India is opening an "umbrella" against supersonic missiles. Yesterday, September 13, the portal savunmasanayist.com He reported that the Indian Air Force has adopted the Barak-8 mobile anti-aircraft missile system (SAM), also known as MRSAM, developed jointly with Israel.
The Barak-8 air defense system is already used by the Indian Navy, but now its ground version has entered military service. The first air defense systems with Israeli missiles delivered to the Indian Air Force are designed to defeat aircraft and missiles, including supersonic ones. In addition, MRSAM systems are ordered by the Indian Ground Forces.
Launch of the Barak-8 rocket
Image source: ynetnews.com
MRSAM, also known as Barak 8, is a ground-based modification of the LRSAM ship-based interceptor missiles. The Barak-8 air defense system, armed with missiles of the same name, was developed by the Israeli company IAI in partnership with the Indian state organization DRDO on the basis of the Barak air defense system, adopted by the Israeli army in 1987. Initially, the Barak-8 was created as a ship-based missile (the first launch took place in 1999). In 2014, IAI and DRDO began work on the creation of the Barak-8 ground-based air defense system.
India's purchase of MRSAM missiles was announced in February 2017, but only in July 2019 was the first production contract worth $100 million signed. The joint venture Kalyani Rafael Advanced Systems (KRAS) was created by the Indian company Kalyani Group and the Israeli Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
The Barak 8 air defense system is designed to simultaneously detect and defeat a wide range of air threats (including aircraft, cruise missiles and surface-to-surface missiles) at short and medium ranges at any time of the day and in difficult weather conditions. The munition is a two-stage solid-fuel anti-aircraft guided missile with a length of 4.5 m, equipped with an active homing system. The missile is launched using a vertical launcher and is capable of intercepting a target at distances of 70-80 km.
