Gwalior: The indigenously developed surface-to-air Akash missile system has been handed over to the Indian Air Force (IAF) by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar at the Gwalior Air Force base on Friday.
Akash is an all weather area air defence weapon system for defending vulnerable areas against medium range air targets penetrating from low, medium and high altitudes. The system is designed to neutralize multiple aerial targets attacking from several directions simultaneously. The system is autonomous and its operation is fully automated, and is configured to be cross country mobile on tracked chasses for the Army or road mobile on Tatra chasses.
The supersonic Akash missile has a range of about 25 km and carries a 55 kg fragmentation warhead that is triggered by proximity fuse. The missile uses state-of-art integral ram jet rocket propulsion system and the onboard digital autopilot ensures stability and control.
The missile has all the way command guidance for full range of operation. Electro-pneumatic servo actuation system controls cruciform wings for agile response, and thermal batteries provide onboard power supply. The Radio Proximity Fuse has advanced signal processing features. Together with the pre-fragmented warhead and safety arming mechanism, a high kill probability of maneuvering targets is assured.
The weapon system consists of a network of radars and control centers which enables it to work in a network centric manner. It also enables robust and reliable operations, as data from multiple sensors are fused into a coherent single integrated air picture for the commander. The system can also integrate legacy and futuristic radars.
Computers process information from several radars and also help in automatically classifying the targets as friendly or otherwise. The system also provides for cued acquisition of multiple targets by weapon control radar based on data from surveillance radars.
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