Javelin | An icon of modern warfare
India has moved to acquire the FGM-148 Javelin, a shoulder-fired anti-tank guided missile system used by the United States Army and Marine Corps as a standard infantry brigade combat team weapon.
The Indian Army signed an agreement under the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route in late August 2026 to procure Javelin launch units and missiles, following in-principle clearance from the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC).
The deal, reported to be a relatively small emergency procurement, is intended to plug immediate anti-tank capability gaps along India's borders while broader indigenous alternatives are matured.
Separately, discussions have opened between the Javelin manufacturing consortium and an Indian private defence company to explore local final assembly and integration, aligned with India's defence indigenisation push.
Fire-and-Forget Guided Munitions and the Javelin's Design
The Javelin is a man-portable, "fire-and-forget" anti-tank guided missile, jointly developed by two American defence manufacturers, that uses an infrared seeker to autonomously track and strike an armoured target after launch, letting the operator relocate immediately without maintaining a line-of-sight lock — unlike older wire-guided or laser-beam-riding anti-tank systems that require the operator to keep tracking the target throughout the missile's flight.
Key Details
- The Javelin uses a "top-attack" trajectory, arcing over the target and striking the thinner top armour of a tank, where protection is weakest, in addition to a direct-attack mode for bunkers and fortifications.
- Its warhead is a tandem-charge High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) design: a precursor charge defeats reactive armour, and a main charge penetrates the base armour behind it.
- Effective range is roughly 2,500–4,750 metres depending on the command launch unit configuration, with a missile weight of about 22.3 kg ready-to-fire.
India's evaluation of the Javelin as a man-portable anti-tank system is precisely the sort of system UPSC uses to test the distinction between generations of anti-tank guided missiles (wire-guided vs. fire-and-forget vs. top-attack) and their relative battlefield advantages.
India's Defence Procurement Process: DAC to Contract
Major defence acquisitions in India follow a structured, multi-stage approval chain, beginning with the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) — the apex Ministry of Defence body headed by the Raksha Mantri, set up in 2001 on the recommendations of the Kargil Review Committee-based Group of Ministers to eliminate acquisition delays exposed during the Kargil War.
The Javelin's clearance "in principle" by the DAC and its routing through the US FMS mechanism (rather than an open global tender) reflects the emergency, capability-gap-driven procurement track available within India's standard defence acquisition framework.
Indigenisation Push: "Buy & Make" and the Make in India Defence Push
India's defence procurement policy increasingly favours indigenous design, development, and manufacture (IDDM) over straight imports, with import categories treated as a stop-gap rather than the preferred route, especially since the government's push for defence self-reliance ("Atmanirbhar Bharat" in defence).
Key Details
- India has also been developing an indigenous Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM), a fire-and-forget system with imaging infrared guidance, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
- The exploratory memorandum of understanding between the Javelin manufacturing consortium and an Indian private company for local final assembly and integration reflects the "Buy & Make (Indian)" template of pairing an initial import with subsequent domestic production.
- Emergency procurement powers, distinct from the standard multi-year DAC process, allow the armed forces to fast-track limited-quantity purchases to address urgent operational shortfalls.
India's Javelin acquisition is explicitly framed as filling a near-term capability gap while indigenous options such as the DRDO's MPATGM mature, and the parallel local-assembly discussion shows the acquisition is being structured to eventually transition toward domestic manufacture.
- System: FGM-148 Javelin, man-portable anti-tank guided missile, jointly developed by two US defence manufacturers.
- Missile specifications: approx. 22.3 kg ready-to-fire weight, 1.1 m length, 127 mm diameter; effective range roughly 2,500–4,750 m.
- Warhead type: tandem-charge HEAT (High-Explosive Anti-Tank) with top-attack and direct-attack modes.
- Procurement route: US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme; agreement signed in late August 2026.
- Approving body: Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), established 2001 following the Kargil Review Committee/Group of Ministers recommendations.
- Indigenous parallel programme: DRDO's Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM), a fire-and-forget system with imaging infrared seeker.