Anti-tank HeliNa missile hits targets in crucial test

In fresh trials, India has test-fired its indigenously developed Nag anti-tank guided missile, which can hit a target up to seven km, from a helicopter at a firing range in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.

The three-round trial of helicopter-launched Nag (HeliNa) missile was conducted on Sunday at the Chandhan firing range.

HeliNa is a helicopter-launched version of Nag and has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

"Two of the trials were successful in hitting the target, while one reportedly missed the target," defence sources said.

The missile was aimed at hitting targets at varied distances of up to 7 km.

"Though, the observations are yet to be studied and analysed but this test has brought us closure to the objective certainly," the sources said.

Earlier trials of this third generation 'fire and forget' missile were conducted from the Pokhran firing range and Integrated Test Range at Chandipur and dubbed as successful.

On July 8, 2013, seeker evaluation trials for anti-tank missile were carried out in hot desert conditions in Rajasthan at Pokhran.

The trials were against both moving and static targets for different ranges of 2.8 km and 3.2 km to evaluate the performance of an improved version of Imaging Infrared seeker.

While Nag missile has a maximum range of 4 km, the IIR seeker proved to be accurate only up to 2.5 km in extremely hot conditions in the trials conducted earlier.

Sources said the problem with the Nag was its range.

Once inducted in the Armed Forces, the HeliNa missile will be integrated with the weaponised version of the Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv, the light combat helicopter produced by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

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