Context:
Recently, the Indian Army has successfully received a supply of 480 of itsfirst indigenous loitering munitions, developed by a Nagpur-based defense manufacturing company, featuring over 75% indigenous content.
More On News
- The Indian Army received Nagastra-1 loitering munition, a type of suicide drone developed by Economics Explosives Ltd (EEL), a subsidiary of Solar Industries.
- EEL has delivered 480 loitering munitions ordered under Emergency Procurement Powers.
- Features
- It is a fixed-wing, missile-like drone with over 75% indigenous components.
- It is powered by two electric motors and can be controlled up to 15 km.
- It has a range of 30 km and can target fixed locations using GPS, hitting within 2 km of its target.
- It is man-portable, and light and used for precision strike capabilities by the Army troops
- If it fails to find a target, it can be safely recovered using an in-built parachute.
- Loitering munition is a category of weapon systems, the main elements of which are an unmanned platform with a warhead. Simply put, they are a mix of a surface-to-surface missile and a drone.
- The Indian military uses several other kamikaze drones, including Tata’s ALS-50, Israel’s Spike Firefly, Elbit Skystriker, and IAI’s Harpy and Harop, as well as the Indian Kadet’s LAM.