Apollo Micro Systems (AMS) has been selected by the Indian Air Force as a key partner to develop the Indigenous Precision Range Extension Kit (IPREK), a defence technology programme aimed at improving the range and accuracy of weapons.
The selection is under the Make-II category of India’s Defence Acquisition Procedure 2020, where companies fund and develop defence equipment on their own before supplying it to the armed forces.
The firm announced that more than 500 IPREK units would be supplied in the initial procurement phase.
The firm stated that its product, the IPREK, is a bolt-on precision guidance and range extension kit that provides long-range precision glide capabilities to India’s existing inventory of General Purpose (GP) 500 Kg unguided bombs.
The company claims that the IPREK would allow India to convert its existing bomb inventory into a precision standoff capability at a fraction of the cost of procuring new imported precision weapons.
According to the release, munitions upgraded using IPREK extend their deployment range of 80–100 kilometres away and maintain a strike precision of 3 metres of its intended target, which the press release claims would allow carrier-borne aircraft to conduct missions beyond the operational range of most air defence systems.
“Precision standoff capability would act as force-multiplier: A weapon that can be released from 100 km away keeps the carrier aircraft and crew safe from air defences, fundamentally changing mission planning and risk calculus,” states the press release.
"The IPREK integrates India's indigenous NavIC (IRNSS) satellite navigation making it one of the first weapon systems in the world to use the Indian satellite constellation at its core. It also incorporates Electro-Optical (EO) and Infrared (IIR) terminal guidance for day/night precision, and DSMAC (Digital Scene Matching) terminal guidance for GPS-denied operations, claims the company in its announcement," states the company in its press release.
“The Indian Air Force's selection of Apollo Micro Systems as a Development Agency for IPREK is one of the most defining moments in our company's history. We have spent decades building the indigenous capability to win a programme like this guidance systems, electro-optical seekers, NavIC navigation, airborne certification. IPREK is the convergence of all of it into a single, sovereign capability that India is building for itself. We are not assembling imported kits. We are engineering a precision weapon from the ground up, on Indian soil, with Indian talent. I also want to acknowledge our long-standing collaboration with DRDO. The foundational knowledge they have shared with us over the years is embedded in everything we build. IPREK is an Atmanirbhar Bharat story, and Apollo is proud to be at its centre,” says Mr. Baddam Karunakar Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Micro Systems Limited
The firm further stated that it would own 100% of the intellectual property rights of IPREK GNC software, flight computer, and integration architecture and that the company further aims to integrate India's NavIC satellite navigation into an operational defence system.
