India has recently demonstrated the firepower of its Akash surface-to-air (SAM) weapon system, where a single firing unit simultaneously engaged and destroyed four unmanned targets during the recent Exercise Astrashakti 2023.
Key points
- The demonstration was conducted by the IAF during Astrashakti 2023 at Suryalanka Air Force Station on December 12.
- With this demonstration during the Air Force Exercise Astrashakti-2023, India became first country to demonstrate the capability of engagement of 04 aerial targets simultaneously at 25Km ranges by command guidance using single firing unit.
- The test was conducted by IAF MCC using Akash Weapon System.
- During the exercise, four targets were coming from same direction in a close formation and were split to attack their own defence assets from multiple directions simultaneously.
- The Akash firing unit was deployed with Firing Level Radar (FLR), Firing Control Centre (FCC), and two Akash Air Force Launcher (AAFL) launchers having five armed missiles.
- The FLR was detected and tracked and the air scenario with four targets was updated to a higher echelon.
- The targets were assigned to the Akash Firing Unit to neutralise the threat and the commander issued the firing commands when the system prompted the engagement as per system capability.
About Akash Weapon System
- The Akash Weapon System is indigenously designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
- Akash has been deployed by the Indian Air Force and the Indian Army for the last decade.
- The current firing was done from the system, which was ordered in September 2019 as a repeat order from the IAF.
- The Akash weapon system is also one of the indigenous defence systems that have bagged orders from international customers.
