Indian Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on Tuesday inducted the first set of indigenously developed next-generation Armoured Engineer Reconnaissance Vehicle (AERV) and other equipment into the Corps of Engineers, at Bombay Engineering Group (BEG).
Speaking exclusively to ANI, the Army Chief General said, “The requirement of AERV was long felt especially for our armoured formations, strike cores, who are mainly operating on the Western border…This platform will speed up the process of reconnaissance which used to be done manually.”
“This development has been in partnership with DRDO and our engineers. This is a very good example of cooperation between the user and the industry. This is an ideal example of how we can go in for ‘Make in India’ solutions,” he added.
According to the Army Chief General, the AERVs will give a boost to operations especially on the western front.
The AERV system has been designed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by Ordnance Factory Medak and Bharat Electronics Limited, Pune.
As per an official statement from the Ministry of Defence, despite the various restrictions imposed by the COVID pandemic since the last one year, the supply of the vehicle to the Army has been on schedule.
“The vehicle is capable of carrying out reconnaissance of water obstacles and boggy patches for execution of engineer tasks with capabilities to carry out reconnaissance and provide real-time update to force commanders,” the ministry said.
“The system will enhance existing engineer reconnaissance capabilities of Indian Army and would be a major game-changer in support of mechanised operations in future conflicts,” the ministry added.