After A Decade Of Wait, Indian Army Gets Night Fighting Capable Spike Anti-Tank Guided Missiles

In a major addition to the Indian Army's firepower, the soldiers have now been equipped with the Israeli Spike anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) which will give much teeth to the Army while Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) readies indigenous versions for induction, reports Times of India.

The first lot of 210 Spike missiles arrived into India about 10 days ago with about a dozen launchers. It should be noted that the Spike missiles are also touted and renowned as 'fire and forget' missiles.

The procurement of Israeli Spike missiles comes as the present ATGMs available with the Indian Army - Milan-2T and Konkurs - do not have night-fighting capabilities. The DRDO is presently working on the building of ATGMs with night-fighting capabilities which have already completed three successful trials. The end-user trials of the same are expected to be wound up by mid-2020.

The induction of the Spike ATGMs also gains significance as the Army had been clamouring for equipping its 380 infantry battalions and 44 mechanised infantry with third and fourth generation ATGMs for over a decade. The present development thus provides a major upgrade to the Indian Army and its soldiers.