The Indian Army is planning to procure a large number of Javelin anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) from the US to address a shortfall of about 44,000 ATGMs in its inventory.

The exact number of Javelin systems to be ordered under the US foreign military sales (FMS) programme has not been decided, though it could be in the thousands.

Indian Defence Minister AK Antony said the letter of request, along with transfer of technology for the procurement of the third-generation ATGM, would be issued to the US Government.

Indian infantry units are equipped with variants of the second-generation 2km-range Milan and 4km-range Konkurs ATGMs, and the third-generation Nag ATGM with a 4km strike range, according to the Times of India.

The Indian Army has ordered 4,100 advanced Milan-2T missiles fitted with tandem warheads and 15,000 Konkurs-M missiles over the last couple of years.