The development of Surface-to-Air Missile for Assured Retaliation, the SAMAR Air Defence System has been completed by the Indian Air Force and the system has entered initial production phase, the IAF told Janes at Aero India 2023 in Bengaluru.
An IAF official said, the first batch of five SAMAR systems is ready to be delivered to the Indian Air Force’s Missile Unit and further orders are also expected.
SAMAR is a quick reaction surface-to-air missile system developed by IAF’s 7 Base Repair Depot (BRD) and 11 BRD in partnership with Simran Flowtech Industries and Yamazuki Denki.
The SAMAR system uses the IAF’s existing inventory of shelf-life-expired Russian Vympel R-73 infrared‐guided air-to-air missiles for the surface-to-air role. The shelf-life-expired units are refurbished before being integrated into a launch platform and firing circuits, which were developed by the IAF. The system uses an indigenous Ashok Leyland multi-axle vehicle mounted with a set of refurbished R-73 air-to-air missiles on rail launchers.
According to the IAF official, the SAMAR system completed 17 test-firings before entering production. The system is credited with a maximum range of 10–12 km and is used against low-flying aerial targets.