India's recent test of an Indigenous Technology Cruise Missile will be a "big force multiplier" for its arsenal of missiles, a military veteran has said.
India's thrust on accomplishing "atmanirbharta (self-reliance)" in this domain got a big boost after the flight test of the ITCM conducted off Odisha's coast earlier this month.
While this successful test was carried out for a land-based variant of the missile, reports have emerged in the last few days that an air launch of the missile is being planned by the nation's defense establishment soon.
The development comes in the aftermath of India previously testing a submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM), and an air variant will complete its triad as far as indigenous cruise missile technology is concerned.
It is being said that the air variant of the ITCM would give the Indian Air Force (IAF) more teeth given that ITCM has a much larger reach than compared to conventional missiles.
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"The ITCM is going to be a big force multiplier for India. Most importantly, all components of this missile are Indian because earlier the biggest problem for the Indian defense tech sector used to be getting the engine for missiles," Major General (Retd) Shashi Bhushan Asthana told Sputnik India on Thursday.
However, the test of ITCM conducted on April 18 was conducted with an Indian engine, which is a small turboprop engine. The indigenous engine gives the Indian Armed Forces a tremendous amount of capability in a manner that the country can produce more missiles, secondly, it doesn't have to depend on the components sourced from abroad, and thirdly it can produce different variants, he added.
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"Furthermore, the ITCM enhances the capability of the Indian Defense Forces in many ways - firstly the cruise missiles are less prone to enemy detection as these are sea-skimming cruise missiles, which fly very low, making it extremely difficult for the enemy air defense systems to intercept them," Asthana pointed out.
That is why having cruise missiles of longer ranges in its arsenal is important for India, the retired Indian Army officer highlighted.
India also has Prithvi, a short-range cruise missile. Compared to the ITCM's 1000 km range, the Prithvi-II can hit targets within a 350 km radius.
"The ITCMs are an add-on to India's arsenal of missiles because for any country to defend itself, it needs all types of missiles. We have achieved a fair amount of expertise in ballistic missiles, with the Agni-V having a range of 8,000 km while the Agni-VI, which would have the capability to hit targets beyond 10,000 km is under development," the defense expert summed up.