The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed contracts with three Indian companies for supply of six regiments of the Pinaka Rocket System to be deployed along borders with Pakistan and China.

Following things are crucial to know about the Pinaka Missile System:

1) It’s development and manufacture

2) Fire Range and other capabilities

3) Latest technology enhancement

Pinaka Missile System

• Pinaka is an indigenously developed rocket system named after Lord Shiva’s mythological bow.
• It is used for attacking the adversary targets prior to the close-quarter battles which involve smaller range artillery, armoured elements and the infantry.
• The development of the Pinaka was started by the DRDO in the late 1980s, as an alternative to the multi-barrel rocket launching systems of Russian make, called like the ‘Grad’, which are still in use.
• After successful tests of Pinaka Mark-1 in late 1990, it was first used in the battlefield during the Kargil War of 1999, quite successfully.
• Subsequently, multiple regiments of the system came up over the 2000s.

Its versions and capabilities

• The Pinaka, which is primarily a multi-barrel rocket system (MBRL) system, can fire a salvo of 12 rockets over a period of 44 seconds.
• One battery of the Pinaka system consists of six launch vehicles, accompanied by the loader systems, radar and links with network-based systems and a command post.
• It can neutralize an area one kilometre by one kilometre.
• The Mark-I version of Pinaka has a range of around 40 kilometres and the Mark-II version can fire up to 75 kilometres.
• The Mark-II version of the rocket has been modified as a guided missile system by integrating it with the navigation, control and guidance system to improve the end accuracy and increase the range.
• The navigation system of the missile is linked with the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System.

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