Rajnath Singh praises DRDO for successful flight test of portable anti-tank missile
New Delhi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday congratulated the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the successful flight test of the third-generation fire-and-forget man-portable anti-tank guided missile (MPATGM), which has top attack capability, an official said on Monday.
On Sunday, DRDO’s Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad, successfully flight-tested the missile against a moving target at the KK Range in Ahilya Nagar, Maharashtra, the official said in a statement.
Rajnath Singh also praised the industry for the successful test, calling it an important step towards a self-reliant India.
Congratulating the team, Department of Defence R&D Secretary and DRDO Chairman Samir V Kamat said the trial target was successfully tested, putting the weapon system on the path to induction into the Indian Army.
The indigenously developed MPATGM features the latest indigenous technologies, including an imaging infrared (IIR) homing seeker, an all-electric control actuation system, a fire control system, a tandem warhead, a propulsion system, and a high-performance sighting system, developed by DRDO’s sister laboratories.
These affiliated laboratories include Research Centre Imarat, Hyderabad; Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory, Chandigarh; High Energy Materials Research Laboratory, Pune; and Instruments Research and Development Establishment, Dehradun.
The thermal targeting system was developed by the Defence Laboratory, Jodhpur, to simulate a target tank. The IIR seeker is capable of day and night combat. The warhead is capable of defeating modern main battle tanks.
Bharat Dynamics Limited and Bharat Electronics Limited are the development-cum-production partners (DcPP) for this weapon system. The statement said the missile can be launched from a tripod or military vehicle launcher. Earlier on Friday, the Defense Minister described the country’s youth as the driving force behind the nation’s hopes of achieving a developed India by 2047 and urged them to “dream big,” but also warned them against letting those dreams overwhelm them.
He praised the various achievements of the youth and expressed confidence in their creativity, ambition, and determination to bring India into the league of developed nations.
He urged the youth to adopt multidisciplinary learning to keep pace with emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology, and space exploration.
Defense Minister Singh advised the youth, “Learning never stops. Learn from new practices, from your mistakes, and from the experiences of others. Dream big—but don’t let those dreams overwhelm you.”
