NEW DELHI: The Army is going in for the procurement of another lot of man-portable air defence missile systems, which can intercept and destroy hostile fighter jets, aircraft, drones and helicopters at ranges up to 6-km, amid the ongoing tensions with Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror massacre.
The defence ministry-Army on Friday issued the tender or RFP (request for proposal) for 48 launchers, 48 night-vision sights, 85 missiles and a missile test station of the very short-range air defence system-new generation (VSHORADS-NG). Vendors have been told to submit their bids by May 20.
“The fire-and-forget VSHORADS-NG, based on infra-red homing technology, are needed by Army to meet the evolving dynamic air threat. There are major shortages in such man-portable systems for terminal and point defence against all types of aerial threats,” an officer said.
The RFP said the all-weather air defence system, which should have anti-jamming characteristics and be capable of being para-dropped, will be employed across all kinds of terrain, ranging from plains and deserts to high-altitude areas of around 4,500-metres.
The indigenous VSHORADS being developed by DRDO is still not ready for production and induction, with the latest set of trials being conducted in Feb this year. Consequently, the Army and IAF had earlier also inducted a limited number of such systems under emergency provisions due to the military confrontation in eastern Ladakh with China.
They included the Russian Igla-S man-portable air defence systems, assembled in India by Adani Defence. While the Army and IAF have the old Igla-1M systems since 1989, the shoulder-fired Igla-S is an improved variant with a longer interception range of up to 6-km.
Now, the tense situation with Pakistan seems to have triggered a fresh round of procurements. A tri-Service case for acquisition of 5,175 VSHORADS and associated equipment was initiated way back in June 2009, which eventually led to the Igla-S system being selected over the French and Swedish systems in the fray. But the major project, which was to include an initial off-the-shelf purchase followed by technology transfer to Bharat Dynamics for subsequent production, did not take off.
In Jan 2023, the Rajnath Singh-led defence acquisitions council had accorded “acceptance of necessity” for procurement of the infrared-homing VSHORADS missiles under design and development by DRDO at a cost of Rs 1,920 crore, as was then reported by TOI