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DRDO failure forces buying of costly missiles from US

Adnan Faruqi

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Apr 16, 2011
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DRDO failure forces buying of costly missiles from US

ndia is left with no option but to go for the US Javelin anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) for the Indian Army, with the indigenous NAG ATGM made by DRDO still undergoing trials, and the Israeli Spike anti-tank missile failing in the trials on certain parameters. Washington has made it clear that the Javelin will be sold through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route only.

The route is far more expensive than conventional purchases through bidding. In the interim, the Defence Procurement Board (DPB) decided earlier this week to purchase second generation Russian Konkurs M anti-tank missiles as a stop-gap arrangement. :hitwall: This is already in use in the Indian Army.

FMS is a government-to-government agreement for a contract without an open tender, which makes it convenient for critical technologies to be transferred swiftly, thereby hastening up the process. The Hybrid FMS route is a special provision in the US government, given to a buyer country interested in purchasing defence equipment from the United States.

The DPB, which had already placed an order with Moscow for the contract worth more than a billion dollars, revised the contract, which will now be done without offsets, a source told The Sunday Guardian.

The indigenous NAG ATGM, with a 4 km range, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), along with the Israeli Spike were being considered as a replacement for the second generation Russian ATGMs, and the French Milan anti-tank missiles, but Nag is still under trials and is nowhere near induction.

Nag's helicopter version, Helina, will be mounted and fired from a helicopter and has a range of more than 7 km. Launchers for Helina have been cleared.

The original cost of the Nag programme was Rs 388.83 cr, which has been revised to Rs 1,771.43 cr. There is a requirement for about 450 Nag missiles. Other requirements of the Indian Army are that the system should have infrared interference and should comply with electro-magnetic interference and electro-magnetic compatibility parameters.

Last year, Parliament was informed by Defence Minister A.K. Antony about a letter of request being sent to Washington for the man-portable anti-tank weapon, Javelin, which New Delhi hopes to buy with technology being transferred. Javelin was displayed for the first time to the Indian Army in Babina in October 2009, during a joint armoured exercise between Indo-US armies.

Javelin is a fire and forget missile with a lock-on capability before launch and an automatic self-guidance system. It can also adopt a direct attack mode, but has a top-attack flight profile against armoured vehicles, and can also fire at helicopters in the direct-attack mode.


It may be noted that DRDO was in discussion with Israel for providing the Seeker Heads for Nag, which was earlier done by the French company Thales, which, however, refused to transfer technology. Ed Miyashiro of Raytheon has said about the transfer of technology, "Raytheon is committed to ToT, within the guidelines laid down by the US government. What we share, will, in large part, be determined by what sort of arrangements the US and Indian government work out." The 22 kg fire and forget Javelin has rounds and a command launch unit as its components, and is man-portable over short distances. The command launch unit has passive target acquisition and fire control, with integrated day and thermal sight. The ATGM has a range of 2,500 metres.

After Javelin displayed its prowess in India before the Army for the first time in 2009, the Indian Army convinced the Ministry of Defence to acquire the system under the FMS route. The other reason for the FMS was the reluctance of the US Raytheon company, the makers of Javelin, to enter into open bidding, which they see as time-consuming.


DRDO failure forces buying of costly missiles
 
I guess this is another in the long line of shoddy defence journalism

Attributing the purchase of the shoulder fired (Man portable) ATGMs to the 'supposed' failure of vehicle mounted Nag is idiotic unless I have missed something.
 
DRDO should be scrapped and it must be privatized. No other option. We have enough talent pool ready to be trained and with innovative weapon design ideas. Just fire some of the old dodos if they protest against privatization. The only reason they are against privatization is because they will have to slog their ***** off rather than sitting on a flea-bitten couch all day and do nothing.
 
first of all - this article is an example of extremely bad journalism - nag is a vehicle/helicpter mounted atgm and is already in production( 443 missiles have already been ordered and the order is likely to grow). We wanted the javelin because
1. Its the best out there.
2. Its man portable - man portable version of nag was promised but has not seen the light of day.
The nag is extremely effective and one of the few success stories of DRDO.
 
There should be some limit in bull shitting!!! It is comparing a man-portable ATGM with much heavier Nag!!!! Nag under gone many successful trial but army reportedly changed the criteria. Latest after recent successful user trial, they want more changes in NAMICA!


DRDO should be scrapped and it must be privatized. No other option. We have enough talent pool ready to be trained and with innovative weapon design ideas. Just fire some of the old dodos if they protest against privatization. The only reason they are against privatization is because they will have to slog their ***** off rather than sitting on a flea-bitten couch all day and do nothing.

Now I understand why these stupid journos write these BS! Because they have stupid readers like this! :sick:
 
There should be some limit in bull shitting!!! It is comparing a man-portable ATGM with much heavier Nag!!!!
I noticed it too. Also last i heard LM said no to ToT and this created a problem as India wanted to license produce the ATGM. Does anyone know how many launchers will be purchased ?
 
Why is everyone so sad at this news? Javelin is the most advanced ATGM in existence, the induction of it is only a good thing for IA whilst indigenous solutions are developed.


Any ideas when we can expect to see Javelin in hands of IA? and what about Strykers?
 
Why is everyone so sad at this news? Javelin is the most advanced ATGM in existence, the induction of it is only a good thing for IA whilst indigenous solutions are developed.


Any ideas when we can expect to see Javelin in hands of IA? and what about Strykers?

This article doesnt guarantee the sell of Javelin to India, neither we have any official confirmation to it. I think its still a long way to go before we get off with konkurs and milans.

IA and its shoddy procurements!!!
 

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