In a serious setback to India’s missile programme, the defence services have told the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) – the organization that oversees all weapons being developed in India that the Trishul missile does not meet its requirements and is unacceptable in its current form.
This is a missile project that has taken the DRDO almost 19 years to develop and several crore rupees have been spent on it.
NDTV has learnt that armed forces have categorically told the DRDO that the Trishul is completely unacceptable due to its basic design flaws. Its target guidance system is reported to have serious flaws and scientists have been unable to integrate the missiles with its carrier.
The Army was supposed to hold trials of the Trishul early this year but the DRDO had said it was not ready and has asked for the trials to be postponed.
Speaking to NDTV, a spokesperson in the Ministry of Defence confirmed that there are problems but added that, “there may be some inadequacy in trials but the project is on. It does not mean the project has been shelved.”
The INS Brahmaputra still has no anti-aircraft missiles because of delays in the Trishul system. The Trishul was initially scheduled for user trials in 1991 and ten years later it is nowhere near that.
This means that the services will soon have to start looking for other alternatives to fill the ever-growing missile gap.
