NEW DELHI\u00a0\u2014\u00a0India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has ordered 36\u00a0homemade Pinaka Mark-1 multi-barrel rocket launchers (MBRL)\u00a0at a cost of $490\u00a0million, despite complaints of problems related to its ammunition.
An MoD official said the Army is satisfied with the Pinaka-1 but “that is not to say that the system is perfect, it is on the\u00a0path\u00a0of evolving to a better system, and for the moment, the present versions\u00a0are acceptable. Room for improvement, however, exists.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An Indian Army official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there are technical\u00a0faults with the two Pinaka-1 regiments currently in operation, but would not go into detail or identify specific faults. According to the official, the rocket ammunition is “not dependable in range and\u00a0consistency.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The production of Pinaka-1 rockets is on hold after some quality-related issues, mainly relating to OFB produced propellant such as short ranges,\u00a0residues after firings and accidents relating to burst in launchers, etc.,” said Bhupinder Yadav, a retired Army major general and defense analyst. “The supplies of fuses and its quality assurances is also an issue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pinaka-1 has a range of 40 kilometers and is set to replace the aging Russian-made Grad BM-21 MBRL systems with the Indian Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Indian Army wants an MBRL with extended range and is waiting for the\u00a0Pinaka Mark-2, which has a range of up to 60 kilometers, but the time frame for its development is unknown, according to the Indian Army official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Army may be looking for Russian-made SMERCH as a far more reliable\u00a0and\u00a0established system. However it must pursue Pinaka- 2 and further\u00a0developed models of the system so that indigenous systems are available and dependence on foreign-made equipment is reduced. Indigenous development<\/p>\n\n\n\n
invariably requires services support for success,” the Army official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
No DRDO official would comment on the time frame for completion of the Pinaka Mark-2 MRBL. The MoD official said: “The initial trials of Pinaka\u00a0Mark-2 prototype have been conducted but no timeline can be given when\u00a0they will eventually be inducted.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the MRBL system for the Pinaka Mark-2 is similar to that of the Pinaka Mark-1, changes are being made in the rockets so that the range is\u00a0increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, the Army official said, the ammunition “remains an issue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MoD official said that DRDO has assured the Army that it will be\u00a0trying a better system of propellant to improve consistency in range for the Pinaka-1. “MoD has even suggested to DRDO to acquire propellant and fuse technology from overseas rather than get into R&D, which could take\u00a0another four years,” the official said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
India’s Ministry of Defence has ordered 36 homemade Pinaka Mark-1 multi-barrel rocket launchers at a cost of $490 million, despite complaints of problems related to its ammunition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":115997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":14,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[45,11,14],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3390],"class_list":["post-59563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific","category-global","category-land"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"MU6KABFV2NH4ZIYD44SWAPEHSQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/land\/2016\/12\/07\/india-orders-homemade-rocket-launchers-despite-its-faulty-ammo\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n