Tank Biathlon 2015 - India reached semi-finals
The semifinal of "Tank Biathlon" Championship took place at the Alabino firing range near Moscow on August 13. Two tournaments were held in which 8 teams who reached the semifinal participated.
India, Kazakhstan, Serbia and Armenia participated in the 1st tournament with green, red, blue and yellow tanks respectively while Tajikistan, Russia, China and Kyrgyzstan participated in the 2nd tournament with green, red, blue and yellow tanks respectively.
Results of the semifinal is being awaited. The 4 best crews will compete in the final that will take place on August 15.
Pinaka Mk-II user trials
The user-trials of the much-awaited Pinaka II, a complete multi-barrel rocket launcher (MBRL) system with a range of 60 kilometres wil take place at Jaislamer in December.
The range of Pinaka II is 20 kilometres more than Pinaka I version which has already been inducted into the armed forces. It has gone into manufacturing stage and shall be manufactured in large numbers to be delivered to the Indian Army by December.
The ‘in-house’ or ‘technical trials’ had been completed in two phases. The first phase was conducted in Balasore for checking the range and the second one at Pokhran for checking the accuracy and consistency. The performance levels were very encouraging. The ‘submunition warheads’ which have been successfully tested for Pinaka I in Pokhran field firing range during June last week this year, shall be used in Pinaka II which is going to act as a force-multiplier while supplementing the artillery guns as well.
Meanwhile, work has started on the ‘guided’ version of Pinaka.