In the rapidly evolving landscape of defence technology, India is proving to be a force to be reckoned with. Earlier this year as revealed at the 14th Aero India Expo held in Bengaluru, the country’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is rolling out its own precision-guided munitions (PGMs). These stand-off PGMs have been a decade in the making and are poised for mass production by private companies under three categories of the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Defence Procurement Procedure’s (DPP) India designed, developed, and made (IDDM) category.
It is expected that the Kalyani Group, in a joint venture with Israel’s RAFAEL Advanced Systems Ltd., will be chosen for mass production of the Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW). Government-owned Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) is set to serve as the primary industrial contractor and systems integrator. In September 2020, Defence Acquisition Council put its stamp of approval for mass acquisition of the SAAW, which is roughly valued at Rs 970 crore ($131m).
Anti-radiation missiles (ARMs) are another category of weapons in production. The Defence R&D Laboratory (DRDL) initiated R&D for these missiles in 2012 and now spearheads the design and development of three different ARMs. The first ARM, Rudram-1 NG-ARM, is slated for series production by Adani Defence & Aerospace. Equipped with a 60kg pre-fragmented warhead and a dual-pulsed rocket motor engine, the Rudram-1 has a maximum speed exceeding Mach 2 and a range of 150 km.
For the mass production by Adani Defence & Aerospace Ltd., the MoD has given approval for the long-range guided-bomb ‘Gaurav’. This bomb which has a maximum gliding range of 80 km, will be launched exclusively launched by Su-30MKIs. The ‘Gautham’ glide-bomb, with a maximum range of 30 km, shares this exclusivity, and both bombs have a circular error probable of less than 15 meters.
Another highly anticipated event in India’s defence tech world is the maiden test-firing of the BrahMos-NG supersonic cruise missile by late 2024. This project is a joint venture of the DRDO and Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyeniya, under the banner of BrahMos Aerospace Pvt Ltd. However, the availability of the hypersonic BrahMos-2K missile for India’s armed forces is uncertain due to Russia’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine.
The DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment is also engaged in ongoing R&D work on the Indigenous Technology Cruise Missile (ITCM), which has a range of 1,500 km. It has been reported earlier this year that the latest test flight took place on February 21, off the coast of Odisha. This was following a failed attempt in 2022 due to technical issues with the indigenous Manik small turbofan engine. Since 2020, four tests of the ITCM technology demonstrator have been conducted, with mixed success.
