By- Shivanshi Srivastava
India will procure Igla-S a powerful hand-held anti-missile system from Russia.
Russia has signed a contract to supply the Igla-S hand-held anti-aircraft missiles to India and permit the weapon to be produced in India under licence.
The weapon has been designed to attack low-flying aircraft and can engage all sorts of visually detectable aircraft and helicopters.
The Igla-S is a man-portable air defence system (MANPADS) that can be fired by an individual or crew to bring down an enemy aircraft.
The weapon system comprises 9M342 missile, 9P522 launching mechanism, 9V866-2 mobile test station, and 9F719-2 test set.
It has a range of 500 metres to 6 kilometres and attack targets up to an altitude of 3.5 kilometres.
MANPADS have become popular after being successfully deployed by Ukraine to thwart the Russia’s air superiority in the ongoing war.
The Indian Army last year inducted a small number of Igla-S systems under the emergency procurement route to bolster its defence capabilities amid ongoing tensions with China and Pakistan.
India procured 216 missiles, 24 launchers, and additional testing equipment from Russia, which was finally inducted in April last year.
India is also looking at production of the Russian missile systems in the country under the Make-in-India initiative.