Atul Chandra

Despite nearly a decade of effort, the Indian Army still faces a shortfall in modern anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM). Plans to modernise the army and equip more than 380 infantry battalions and over 40 mechanised infantry units with modern ATGMs have not fructified.

In 2018 the army faced a shortfall of approximately 68,000 ATGMs and apart from second generation ATGMs such as the Milan-2T and Konkurs-M, produced under license in India and emergency procurements of Rafael Spike ATGMs, there appears to be no formal procurement process under-way for induction of large numbers of 4^th or 5^th generation ATGMs. The Indian Army inducted its first 4^th generation ATGM in the Israeli Spike Long Range (LR) a few years ago, which were purchased as part of a Rs280 crore deal. The ministry of defence (MoD) had scrapped a November 2017 deal worth USD1billion to procure 5,500 missiles in favour of indigenous alternatives.

The outdated 2^nd generation ATGMs such as the Milan-2T and Konkurs-M are manufactured by Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) under license from their respective original equipment manufacturers (OEM). The ageing Milan-2T and Konkurs-M ATGMs are unlikely to be effective against modern armour and infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) and main battle tanks (MBT) equipped with the latest active protection systems (APS).

In January, Saab announced that it had received an order to supply its AT4 single-shot weapon for army and air force Special Forces (SF) units. India has also been a longstanding user of Saab’s Carl-Gustaf system. The AT4 is operated by a single soldier and single-shot 84mm calibre weapon and has proven its efficacy against structures, landing craft, helicopters, armoured vehicles and personnel.

The Spike LR man-portable ATGMs have been operational with the army for a few years now. The ATGM has a dual mode seeker which allows precise engagement both during day and night and also ha