably by using different detonation mechanisms for shaped charge and fragmentation.
