Kavach (anti-missile system)

The Indian Navy previously procured chaff rocket systems from the Soviet Union. Supplies came to a halt following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) took up the challenge to design and develop a chaff rocket system to achieve self-reliance in this field.[1][2] OFB Director General and Chairman, D.M. Gupta, stated in May 2011 that the company had created two prototypes, successfully conducted the first trial, and would conduct a second and final trial later that year before the system was inducted into the Navy.[3]

The Kavach decoy system releases chaff made up of silver coated glass fiber. The chaff forms a clutter which remains suspended in the air, causing the incoming radar-guided missile to mistake the chaff for the actual target, and get locked onto the chaff instead of the actual target.[2] Each Kavach rocket costs around ₹6 lakh (US$7,500)–₹7 lakh (US$8,800).[1]

The Kavach system has chaff rockets of three different versions based on the range:[2]

• Long Range: 12 km (7.5 mi)
• Medium Range: 5 km (3.1 mi)
• Short Range: 1 km (0.62 mi)

These versions are fired in different situations based on incoming threats.[2]

The first batch of Kavach rockets were formally handed over to the Navy on 25 May 2012 by the Ammunition Factory Khadki (AFK), Pune which manufactures the rockets,[2] while the rocket launchers are manufactured at the Machine Tool Prototype Factory (MTPF), Mumbai.[4]

AFK was contracted to deliver around 4,000 Kavach variants to the Indian Navy by 2015.[1][5]

The first ship to be equipped with Kavach was the anti-submarine corvette INS Kamorta (P28).[6] Ship classes fitted with Kavach include:

•  Indian Navy
  • Kamorta-class corvettes
  • Kolkata-class destroyers
  • Shivalik-class frigates
  • Visakhapatnam-class destroyers