The Indian Army has received Solar Defence and Aerospace Ltd.’s Nagastra-2 loitering munition, an indigenous anti-armour system designed to combine surveillance and precision attacks. Developed by the Nagpur-based defense company, the platform reportedly offers armour penetration of up to 650 mm of Rolled Homogeneous Armour through its 4 kg tandem shaped-charge warhead. Day-and-night surveillance cameras support target detection and engagement across different operating conditions. Nagastra-2 successfully completed technical trials at the Mahajan Field Firing Range in August 2026, during which Army personnel reportedly witnessed the system’s operational and Electronic Counter-Countermeasures performance. It can stay airborne for as long as 60 minutes, allowing crews to search for targets before committing to an attack. Its range reaches 25 km in recover-and-reuse configuration and 50 km in fire-and-forget mode. The munition is also designed to withstand electronic warfare challenges, including communication interference, GPS jamming and spoofing attempts. Its delivery marks a further step in the Indian Army’s adoption of domestically developed loitering weapons, following the order for roughly 450 Nagastra-1R systems in 2025. The Nagastra-1R incorporates a reusable launcher, a 360-degree gimbal camera and optional thermal imaging for night operations. It also uses encrypted video and telemetry communications and reportedly achieves two-metre circular error probable accuracy. More than 80% indigenous content underscores the family’s contribution to India’s defense self-reliance efforts. Trials in Ladakh and Babina, near Jhansi, have exposed the systems to diverse terrain and weather conditions. With its reported armour-penetration performance, one-hour endurance and electronic-warfare countermeasures, Nagastra-2 expands the Army’s domestic options for precision attacks against armored targets.
