Amidst growing tensions between India and Pakistan, Indian Armed Forces appear to be battle-ready for any escalation as the Eastern Command of the Indian Army on Saturday carried out live drills of Anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) detachment during a field training exercise using a mock target.
The Indian Army carried out live drills of the anti-tank guided missile in a field live fire training exercise undertaken for troops of the Army’s Eastern Command. The live firing exercise to test the effectiveness of systems took place under the supervision of General Mohanty of the GOC 33 Corps, which is based in Siliguri.
Reportedly, The Indian Army has achieved its intended results with the tests as the missiles hit the mock target with precision and 100% success ratio. The mock target was decimated and blown away with the force of the anti-tank missile. The exercise not only proved the efficiency of the new equipment but also highlighted the strength of the Indian army, which possesses many such hi-tech types of equipment required during the battle.
An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armour guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armoured military vehicles and heavy artilleries. The size of such equipment can range from a shoulder-launched weapon, usually launched by just one soldier, or it can be a larger tripod-mounted system, which is often operated by a team.
The Indian Armed Forces have inducted indigenous Nag anti-tank guided missile, built by Defence Research and Development Organisation under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program. The Nag missile is solely operated from the NAMICA ATGM carrier, a tank destroyer based on the BMP-2 platform. Addition to that, HeliNa, a Helicopter-launched Nag with a range of 7–8 km is also being developed to be launched on board from the armed HAL Dhruv and HAL Light Combat Helicopter produced by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).
Apart from NAG, Indian Army currently operates Russian-made 9M119 Svir, 9M113 Konkurs, 9K114 Shturm, 9M133 Kornet anti-tank missile systems. Amogha–1, a second generation Anti-Tank Guided Missile is also being developed by Defence PSU, Bharat Dynamics at Hyderabad. Amogha-1 is believed to have a pinpoint accuracy for a range up to 2.8 km.
