India’s ‘Akash’ To Guard UAE Skies? Procurement of DRDO Missile By The Gulf Nation High On Agenda

United Arab Emirates has shown interest in buying ‘Made in India’ Akash surface-to-air missile. The missile was high on agenda of the recently concluded visit of the high-level defence delegation of UAE, Financial Express has reported.

The Akash, which is meant to secure critical installations of armed forces can carry a 60 kg warhead to hit a target up to 30 km distance, is an indigenous missile developed by Defense Research and Development Organsation (DRDO) and is being manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL).

As per the report, UAE Minister of State for Defence Affairs Mohammed Ahmed Al Bowardi Al Falacy led the delegation which was keen on buying the Akash missile.

Akash, if exported to UAE, will mark the first instance of such system being exported by India to any Gulf country.

India has tweaked its Defence Export Policy in order to enable exporting of various strategic platforms to countries which it sees as allies.

Indian Air Force (IAF) has already inducted the Akash system which is packed with a battery that can track and attack several targets at once.

Akash Missile can destroy manoeuvring targets like unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), cruise missiles, helicopter-launched missiles, fighter aircraft and can be fired from both tracked and wheeled platforms.