HAL-manufactured Rudra attack gunship firing HELINA anti-tank missile
According to the report, the army is in the process of integrating HELINA missiles on the weaponised variant of the advanced light helicopter (ALH) Rudra.
Once the integration is complete, production will commence. The integration of this eight-kilometre range missile is expected to begin next year.
Both missiles are guided by an advanced imaging infra-red seeker, operating in both the ‘lock-on before launch’ and ‘lock-on-after-launch’ modes, making them some of the world’s most advanced anti-tank weapons.
They are capable of defeating armoured targets, including tanks, at ranges of 7-8 kilometres.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation, in 2022, conducted successful flight tests at Pokhran weapon testing range, as part of user validation trials.
Both the missiles were also tested from a high altitude range in eastern Ladakh, where the missile successfully demonstrated its capability to destroy simulated tank targets.
The HELINA and Dhruvastra missiles are helicopter-launched variants of Nag missile, which is a fire-and-forget, third-generation ATGM, with an operational range of up to 4 km, equipped with a tandem high-explosive anti-tank warhead.
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