Amid rising foreign interest in India's domestically developed and produced Akash missile, two defence experts have described the weapons system best in its class.
"In its class, the Akash missile is the best in the world. Moreover, the performance of the projectile has been superb," Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Scientist (Retd) Ravi Gupta told Sputnik India on Thursday.
Missile's Low-Cost Behind Interest From Foreign Buyers
Furthermore, Gupta suggested that Akash is a cost-effective weapon platform as India can produce the missile at a much lower cost than what other countries take to manufacture similar rockets.
These two factors make it attractive to foreign buyers who are looking to acquire state-of-the-art surface-to-air (SAM) missile systems, he added.
On the other hand, former Air Marshall M. Matheswaran told Sputnik India, that in the 1990s, DRDO started two missile programs for India's air defence, one was Trishul and the other was Akash, having a range of 10 and 25-30 kilometers, respectively.
Earlier, India was using the Russian missile called Pechora for nearly half a century before the Akash missile project was launched by the DRDO.
Though Akash's development program experienced a fair share of problems or challenges, its acquisition radar, the missile guidance radar, and the command module - all of them have been electronic since 2008 when the rocket was first evaluated by the Indian Armed Forces, Matheswaran pointed out.
Subsequently, the Indian Army inducted the Akash missile in 2012. The Indian Air Force followed suit three years later in 2015.
Akash Missile Undergoes a Sea-Change in the Last 15 Years
The former IAF officer underlined that the one good thing that the DRDO did was that they transferred all the technologies related to the Akash missile to defence firms - Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL), and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), being the system integrators. Meanwhile, private sector companies like Larsen & Toubro and Tata Advanced Systems have also joined as technology partners.
"In the last 10 years, the Akash missile has undergone many improvements - from a command guidance to a fire and forget missile is one significant development," Matheswaran stressed in a conversation with Sputnik India.
All these developments, Matheswaran opined, have led to the recent tests which is the ability to track four targets simultaneously and engage them at the same time.
Akash Better Than World's Contemporary Systems
"In terms of cost versus performance, I think the Akash missile will beat contemporary systems from other countries. That must be the major attraction for smaller nations, particularly those who want to procure a short-range air defence system," Matheswaran asserted.
More importantly, the military pundit noted that the Akash missile is almost completely indigenous. DRDO states that 96 percent of components used in the rocket are domestically manufactured.
Therefore, a major issue when one depends on a lot of imported material to produce weapons even though it is locally produced is taken care of.
"...Everything related to it (Akash) is manufactured in India and that's why it would be apt to say that the Akash is truly designed, developed, and manufactured here," Matheswaran concluded.