DRDO with its recent success in getting orders worth Rs 23,300-crore from Indian air force and Indian army for its Akash SAM ,is currently working on a improved Mark-II version of the surface to air missile and will have its first flight test by end of 2012 .
Akash Mark-II version will carry Minor critical improvement over Mark-1 variant and will not be a completely new missile , DRDO for this reason has not asked for any additional funding from the center for this improvement . New MK-2 will have better accuracy and will also be little faster then the current variant.
Mark-2 variant will also will have faster reaction time to cover the threat and will have an minor extended range to the missile which will be 10 to 12 km improvement over the Mark-1 variant . Mark-2 variant will be replacing old soviet union acquired SA-3 GOA (Pechora) SAM systems.
India’s plans to fortify North Eastern border area with China by installing Akash MK-1 close to the border there , DRDO expects Air force and Army will order more of Akash MK-1 and MK-2 SAM batteries to cover lot of non covered area in North east and western Borders .
DRDO still has not proposed any longer range variant of SAM yet , but Barak-8 which DRDO is developing jointly with Israelis for the Indian Navy might have a Land based variant to cover this requirement in future .
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