India completes Akash-NG user trials and fires Pralay in salvo, both cleared for 2026 induction

Summary

India closed December 2025 with back-to-back missile milestones. On 23 December, DRDO's Akash-NG surface-to-air missile completed Final User Evaluation Trials before Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and senior officers from the Indian Air Force; the tests confirmed engagement range extended to approximately 50km via a dual-pulse solid rocket motor, up from the 25-35km of the legacy Akash-1S, and an active radar seeker that guides the missile autonomously without dependence on the ground-based launch-control radar. The active seeker means Akash-NG can engage multiple simultaneous targets in a jamming environment where Akash-1S would degrade. BDL and BEL are the production agencies. On 31 December, DRDO launched two consecutive Pralay quasi-ballistic missiles from Abdul Kalam Island (Wheeler Island, Odisha), demonstrating salvo-launch capability: both missiles flew separate quasi-ballistic trajectories, manoeuvring mid-course to complicate interception, over a range exceeding 500km. Pralay is solid-fuelled, road-mobile and launched from a TEL, filling the 150-500km surface-to-surface strike band that previously required BrahMos at significantly higher unit cost. Both systems are on the mid-2026 induction queue: an initial IAF Akash-NG squadron is targeted for activation, and Army Pralay regiments are expected to reach initial operational readiness before end of 2026. Akash-1S's combat record from Operation Sindoor in May 2025, when it contributed to India's layered air-defence response, strengthened the induction case for Akash-NG.

The split

Indian official and defence-industrial coverage (DD News, BharatShakti, IDRW) frames both milestones as confirmation of the Atmanirbhar Bharat indigenisation programme reaching strategic depth: India now manufactures its own interceptors and quasi-ballistic strike missiles without foreign supply chains. Policy commentary (InsightsOnIndia) notes the layering logic: Akash-NG at 50km plus MRSAM/Barak-8 at 70km plus S-400 at 400km gives India a vertically integrated air-defence stack, while Pralay at 500km plus BrahMos at 300-800km gives it a graduated strike ladder. Chinese state media (Global Times) reads the Pralay salvo specifically as a Pakistan-targeting development, noting that 500km range from forward positions covers Pakistani strategic sites and reaches portions of the Tibetan Plateau, and calls the dual-system milestone "destabilising."

By the numbers

• 50km, Akash-NG engagement range (up from 25-35km for Akash-1S).
• December 23 2025, Akash-NG Final User Evaluation Trials completed.
• December 31 2025, Pralay salvo-launch demonstration, two consecutive launches from Abdul Kalam Island.
• 500km+, Pralay range at standard configuration.
• Mid-2026, target date for initial IAF Akash-NG squadron.
• End-2026, target for Army Pralay regiments at initial operational readiness.

Why it matters

Akash-NG's active radar seeker closes the one vulnerability that made Akash-1S operationally limited: its dependence on a ground-based illuminator that could be jammed or targeted. A fully autonomous kill chain extending to 50km is qualitatively different from the legacy system. Pralay's salvo capability is the more strategically consequential development: single-battery point defences can intercept sequential missiles; a coordinated multi-launcher salvo forces a volume of simultaneous intercepts that current Pakistani and Chinese theatre defences cannot guarantee. At a unit cost estimated well below BrahMos, Pralay can be deployed in numbers that saturate rather than probe. Combined with Akash-NG's verified combat-adjacent record (Akash-1S in Operation Sindoor) and the MRSAM's confirmed intercept (see India-Israel elevated to Special Strategic Partnership after MRSAM's Sindoor combat debut), India now has a home-produced air-defence and surface-strike stack that reduces import dependence in the highest-demand mission sets.

What to watch

• IAF Akash-NG squadron activation timeline and whether the system is cleared for the Army Air Defence Corps as well.
• Army Pralay regiment deployment locations and whether they are forward-positioned in the Ladakh or Arunachal sectors.
• Export interest in Akash-NG following post-Sindoor attention to Indian air-defence systems (see India's defence exports hit Rs 38,424 crore in FY26, up 63% as Sindoor validates buyers).
• Whether Pralay's quasi-ballistic manoeuvrability is publicly quantified, which would affect arms-control notifications under India's commitment to the Hague Code of Conduct.
• DRDO's next development milestone: the Akash-2S (proposed 80km variant) and whether it enters the procurement pipeline.