The South Asian nation has conducted field evaluation trials of a locally developed third-generation Nag Mk-2 missile system
India has successfully conducted field evaluation trials of the domestically developed Nag Mk-2 third-generation anti-tank guided missile. The trials were recently conducted at a firing range in Rajasthan’s Pokhran, the Indian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
During the three field trials, the missile systems, developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), destroyed all the targets – both maximum and minimum range – thus validating its firing range, army officials said. DRDO is the country’s primary government agency responsible for designing and manufacturing weapons systems.
During the test, the updated version of the Nag missile carrier was also field evaluated. The entire weapons system is now ready for induction into the Indian Army, officials said.
The Nag missile features fire-and-forget technology, meaning that once launched, it autonomously tracks and engages the target without requiring further input from the operator. Equipped with an imaging infrared (IIR) seeker, it can accurately strike both stationary and moving targets at any time.
Field Evaluation Trials of indigenously developed Nag Mk 2, the third generation Anti-Tank Fire and Forget Guided Missile was successfully flight tested at Pokhran Field Range.
— रक्षा मंत्री कार्यालय/ RMO India (@DefenceMinIndia) January 13, 2025
While the exact range is classified, the Nag Mk-2 is estimated to have a range of 7-10km, an improvement over its previous version, which had a range of 4km. For its land-based operations, the Nag Mk-2 is launched from NAMICA, an armored vehicle based on the Russian-designed BMP-2 Sarath, which was made in India.
In November, New Delhi successfully conducted a flight trial of its first long-range hypersonic missile off the coast of the eastern state of Odisha. The missile is capable of carrying various payloads over distances exceeding 1,500km.
The Narendra Modi-led government has been pushing for self-reliance in defense manufacturing, with contracts for locally made defense systems and components increasing yearly. In 2019, India established ‘defense industrial corridors’ in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and in Tamil Nadu in the south. The initiative is aimed at bolstering domestic defense manufacturing and reducing reliance on imports by promoting indigenization, with an ambitious goal of fulfilling equipment requirements worth over $250 billion by 2025.
India remains the world’s largest arms importer, accounting for 36% of global arms purchases from 2019 to 2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), but has also been increasing its exports of weapons systems. The country has emerged as one of the top 25 global arms exporters, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated Monday, adding that the country’s defense exports last year reached a record high of 200 billion rupees ($2.3 billion) – a surge from around 7 billion rupees ($80 billion) a decade ago.
