Why the Indian anti-tank missile Helina is so lethal

India on Monday successfully test-fired the anti-tank guided missile Helina from an indigenous helicopter. In the test conducted at Jaisalmer's Pokhran firing range, Helina destroyed the simulated tank. The range of this missile is up to 7 km and is capable of carrying 8 kg of explosives with it and makes for an excellent strike missile.

Helina has been designed and developed indigenously by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The flight trials were conducted from the indigenously-developed advanced light helicopter (ALH). A joint team of Indian Army and Indian Air Force were present along with scientists of Defence Research and Development (DRDO). 

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the DRDO and the Indian Army for the maiden achievement through joint work.

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Speciality of the missile

Helina or helicopter-based Nag is a third generation, 'lock-on before launch', fire-and-forget missile that can engage targets both in direct hit mode as well as top attack mode.

It has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad under the Missiles and Strategic Systems (MSS) cluster of the DRDO.

The missile is guided by an infrared imaging seeker, which works in lock on mode before launch. Helina is one of the world's most advanced anti-tank guided missiles.

A Helina missile weighs around 45 kg, is 6 feet in length and 7.9 inches in diameter. Helina can engage targets both in direct hit mode as well as top attack mode.

The missile system has all-weather day and night capability and can defeat battle tanks with conventional armour as well as with explosive reactive armour.

The helicopter-launched version of the Nag anti-tank guided missile has a hit range of seven to eight kilometers and is developed for integration on weaponised version of the ALH.

The biggest feature of this missile is the ability to change the target even after launch. The target was changed after the Helina missile was launched during the test on Monday

The missile successfully destroyed the changed target. In this way the Helina missile demonstrated its ability to hit a suddenly changed target while in flight.

Earlier on July 13, 2015, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited had conducted three tests of Helina missile from Rudra helicopter at Chandhan firing range of Jaisalmer. 

This missile succeeded in hitting 2 targets at a distance of 7 km. As per DRDO, Dhruvastra Helina is the third generation 'Launch and Forget' Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM).