India’s DRDO Tests Laser-Guided ATGM from Arjun Tank

India’s state-run Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) test-fired a laser-guided anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) from MBT tank.

“Congratulations to DRDO for successfully conducting test firing of Laser Guided Anti-Tank Guided Missile from MBT Arjun at KK Ranges (ACC&S) in Ahmednagar,” Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh tweeted September 23.

According to DRDO, in these tests, ATGM successfully defeated a target at 3 km. "The missile employs a tandem HEAT warhead to defeat Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) protected armoured vehicles. It has been developed with multiple-platform launch capability and is currently undergoing technical evaluation trials from a gun of MBT Arjun," the company said.

ABHYAS Flight Test

A day earlier, the company conducted successful flight test of ABHYAS - High-speed Expendable Aerial Target (HEAT). During the trials, two demonstrator vehicles were successfully test flown. The vehicle can be used as target for evaluation of various missile systems.

Abhyas is designed & developed by Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), DRDO. The air vehicle is launched using twin underslung booster. It is powered by a small gas turbine engine and has MEMS based Inertial Navigation System (INS) for navigation along with the Flight Control Computer (FCC) for guidance and control. The vehicle is programmed for fully autonomous flight. The check out of air vehicle is done using laptop based Ground Control Station (GCS). 

During the test campaign, the user requirement of 5 km flying altitude, vehicle speed of 0.5 Mach, endurance of 30 minutes and 2g turn capability of the test vehicle were successfully achieved.