DRDO MPATGM:- India’s Indigenous Man-Portable Anti-Tank Missile inching closer to reality

MPATGM is a third generation Man-Portable Anti-Tank Missile to be used by Infantry and Parachute battalions of the Indian Army developed by State-owned DRDO in partnership with Private sector company VEM Technologies Ltd which is helping in sub-system manufacturing for the DRDO.

DRDO successfully flight tested the indigenously developed third generation anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), Nag, twice last year on September 8 against two different targets in the ranges of Rajasthan. A similar test in the month of June earlier with the launcher system Nag Missile Carrier (NAMICA) had convinced DRDO of its efficacy.

The Nag is meant to eventually replace foeign-made missiles to become the Indian military’s first and primary anti-tank weapon.

The Name Nag comes from the Missile Trajectory, which follows the Cobra, the missile uses Top Attack mode, means once you launch the Missile it can fire high and Mark the Tanks Back side where Tanks armour is in lesser, and hit the Target, most Anti tank missiles uses the same technology for Higher Kill probablity.

Nag is a fire-and-forget ATGM with ‘top attack’ capabilities and a range of about four kilometres while NAMICA is an Indian license-produced variant of the Soviet-era BMP-II armoured infantry fighting vehicle which can carry eight of such missiles for Anti armour purpose, namica is the initial version of nag program. for Army use, here namica uses IIR seekers to identify and lock the Target, The IIR is a Imagining Infrared Seeker, which can choose and lock the Target before Launching, which means some third party chooses the Target and feed it to the Nag and Nag take care of the Target on it’s own, something like same Fire and forget mode.

As per reports, few countries possess this integrated avionics technology. The ATGM will be of immense support to the mechanised infantry and airborne forces of the Indian Army when inducted but the fact remains that it is a third generation missile while Spike is a fourth generation one. Also, Nag, manufactured by state-owned Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), has so far only been tested while mounted on the NAMICA combat vehicle. The Indian Army has a total requirement of 40,000 anti-tank guided missiles in the next 20 years and needs missiles like Nag which can hit high-speed moving tanks without the support of an operator. Currently, the army is using 2nd generation ATGMs, Russian licensed Konkurs and French licensed Milan 2T, which do not have night-fighting capabilities.

The DRDO is also working on HeliNa ATGM, the helicopter launched version of Nag, with a maximum range of up to seven kilometers. Once operational, the HeliNa will be part of the armaments of the indigenously designed India’s fleet of light combat helicopters (LCH).

The Helina is same but it can have some good features, like lock on after launch, non line of sight and more Range, here it’s being believed that Helina uses the mmW seeker for better performance and able to perform LOAL modes.

India’s anti-tank missile requirement is of around 44,000 ATGMs of different types . with an authorized holding strength of 81,206 ATGMs, present inventory is not even half of what Indian Army requires to fight a war dominantly.

India is likely to also place orders worth $500 million deal with Israel for the government-to-government purchase of around 4,500 Spike anti-tank guided missiles as an Interim measure before the indigenous solution is available for mass production.

 

 

 

 

Source:- Force India.net