CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -By Manjeet Singh Sehgal: In a major move to boost domestic defence manufacturing, the government on Wednesday approved the export of indigenously-developed surface-to-air Akash missile system and set up a high-level committee to authorise the sale of major platforms to various countries.

Detailed explanation-2: -Akash is the first state-of-the-art indigenous surface-to-air missile system which has been with Armed Forces for nearly a decade defending the Indian skies and providing national security.

Detailed explanation-3: -There are nine countries, in turn, which have shown interest in the indigenously-developed Akash missile systems, which can intercept hostile aircraft, helicopters, drones and subsonic cruise missiles at a range of 25-km. They are Kenya, Philippines, Indonesia, UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Vietnam and Algeria.

Detailed explanation-4: -A new version of the Akash Missile – ‘Akash Prime’ has been successfully flight tested from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, Odisha on 27 September 2021. The missile intercepted and destroyed an unmanned aerial target mimicking enemy aircrafts, in its maiden flight test after improvements.