India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a INR25.8 billion (USD353.5 million) contract with two domestic private-sector companies and a public-sector enterprise for the supply of six regiments’ worth of indigenously developed Pinaka Mk I multi-barrel rocket launcher (MBRL) systems to the Indian Army (IA).
A Pinaka MBRL system. The Indian government announced on 31 August that it placed an order for six regiments’ worth of the system for the Indian Army. (BEML Limited)
The Indian government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) announced on 31 August that the deal includes procuring 114 launchers with automated gun alignment and positioning systems (AGAPSs) and 45 command posts from Tata Power and Larsen & Toubro.
A total of 330 high-mobility vehicles - worth a combined INR8.42 billion - will be manufactured by BEML Limited at its Palakkad plant in Kerala, with deliveries expected to be completed within three years. The majority of these vehicles, however, will not be fitted with launchers, but will instead be used to carry additional rockets for the Pinaka systems.
Meanwhile, the rockets, which have an estimated range of 38-40 km, will be manufactured by private-sector company Economic Explosives Limited in Mumbai. The rockets had previously been made by the state-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).
The PIB stated that deliveries of the recently ordered Pinaka systems are to be completed by 2024, adding that all six regiments’ worth “will be operationalised along the northern and eastern borders to further enhance the armed forces’ operational preparedness”. This region includes the disputed 4,057 km-long Line of Actual Control (LoAC) with China.
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