New Delhi, April 14 : India has conducted successful warhead flight trials of the indigenous Man Portable Anti-tank Guided Missile (MPATGM) weapon system at the Pokhran Field Firing Range, Rajasthan.

The missile and warhead performance was "remarkable" during the trial, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a statement on Sunday.

The MPATGM weapon system has been indigenously designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It has been field-evaluated in different flight configurations several times intending to prove the technology with high superiority. The system consisted of the MPATGM, Launcher, Target Acquisition System, and the Fire Control Unit.

An MoD official informed that an adequate number of missile firing trials have been successfully conducted towards achieving compliance with a complete operational envelope as stipulated in the general Staff Qualitative Requirements (Infantry, Indian Army) on Saturday.

Penetration trials of the Tandem Warhead System of MPATGM have been completed and it is found capable of defeating modern armour-protected Main Battle Tank, an official added.

The official further said that the ATGM system is well-equipped with day, night and top attack capability. Dual mode seeker functionality is a great value addition to the missile capability for tank warfare. With this, technology development and successful demonstration have been concluded and the system is now ready for the Final User Evaluation Trials leading towards its induction into the Indian Army.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has complimented the Defence Research Development Organisation and the Army for the successful trials of the system, terming it as an important step towards achieving self-reliance in advanced technology-based defence system development.

DRDO Chairman Samir V Kamat also congratulated the teams associated with the trials.

/IANS