Aero India 2025: DRDO develops hard-kill active protection system
India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is developing a new hard-kill active protection system (APS) for integration onto main battle tanks (MBTs), DRDO officials told Janes at the Aero India 2025 show in Bangalore.
According to the officials, the APS consists of four X-band radars and two traversable effector launchers, each equipped with two anti-threat munitions.
The APS would feature radar panels fitted on each side of the turret to provide 360° coverage. On top of the turret, two tube-based launchers would be mounted, each covering 180°, with a maximum elevation of 90°. The entire system is intended to ensure complete hemispherical coverage.
The APS can detect threats from various types of rounds – including fin-stabilised armour-piercing discarding sabot (FSAPDS), high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT), high-explosive squash head (HESH), rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), and anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) munitions – and neutralise them using a blast warhead at 20–50 m from the MBT.
The officials also said the system can detect small and micro unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at a range of 2 km.
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There are two Indian companies building an Active Protection System with DRDO.
Astra Microwave
CoreEL technologies
This development is the result of a tender released in 2022 by CVRDE and LRDE labs of DRDO.
TBRL was working on a multi EFP based warhead for Active Protection System.
This system is intended for the future Indian Main Battle Tank project (NGMBT).
