Mission UNmanned Tracked or MUNTRA is unmanned version of BMP2 consisting of two different unmanned BMPs. Muntra B is the control vehicle from which Mantra S the unmanned surveillance vehicle is controlled. The system has an indigenous Battle Field Surveillance Radar (BFSR), day/night camera, thermal imaging camera and a laser range finder. A variety of targets can be tracked from ranges 50m to 12km.
The MUNTRA is a very interesting concept, one that I can see several uses for. But I wonder what prompted them to put it on a BMP chassis, though. All that armour is next to useless and could in fact turn out to be a liability. The only reason I can think of is that they wanted a readymade tracked vehicle chassis on which they could mount all they fancy toys and prove the concept quickly, instead of being encumbered by the need to design a new vehicle in parallel.
BMP has been modified quite a bit already. Last year we saw it with 105mm gun, this year a wheeled variant was on display. Seems like Indian designers are quite comfortable with the vehicle. As you can see, there is lots of empty space left and they can probably put that to good use. Maybe they can try to decrease armour for savings in weight but if it works, why fix it.
mihir, at this point BMP is a testbed for any and every new development. as jj says they are very comfortable with it. as we induct other IFV’s the tech will be ported to those platforms.
Leave a Reply