Vietnam could be interested to buy Indian-made missile Pragati and Brahmos cruise missile

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 03:55 AM

The display of Pragati Indian-made tactical ballistic missile by DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation of India) at ADEX 2013 Defense Exhibition in South Korea implies that it is being marketed mainly in South East Asia where possibly there are some customers identified such as Vietnam. India and Vietnam have close defence and security cooperation which has been ongoing for some time.



Vietnam had been seeking the BrahMos cruise missile but this is a joint project so India was finding it difficult to obtain Russian approval for the sale but no such problem could be seen for the sale of Pragati which is also within the MTCR regulations of range being much below 300 kms and is a ballistic missile which may find more takers.

The DRDO claims that Pragati tactical missile system is a highly potent, accurate short range, battle field tactical missile system capable of neutralizing identified targets and providing an effective counter force weapon system. It has all weather Day and Night operational launch capability.

The missile has quick reaction from command to launch in ripple firing mode of less than 5 sec from same launcher. The missile is capable of carrying various types of conventional warhead of approx. 200 Kgs. The missile system has capability of deployment in stand-alone mode or centralised mode.

The DRDO export pitch in South Korea ADEX, is led by the Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister Mr Avinash Chander who is also a leading missile scientist.“Our presence at Seoul is an opportunity for building technology partnerships for R&D and manufacture, and for creating export potential. Indian systems and defence manufacturing capability have matured. We want to project not just the DRDO, but all of India’s emerging defence capabilities. US $ 26 billion worth equipment based on DRDO’s technologies are being produced,” said Mr Avinash Chander, Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister& Secretary, Dept of Def R&D, Ministry of Defence, Government of India.

Army Recognition