New Delhi: Beating competitors from Israel and Poland, Solar Industries Nagpur has bagged an order to supply unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) ‘Nagastra’ to the Indian Army. According to a Solar Industries official, the first indigenous Loiter Munition (LM), Nagastra–1, has been designed and developed by Economics Explosives Ltd (EEL), a 100 per cent subsidiary of Solar Industries Nagpur, in association with Z-Motion, Bangalore in accordance with government’s initiative to bring Atmanirbharta in ammunition and defence systems.
A model of ‘Nagastra -1’ loitering munition was recently displayed in the Army Commanders conference held here. The company said that Nagastra -1 having an indigenous content of more than 75 per cent has many world class features. It said that in a ‘Kamikaze mode’ it can neutralise any hostile threat with GPS enabled precision strike with an accuracy of 2 m. The fixed wing electric UAV has an endurance of 60 minutes with a man-in-loop range of 15 km and autonomous mode range of 30 km.
In addition to day-night surveillance cameras the loiter munition is equipped with fragmenting warhead to defeat soft-skin targets. In case a target is not detected or if the mission is aborted, the loiter munition can be called back and made a soft landing with a parachute recovery mechanism enabling it to be reused multiple times.
It further said that abort, recover and reuse features of this loiter munition make this system superior to similar class of systems developed by advanced countries. Drone technology has proved to be a force multiplier in military operations as evident from its application in various recent conflicts across the world, especially in cases of Armenia-Azerbaijan, Syria, strike on oilfields in Saudi Arabia, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“Even in our context, the recent incidents along the borders have seen a noticeable increase in drone related incidents along the northern borders. Solar Industries have taken initiatives to develop a wide array of weaponised drones to neutralise various targets using gravity drop bombs, guided missiles or using them in a Kamikaze mode. This will go a long way to boost indigenous capability of using drones/ UAVs as war machinery,” company official said.
The Indian Army using emergency powers has acquired a series of indigenous suicide drones which will enhance its options for striking on terrorist camps and launch pads across the border. These drones have the capability to undertake shallow strikes with precision.
