New Delhi, May 19, 2022: The Indian Navy successfully tested the maiden firing of the first indigenously built Naval Anti-Ship Missile from a Seaking helicopter on Wednesday. The Integrated Test Range (ITR) conducted the maiden test firing at Balasore in Odisha.
The Naval Anti-Ship Missile (NASM) SR existence was disclosed in the Lok Sabha in 2018. Nirmala Sitharaman, the then Defence Minister, included this in a list of DRDO and other Indian institution developments over the last three years (January 2016-December 2018).
Details were later revealed at the DefExpo 2020. The missile project was being developed for a slew of reasons. The term ‘SR’ stands for ‘Short Range’, implying that other, longer-range versions will be developed as well.
The Naval Anti-Ship Missile (NASM) SR
According to DRDO, the NASM-SR would be a 380 kilogram projectile with a maximum range of 55 kilometres that will be deployed to replace the previous Sea Eagle missiles on Indian Navy Sea King helicopters. Given that the Sea King is nearing the end of its service life, the new indigenous missile is likely to be deployed with future Navy helicopters.
The Indian Navy is in the process of buying MH-60R multi-role helicopters, which will be outfitted with Kongsberg Naval Strike Missiles. MBDA also pitched the Sea Venom for the Indian Navy’s IMRH procurement. It has a range of 25 kilometers, and the Marte ER has a range of more than 100 kilometres.
The NASM SR is a viable option for these powerful systems. The long-range variant of the NASM might have a range of more than 150 km, allowing it to engage hostile targets from afar. Several posters of a one-tonne class medium-range air-launched cruise missile were on display at the DRDO exhibit at Aero India 2019.
To effectively preserve India’s maritime security interests, particularly in the Indian Ocean region, the Indian Navy has been progressively improving its overall combat capacity.
On Tuesday, Indian Navy frontline warships were unveiled by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh according to the reports published in republicworld.com.
The ships, named INS Surat and INS Udaygiri, were launched at Mumbai’s Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL). INS Surat is the P15B class’s fourth guided-missile destroyer, while INS Udaygiri is the P17A class’s second stealth frigate.
