Indian Army is all set to get Rs 30,000 crore boost with a new surface-to-air missile system expected to be cleared for acquisition by the Defence Ministry soon.
Indian Army To Get Rs 30000 Crore QRSAM
At a time when Indian air defence systems successfully thwarted the Pakistani aircraft, missile and drones attacks under Operation Sindoor, the Indian Army is all set to get Rs 30,000 crore boost with a new surface-to-air missile system expected to be cleared for acquisition by the Defence Ministry soon. The Defence Ministry is scheduled to take up the proposal for buying three regiments of the indigenous Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile system (QRSAM) for the Army Air Defence for deployment along both western and northern borders.
With a range of around 30 km, the system would be complementing the existing systems in the forces like the MRSAM and Akash in short to medium ranges. The DRDO and the Army have over the last three-four years tested the QR-SAM systems against high-speed aerial targets mimicking various types of threats to evaluate their capability under different day and night operational scenarios. Defence PSUs BEL and BDL will co-produce the QR-SAM systems.
During the four-day conflict with Pakistan, which used Chinese weaponry, the Indian Army’s Air Defence units destroyed majority of the drones using L-70 and Zu-23 air defence guns while the Akash and MRSAM played a crucial role along with the Indian Air Force’s Spydwr and Sudarshan S-400 air defence systems. While the DRDO is also readying the very short-range air defence missile systems (VSHORADS), which have a 6 km interception range, the real game-changer will be an air defence system with a 350 km range being developed under the ambitious Project Kusha.
The Army Air Defence is also getting a number of new radars, very short range air defence systems along with jammers and laser-based systems to deal with drones of Turkish and Chinese origin. India plans to operationally deploy this long-range system by 2028-2029, with the defence ministry in Sept 2023 approving the AoN for procurement of five of its squadrons for the IAF at a cost of Rs 21,700 crore.
