Thursday, February 17, 2005

The Akash SAM comes of age?

The Acorn reports that the Akash surface-to-air missile has been cleared for export to friendly countries. The Akash missiles together with the Rajendra phased-array radar has been touted as "The poor man’s Patriot missile". Interestingly the price looks a killer.

Each missile is capable of carrying a 50kg payload over 25km, and only costs about US$260,000. India’s Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) is pitching the system as a budget Patriot-1 type air defence system. Both the Indian army and air-force have already placed orders.