Foreign Nations Keen to Acquire Reliable & Cost-Effective Indian Missiles

Indian missiles have become attractive to foreign buyers because of their reliability, and cost-effectiveness in addition to the credibility of the manufacturer and the subsequent product support in terms of maintenance, and life-extension programs have further strengthened their status, especially among developing countries, military veterans have said.

"In Armenia's case, Yerevan is looking at procuring missiles from countries that have been its reliable partners in the defence sector, and India fits that bill. Moreover, for a small country like Armenia cost is a very big factor and for that obvious reason, it is not looking at American missiles. Because US military items are enormously expensive and also come with certain conditionalities," Air Marshal M. Matheswaran (Retd) told Sputnik India.

Additionally, it offers Armenia ease of transportation, quick deployment, and faster operational capabilities, the former Indian Air Force (IAF) official noted.

The defence pundit expressed that since Pralay is a derivative of the Russian Iskandar-M missile that has tasted immense success in Ukraine, there's no doubt about its success. The only difference between these two missiles is that the Indian projectile is a bit lighter and more user-friendly than its original version developed by Russia.

Notably, Armenia's first defence deal with India was for Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers that landed in the South Caucasus nation last year. Since then, Armenia's imports of military items from India have touched the $600 million mark in the current financial year.

Matheswaran reckons that this is a good sign for the Indian defence industry.

"I see Yerevan increasing its imports of arms from New Delhi as it has developed a high level of trust in India's military equipment. For India, it opens doors for exports to other countries because once a world-class product like the Pralay missile is sold to a foreign nation, many other sovereign states start showing their interest in that weapons system," the strategic affairs commentator emphasised.

Meanwhile, Commodore Seshadri Vasan (Retd) stressed that the growing interest in India's missiles is a success story of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

He reminded everyone that it was the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program that was launched under former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam that yielded phenomenal results.

"Subsequently, India mastered the science of developing state-of-the-art surface-to-surface missiles, surface-to-air missiles, or underwater missiles, which has infused confidence, particularly in developing countries, about their combat effectiveness," Vasan said in a conversation with Sputnik India.

He mentioned that the Pralay tactical ballistic missile has a range of 150 to 500 kilometers and as its name suggests, can destroy the adversary within minutes.

Yet, the USP of this missile is its success rate during user trials, Vasan added.

It is worth highlighting that Pralay means "destruction" in Sanskrit, underlining its potency to inflict heavy damage on the enemy if and when fired.

"Pralay's effective error probability (EEP) is in the range of 10 meters, which is great for a missile of this range. Therefore, its comparison with the Iskandar-M missile is quite valid. Undeniably, Pralay's accuracy is the best in its class," the Indian Navy veteran concluded.

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