NEW DELHI — India has completed final developmental trials of a new precision guided missile that can be launched from drones to engage both ground and aerial targets.
For many years the country’s drones were used primarily for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, but as their role in modern warfare increases exponentially, India is moving to enhance the combat capabilities of its unmanned platforms.
The government called the precision guided missile, which was developed through a collaboration of government and private companies, a major boost to India’s domestic defense capabilities.
A Defense Ministry statement said that it “successfully completed the final deliverable configuration development trials of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Launched Precision Guided Missile (ULPGM)-V3 in Air-to-Ground and Air-to-Air modes at a test range near Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.”
It said the Ground Control System used to control the weapon system features “state-of-the-art technologies to automate readiness and launch operations.”
An image posted by the Defense Ministry showed the missile being launched by a multi rotor drone and destroying another drone in mid-air.
Analysts say the new miniaturized precision guided missile represents a significant advancement in India’s domestic drone-launched missile capability. It will allow UAVs to potentially destroy ground targets such as armored vehicles and bunkers, intercept drones, and hit low altitude air targets such as helicopters.
“This capability provides a kind of mobility to your air defense capability and also reduces the cost of air defense against drones,” R.K. Narang, a senior fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis in New Delhi told Defense News. “It is an important milestone. This is the beginning of developing miniaturized weapons for our drone segment.”
The country’s premier research and development agency, the Defense and Research Development Organisation, partnered with state-run firm Bharat Dynamics Limited and private-sector firm Adani Defence Systems and Technologies Limited for the development and production of the drone-launched precision missile.
“The missile has been produced entirely through the Indian defense ecosystem involving a large number of MSMEs (small and medium companies) and other industries. The trials confirmed fully mature domestic supply chain, equipped for immediate serial mass production,” according to a Defense Ministry statement.
Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh called the successful development trials a “strategic milestone” toward self-reliance in defense.
Development of armed drone capabilities is expected to be one of India’s focus areas as such systems reshape battlefields and as the world’s second largest arms importer pushes to expand domestic production of military hardware.
Analyst Narang says India will need to do more work in the area.
“This new precision guided missile is just the start of developing multiple such capabilities in the times to come because the threat is rising rapidly with the proliferation of military drones,” he said.
New Delhi and Islamabad used unmanned aerial vehicles during a four day conflict they fought last year in May. Five months on, India conducted its biggest drone and counter-drone war drill involving the army, navy and air force in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh states.
“There are no more eyes in the sky; there are claws in the sky now,” India’s Air Force Chief, A.P. Singh, said at a seminar earlier this month, underlining the threat from drones.