Amidst COVID-19 also, India is on a surge of development. It's on the pinnacle of spree in the rocket field as recently within the span of 30-35 days India tested more than 10 missiles which is a commendable achievement as per now. And the latest missile that India test fired is the SANT missile. In this article we will discuss features and benefits of this missile, which series does it belong to and what are exclusive capabilities that make this missile different from others.
SANT stands for "Stand off Anti Tank" missile. This missile is developed by DRDO's research center Imarat in collaboration with Indian Air force. This missile was tested at the coast of Odisha and its test firing was from a ground launcher.
Recently DRDO developed multiple anti tank missiles in its NAG range, which ranges between approximately from 500mtr to 200km, which consists of different variants depending on its launch features.
Basically NAG has five variants:-
1) For mast - mounted systems it have Land version
2) HELINA - the helicopter launched NAG. (SANT is sort of upgraded HELINA)
3) MPATGM (man portable anti tank guided missile) - for man portable version
4) NAG missile carrier (NAMICA) for 'tank buster', (Recently NAMICA 2 was unveiled which have more advanced version.)
5) An air launch version.
As we talked earlier that SANT is nothing but an advanced version of HELINA variant Which ranges from 7 to 8 km and HELINA is 3rd gen fire and forget class anti tank guided missile (ATGM) mounted on developed advance light helicopters. SANT is said to have a range of more than 10km and is equipped with advance nose mounted active radar seeker which enables the launch platform to be located at a safe distance from the target area. As per now SANT missile is tested at ground base level but soon it will also test launch from Russian made mi-35 helicopter gunship in somewhere December and if it's getting successful then by approximately by 2021 it will be inducted in Indian army.
As we know it's an upgraded version and there's also one unique feature that is lock on after launch feature, which makes this missile different and advanced from others. As we know that all prior NAG missiles were on principle of lock on before launch, in which operators are mandated to first identify enemy's tank through use of thermal imaging and once the target is located then it send that details to the missile system and accordingly it is being fired and during launch also continue cross checking is done with reference of image and drawback is that missile can deviate from its original flight path as image disturbance can take place. So it was like it was less accurate, limited range of 5km and even can't evade defensive firing. Whereas the SANT missile is capable of lock on after launch system in which missile operator no longer needs to lock on to the target before launch. SANT just scans the area before covering the target then it locks the target accordingly and then it also changes its flight path accordingly. And the range is also 10km.
After this India can be covered under the supreme and elite class of missile as such a missile as the SANT is, with America that is 'American javelin' and Israel known as 'spike'. Hope this commendable induction led to India's defense pride.