New Delhi (Sputnik) – If everything goes according to plan, the India's locally developed anti-tank guided missile 'Nag' will soon get inducted into the Indian armed forces. The third generation missile developed by the state-owned Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has successfully flight tested twice against two different targets in the ranges of Rajasthan.
"Missile hit both the targets under different ranges and conditions with very high accuracy as desired by the Armed Forces," DRDO claims.
Nag, which has 'fire & forget' and 'top attack' capabilities, will be of immense support to the mechanized infantry and airborne forces of the Indian Army.
"With these two successful flight trials, and the flight test conducted earlier in June in the peak of summer, the complete functionality of Nag ATGM along with launcher system NAMICA has been established and marked the successful completion of development trials of Nag Missile," DRDO added.
"It is likely to take time ranging from 2 to 3 years as after this user trial, user exploitation trials and so on are to be conducted. Then the actual manufacturing process will start, eventually leading to the induction of the first viable lot," Rahul Bhonsle, a retired Indian Army brigadier and defense analyst explains.
"India will field the Spike — Israel import along with Nag or its variants in the future. Even after the Nag is successfully inducted it should be remembered that it is a third generation missile while Spike is a fourth generation one. After Nag is developed further, hopefully Nag Mark 2 or 3 or its equivalent indigenous will eliminate need for foreign imports," Rahul Bhonsle says.
The Indian Army has a total requirement of 40,000 anti-tank guided missiles in the next 20 years and desperately needs missiles like Nag which can hit high-speed moving tanks without support of operator.
