India successfully test fires Man Portable Anti Tank Guided Missile in Rajasthan.

India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) on Wednesday 13 March night conducted one more successful trial of the newly designed and developed Man Portable Anti Tank Guided Missile (MP-ATGM) at Rajasthan desert. It was first tested on 15 and 16 September 2018 at the Ahmednagar range in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.

The Indian MP-ATGM, which comprises a launching unit and a containerised missile, is thought to weigh approximately 13.5 kg and have a maximum strike range of approximately 2.5 km (Picture source: DRDO)

The MP-ATGM is being developed for infantry troops of the Indian Army. The DRDO carried out the trial of the missile with 2-3 km strike range last night.

MP-ATGM is the third generation anti-tank guided missile developed by DRDO in partnership with Indian company VEM Technologies Ltd. It is considered best in class and likely to replace Milan 2, a second-generation, French-made anti-tank missile, and 9M113 Konkurs, Soviet-era, wire-guided missile, which are currently in service with the Indian Army. Last year, the MoD had called off the planned purchase of Israeli Spike-MR which was valued at $ 500 mn and had directed the DRDO to indigenously work on man-portable fire and forget guided missile.

The DRDO Anti-tank missile (ATM) is a first generation wire-guided missile developed in India by Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It has a subsonic speed up to 300 ft/s (91 m/s). The weapon system, which comprises a launching unit and a containerised missile, is thought to weigh approximately 13.5 kg and have a maximum strike range of approximately 2.5 km. It carries a 106 mm HEAT warhead.