New Delhi, December 26
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is all set to acquire a squadron-strength of the indigenously developed Akash surface-to-air missile.

Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major, said, “We will soon begin the process of inducting the Akash.” Fali was talking on the sidelines of a function where he installed a time capsule of all the coverage relating to the just concluded platinum jubilee celebrations of the force had been preserved for the next 25 years.

“The user trials have just concluded. We are awaiting the report on this, after which we shall initiate the process of inducting a squadron-strength of the missile,” the Air Chief Marshal said. However, it was not clear how many of the missiles would eventually be inducted.

A squadron strength would mean that the IAF would deploy 16 to 18 batteries of the missile that could engage targets at a height of 25 km.
The IAF completed the final user trials of the Akash earlier this month with the missile successively achieving the target on five occasions spread over 10 days.

Incidentally, Fali indicated he was not too happy 
with the system that had been in development for almost two decades.

He said the IAF was in the process of completing price negotiations for 80 additional Mi-17-1V medium lift helicopters of the kind it already operates, as also six C-130J Super Hercules heavy lift transport aircraft.

The time capsule installed today builds on the ones installed in 1982 and 1992 to respectively mark the golden and diamond jubilees of the IAF. All three capsules would be opened in 2032 in the centenary year of the force.

It contains both digital and hard copy versions of the IAF’s activities in the past 15 years in a pressurised nitrogen environment, encased in a stainless steel shell.