Helina Trials Completes, Anti Drone Pump Action Guns, AL Qaeda Hawk Air Defence System

Anti-Tank Missile Helina Completes All Trials

The Air Force had asked for the feasibility of integrating the Helina on the Light Combat Helicopter.

The helicopter launched Naag Anti Tank Guided Missile (ATGM), Helina, being developed indigenously, has completed all trials and the process for issuing of Acceptance of Necessity by the Army has started.

The launcher and missile are ready. Each missile was expected to cost under 1 crore rupees, and around 500 missiles and 40 launchers would be required initially.

Some firing trials would be done from the first production lot by the Army at a later stage.

Helina is a third-generation fire and forget class ATGM mounted on an indigenous Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), and has a minimum range of 500 metres and a maximum range of 7 kilometres. All issues with the minimum range had been sorted out and the integration with other weapons on the platform was over.

Al-Qaeda Linked Jihadists Now Have American Hawk Air Defence Systems — Thanks To Turkey

Turkey has reportedly escalated its efforts to strengthen jihadist air defences with the transfer of at least three batteries of American made MIM 23 Hawk systems.

The Hawk is widely considered obsolete and dates back to 1960 in its service, with the modernised Improved Hawk variant thought to be in the Turkish arsenal having entered service from 1972.

Considering strict restrictions on the use of its air defence equipment, Turkey may have requested US permission to transfer the missile systems to the militants under its protection. The Improved Hawk has a 45km engagement range and could pose a threat particularly to older Syrian aircraft such as the MiG-21 Bison or MiG-23 Bison which have older electronic warfare countermeasures to disrupt the radar guided missiles.

Although these aircraft are capable of flying above the maximum engagement altitude of the Hawk system, this would significantly reduce the precision of their strikes. More modern aircraft, such as Russia’s Sukhoi-34 strike jets, could be deployed to suppress enemy air defences to pave the way for safer strikes by lower end Syrian fighters. The Hawk system nevertheless represents a major improvement to militant air defences and a considerable escalation.

Security Forces Use Pump Action Guns To Kill Low Flying Drones

Security forces that guard vital installations, airports and even their own camps have been directed to use rubber bullets bearing pump action guns to neutralise low flying drones till an appropriate technology is found to thwart such aerial attacks.

Also, forces like the Border Security Force (BSF) have recently installed an improvised iron pole mounted light machine gun (LMG) observation post at some of its border deployments against Pakistan to take a 360 degrees aim and shoot down drones or unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs flying at a high altitude.

A latest blueprint prepared by central security agencies to counter the emerging drone threat has been reviewed and it directs security forces to use Pump Action Guns that are already available in their armoury for neutralising any low flying UAVs.

Following the directive, the central forces deployed for internal security have begun allocating Pump Action Guns to their units vulnerable to drone threats, including those deployed for anti-naxal operations.