New Delhi: In a boost to Atmanirbharta in the defence weapons sector, the indigenously developed Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile Weapon System (QRSAM) of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be inducted in Indian Armed Forces soon.
“The missile system has completed all trials and the production is likely to start within six months after getting green signal from the Ministry of Defence,” Mahesh Sahu, Senior Technical Officer, DRDO said.
DRDO and Indian Army successfully flight-tested six rounds of the indigenously developed weapon system from a canister mounted on a rotatable truck-based launch platform in all-weather scenario, said Sahu. The QRSAM weapon system is capable of surveillance, target acquisition and tracking while on move and fire on short halts, being developed for Area Air Defence.
DRDO displayed a model of QRSAM in the 108th Indian Science Congress underway in Nagpur from January 3 to 7.
“It is one of the most advanced QRSAM weapon systems in the world. Indian Army has already shown interest in this weapon system,” said the scientist.
“The weapon system performance was also evaluated under day and night operation scenarios and demonstrated its capabilities. All the mission objectives were met, establishing pin-point accuracy of the weapon system with state-of-the-art guidance and control algorithms, including warhead chain,” he added.
The missile system comprises of fully automated command and control system, active array battery surveillance radar, active array battery multi-function radar and launcher. Both radars are four-walled having 360-degree coverage with search-on-move and track-on-move capability.
Earlier, the acquisition programme of QRSAM faced multiple issues, including poor response from vendors and re-tendering, to avoid single source acquisition. In between, a DRDO project to develop this missile was sanctioned in July 2014 with a budget of Rs 476.43 crore. The missile system was developed in association with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) and Bharat Dynamics Limited with both firms participating in development and manufacturing.
