The Indian Army (IA) has signed a deal with Economic Explosives Limited (EEL) Nagpur, for acquiring over 450 Nos. of indigenously developed Nagastra-1 loitering munitions.
Manufactured by EEL, these loitering munitions can carry out surveillance up to 15 Km range and also strike enemy targets with their warhead. The deal has been signed under the ’emergency provisions’ under which the drones will have to be supplied to the Army within one year.
Earlier few months back, the IA had issued a tender for the procurement of these drones, with EEL emerging as the winner in the competition after trials and other due procedures.
Till date, India had been acquiring such drones were acquired from foreign vendors including companies from Israel and Poland.
About Nagastra-1 loitering munitions
Nagastra-1, is a Unmanned Aerial Vehichle (UAV) or attack drone that has been designed and developed by Economics Explosives Ltd (EEL), a 100 percent subsidiary of Solar Industries Nagpur, in association with Z-Motion, Bangalore.
The loiter munition has advanced features such as abort, recover, and reuse capabilities, which make it to stand out from the similar systems developed by more technologically advanced countries.
Further, the Nagastra -1 have an indigenous content of more than 75 percent, and when in a ‘Kamikaze mode’ it can neutralize 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.
Image Courtesy: https://solargroup.com/defence/#apps
