10-Jun-2019: India plans to procure advanced air defence system from US.

India has begun the process of acquiring the National Advanced Surface to Air Missile System-II (NASAMS-II) from the US to fully secure its airspace against aerial threats ranging from drones to ballistic missiles.

The US is likely to send the final draft of the ‘letter of acceptance’ for the sale of NASAMS-II to India under its foreign military sales programme, at a cost of over Rs 6,000 crore, by July-August.

Once the deal is inked, the deliveries will take place in two to four years. The NASAMS-II will be used along with indigenous, Russian and Israeli systems to establish a multi-layered missile shield over the National Capital Territory of Delhi. As per the proposed overall air defence plan for Delhi, the innermost layer of protection will be through the NASAMS. Defence acquisitions council (DAC), chaired by India’s Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, had in 2018, approved the "acceptance of necessity (AoN) for the acquisition of NASAMS-II.

NASAMS-II is an upgraded version of the Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace/Raytheon National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and features new 3D mobile surveillance radars and 12 missile launchers for quicker reaction. The new air-defence system will eventually supplement the long-delayed indigenous two-tier ballistic missile defence (BMD) shield that is in an advanced stage of development by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

A NASAMS battery consists of up to 12 multi-missile launchers, each of which can carry six AIM-120-series advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAMs) or other surface-to-air missiles (SAMs); up to eight AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel X-band 3D radars; up to four Fire Distribution Centres (FDCs); and up to four MPS 500 electrooptical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor system vehicles.