DRDO’s New Shoulder-Fired Missile Ready for the Army
India has just made a major military breakthrough. The Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) on Monday, January 12, 2026, successfully tested a brand new anti-tank missile that soldiers can carry on their shoulders and fire on enemy tanks.
DRDO’s New Shoulder-Fired Missile is Ready for the Army
India has just made a major military breakthrough. The Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) on Monday, January 12, 2026, successfully tested a brand new anti-tank missile that soldiers can carry on their shoulders and fire on enemy tanks. This is no ordinary missile; It is a “fire and forget” weapon, meaning that you launch it and the missile finds and destroys the target on its own. You don’t need to redirect manually.
Think of it like an arrow seeking heat. The soldier targets an enemy tank, fires the missile, and can immediately take cover or move to another position. The missile does the rest of the work. Using its heat sensors, it locks on to the tank and flies directly towards it. What makes this even smarter is that the missile attacks from above and hits the roof, the thinnest and most vulnerable part of the tank. Tank designers made the front and sides very thick to protect against direct hits, but since the tank needs to move, they can’t make the top that heavy. This missile exploits this weakness.
Its official name is Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile, or MPATGM for short. “Portable man” simply means that one soldier can carry it, unlike older anti-tank weapons that needed vehicles or more than one person to move. This gives infantry soldiers fighting on foot a powerful weapon against armored vehicles without requiring heavy equipment.
The missile uses various advanced technologies, all developed in India. The infrared homing imaging seeker is like night vision goggles for the missile. It detects the heat signature of a tank’s engine and metal hull, creating a thermal image that helps the missile track its target even in complete darkness or through smoke. This means that Indian soldiers can effectively use this weapon in both daytime combat and night operations.
The fire control system is the brain of the operation. It’s essentially a complex computer that a soldier uses to identify a target, measure how far away it is, calculate how fast it’s moving, and determine the best moment to fire. When the soldier pulls the trigger, the all-electric control system kicks in and makes small adjustments to the missile’s flight path to ensure it stays on course. The tandem warhead is particularly ingenious; It uses two separate explosive charges. The first explosive detonates, breaking the tank’s reactive armor or outer protective layer, and the second explosive detonates immediately afterward, destroying the tank itself.
During testing, the missile successfully hit a moving tank at a maximum range of 4,000 meters (4 kilometers, or approximately 2.5 miles). This distance is crucial because it means soldiers can destroy enemy tanks by staying far enough away from the tank’s own weapons.
This weapon system was primarily developed by DRDO’s Defense Research and Development Laboratory in Hyderabad, but represents a true team effort across India. Other DRDO centers contributed critical components: Research Center Imarat in Hyderabad provided advanced guidance systems, Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratory in Chandigarh worked on warhead effectiveness, High Energy Materials Research Laboratory in Pune developed the propellant, and Instrumentation Research and Development Establishment in Dehradun created sensitive sensors.
To properly test the missile, the Defense Laboratory created a custom thermal target system that mimics the heat signatures of real tanks, allowing researchers to conduct realistic practice runs without destroying real military vehicles.
Now that the tests are complete, two major Indian defense companies (Bharat Dynamics Limited and Bharat Electronics Limited) will produce the missile in large quantities for the Indian Army. This is a significant step towards “Atmanirbhar Bharat” or self-reliant India in defense technology, reducing dependence on expensive foreign weapons.
Defense Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the DRDO team and industry partners and said that this was a proud moment for India’s defense capabilities. DRDO Director Dr Samir V. Kamat confirmed that the successful trial paved the way for the Indian Army to officially add this weapon to its arsenal.
This indigenous anti-tank missile represents years of research, collaboration between multiple Indian institutions and commitment to developing cutting-edge military technology in the country. For India’s armed forces, this is a game-changing weapon that makes infantry units significantly more lethal against armored threats.
(Disclaimer: The views expressed above belong to the author and do not reflect the views of DNA)
(Girish Linganna is an award-winning science communicator and Defense, Aerospace and Geopolitical Analyst. He is the Managing Director of ADD Engineering Components India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany)
