Javelin

Photo Credits : Lockheed Martin

Most of you might be wondering what those guys are doing in the wild. On seeing the pic for the first time, i thought this must be the next generation of US/Israel's Binoculars or Communication gadgets used in warfare. But later on after visiting LM's site and reading about the Javelin system, I came to know that Javelin is "a single man-portable fire-and-forget medium-range antitank weapon system designed to defeat all known and projected threat armor from Lockheed Martin" .

Rocket Launchers have always fascinated me from time immemorial. I have always loved the sight of the rockets gushing out of the launchers placed on the shoulders of heroes(Arnold/Stallone) shown in Hollywood movies. It is the sheer fire-power that these things have. I feel rocket launchers are far better when compared to grenades ,pistols or rifles as the 'destructive' power of the former is far greater than the latter.

Also, with the advancement in technology and the concept of 'fire-and-forget' creeping into warfare system, it becomes mandatory that the soldiers have reliable 'things' in their repository which they can resort to.

I happened to see the indegenously built Pinaka Multiple Rocket Launcher System (MRLS) in this year's(2006) Republic day Parade. I dont why, but for some reason this impressed me a lot.
I am not sure how the Pinaka MRLS can stand against Javelin or any other equivalent system designed by the Israelis, but presume Pinaka comes under a different genre of its own in the Missile defense System.

I point worthy of mention over here is the fact that the Pinaka System was commpletely built in India :-). Though this(Pinaka) has taken almost a decade to design and crores spent on R&D and be sent for production, but the still we are proud of it.