03 Jul 14. France pushes India to move on Maitri SR-SAM programme. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius expressed his concern to senior Indian leaders in New Delhi on 1 July over recurring delays in implementing the bilateral Maitri programme to jointly develop a short-range surface-to-air missile (SR-SAM) system. Fabius, who ended a two-day visit to Delhi on 2 July, discussed the INR300bn (USD5bn) Maitri project with his counterpart Sushma Swaraj and Defence Minister Arun Jaitley. The programme, under which France’s MBDA and India’s state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) would co-develop two SR-SAM systems with a 9-15 km range, has been under negotiation since 2007. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in early 2013 but since then the programme has been awaiting clearance from India’s Cabinet Committee on Security. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
08 Jul 14. Russia accepts modernised Shturm-SM ATGM into service. The Russian government accepted the self-propelled 9K132 Shturm-SM anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system into its arms inventory on 30 June, according to a press release from the Kolomna-based Design Bureau of Machine-building (KBM). The Shturm-SM has thermal guidance to give it day-night, all-weather capability. Its effective range is increased from 5-6 km compared with earlier versions of the system, and it has an anti-personnel fragmentation warhead. All Shturm-SM components and elements are produced in Russia, according to KBM. The original Shturm (AT-6 ‘Spiral’) and its radio-guided 9M114 missile were mounted on MT-LB personnel carriers. In the mid-1990s KBM developed the 9K120 Ataka (AT-9 ‘Spiral-2’) system with its 9M120 missile and tandem high explosive or thermobaric warheads to replace the original Shturm. Ataka was updated with laser guidance in 2010. The new 9K132 Shturm-SM system can employ all variants of Ataka’s 9M120 missile. KBM touts the Shturm system as the only ATGMs currently deployed on land vehicles, aircraft, and ships. Its 9M120 missile is the primary air-to-ground weapon for Russian attack helicopters sold abroad. Shturm-SM likely represents a KBM effort to recapture some of the market dominated by rival battlefield missile provider, the Tula-based Instrument Design Bureau (KBP) in recent years – the maker of the 9A4172 Vikhr (AT-16 ‘Scallion’) and the 9M133 Kornet (AT-14 ‘Spriggan’). (Source: IHS Jane’s)
04 Jul 14. Indian Army to induct indigenous marksmanship training system. The Indian Army is set to formally induct a domestically built marksmanship training system, called detection and hit visualisation using acoustic n-wave identification (DHVANI). Manufactured by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL), the system has already completed rigorous field trials at army ranges in Bengaluru, Secunderabad, as well as at the Infantry School Mhow, India. DHVANI is an advanced system based on the basic principles of gas dynamics and aero-acoustics, and perfects marksmanship skills by accurately determining the location of bullet impact and providing real-time feedback to operators. “DHVANI is an advanced system based on the basic principles of gas dynamics and aero-acoustics.” Custom built to address Indian Army requirements at a lower cost, it uses a multi-functional interactive graphical user interface (GUI) on a MIL grade laptop to display the results in less than half a millisecond after firing. In addition, a comprehensive database comprising personnel details, shots fired and performance statistics can be used for later analysis. The army’s existing manual training system requires the marksman to fire shots at the target and subsequently walk up to the target to identify whether the shots were a hit or a miss, which is inconsistent, unreliable, inaccurate, and also has high turnaround times. On the other hand, the foreign marksmanship training systems, mostly based on 1980s technolo