New Delhi, July 28: Nearly 30 per cent of the indigenous Akash missiles tested so far were found to be defective, the Comptroller and Auditor General noted in its report tabled before the Parliament on Friday. The national auditor described the surface-to-air missiles as deficient, which would “pose operational risk in case of hostilities”.
The missiles, manufactured by state-run Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), were procured at a cost of Rs 3,619 crores. A total of 80 missiles were supplied to the Indian forces till November, 2014. Among them, 20 were test-fired till April, 2015. Six of these missiles that is 30 per cent, failed the test,” the CAG said.
As the failure rate of the sample tested was as high as 30 percent, action needs to be taken to establish the reliability of factory acceptance test of the remaining missiles, the audit report said. “The missiles fell short of the target, had lower than the required velocity, and there was malfunctioning of critical units,” it further added.
