Akash SAM ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- Unknown) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz Stefan-Gady Yesterday, the Indian Army inducted the Akash mid-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system after a wait of 32 years, IBNLive reported. The Akash (“Sky”) is an indigenously designed medium-range mobile surface-to-air missile defense system, whose surface-to-air supersonic missiles (armed with 60 kg high-explosive, pre-fragmented warheads) can engage aerial targets up to a distance of 25 km and at altitudes up to 18 km. According to the developers (the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization, the Ordnance Factories Board, and Bharat Electronics), the new weapon is a multi-target, multi-directional, all weather air-defense system and can provide air defense missile coverage for an area of 2,000 square km. The army version of the SAM system consists “of surveillance and tracking radars, control centers and ground support systems mounted on h