India will export an indigenous anti-air system to Armenia, adding to a growing list of exports to the Asian country that incudes multi-barrel rocket launchers, artillery guns and a range of ammunition and drones.
India To Export Akash Air Defence System To Armenia
Sources said that deliveries of the Akash anti-air systems that are manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Limited is likely to start soon, as part of an estimated ₹6,000-cr deal. The indigenous system is already in service with the Indian Armed forces and is also on offer for export to Vietnam & the Philippines. In April, the defence ministry had mentioned an undisclosed export order for the anti-air system, without giving details of the receiving nation. In March, the Army had procured two additional regiments of the air defence system in a deal valued at ₹8,160 cr.
Designed and developed by DRDO, the improved version of the system has a reduced footprint, 360° Engagement Capability and advanced seekers. The system has an indigenous content of 82% and 60% of the project cost is awarded to the private industry, including MSMEs, to maintain a supply chain for the system.
In November last year, Kalyani Strategic Systems had announced a $155 m deal with an undisclosed overseas customer for artillery guns. This order too was for Armenia.
Over the past year, Armenia has nearly doubled its defence spending. These outlays in 2022 were approximately $700–800 million, but by 2024, it is expected to reach US$1.4 billion or US$1.5 billion. New Delhi began providing defence supplies to Yerevan in 2022 due to Armenia’s protracted conflict with Azerbaijan. Iran facilitated the delivery of the first shipment of weapons last year.
Earlier in January 2023, President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan had referred to India’s arms sale to Armenia as an “unfriendly move”, stating that “If we are facing a serious threat, we will deal with that threat immediately, regardless of where that threat arises, within our territory or outside our borders. It is our legitimate right to do so,” he contended.
Order From Multiple Countries
Multiple countries from South America, the Middle East and Africa have shown interest in the acquisition of the indigenous Akash Missile system. Akash missile system has generated a lot of interest among countries in the Middle East, South American nations including Brazil, Egypt from Africa and other countries.
Exercise Astrashakti
Looking to export its indigenous weapon systems, India has strongly demonstrated the firepower of its Akash surface-to-air weapon system, where a single firing unit simultaneously engaged and destroyed four unmanned targets during the recent Exercise Astrashakti 2023. With this demonstration during the Air Force Exercise Astrashakti-2023, India has become the first to demonstrate the capability of engaging four targets simultaneously at such ranges by command guidance using a single firing unit
Akash Weapon System
Akash is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile system developed by the DRDO and produced by Bharat Dynamics Limited.
Warhead: High-explosive, fragmentation
Warhead weight: 60 kg (130 lb)
Maximum speed: Mach 1.8 to 2.5
Range: 30 km
Akash has been deployed by the Indian Air Force and the Indian Army for the last decade. The current firing was done from the system, which was ordered in September 2019 as a repeat order from the IAF.
Akash-NG
Akash – New generation abbreviated as Akash-NG is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile defense system developed by the DRDO and produced by Bharat Dynamics Limited and Bharat Electronics. This missile is a successor to the Akash and Akash-1S series of missiles with improvements such as a Dual-pulse solid rocket motor, a canisterised launcher and an AESA Multifunction targeting radar to improve its probability of kill with a smaller ground operations and logistics footprint
Engine: Dual-pulse solid rocket motor
Propellant: Solid fuel
Operational range: 70–80 km
Flight altitude: 0.030–14 km
