The News Teller:
BENGALURU: Indian Air Force raise six new Akash Missile, developed by Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO), Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and Bharat Electronics (BEL), on the floor of Make-In-India campaign to muscle the air missile defense system of Indian Air Force (IAF) as reported by The Times of India.
The IAF official said that IAF already has two operational squadrons of the all weather, point/area missile system. “It protects vulnerable points and vulnerable areas with a slant range of 25-30 Km at altitudes up to 20km. It can destroy high-speed targets like fighter aircraft and UAVs,” an official said.
An official of BEL said, “An order for six more squadrons worth around Rs 3,500 Cr was placed in the late 2010 and the manufacturing of the same is complete and will be delivered this year.”
Akash missile is a medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile defense system developed by DRDO, OFB abd BEL in India. The first test flight of Akash missile was conducted in 1990, with development flights up to March 1997. However, India has been producing it continuously since 2009 and at present it has 3000 Akash missiles.
