In 1974 officer was selected to attend a long gunnery staff course at School of Artillery Devlali. It was here loving daughter Namita was born on 31 Dec 1974 (More about Namita later). On completion of the course the officer had a tenure in an active unit at Delhi. While at Delhi the officer got selected to undergo a missile course in the erstwhile USSR. Maj SP Malhotra was the first Indian army officer to launch a medium range air defensce missile in the year 1977. He holds record of 100% hits to his credit.

On return to India, post the course he joined a prestigious missile unit located at Delhi . aAfter a successful tenure in thea prestigious missile unit, in 1980 the officer was promoted to the rank of Lt Col and posted as Ccommanding Oofficer of a unit located in Jorhat in East India. This was the – only Aair Ddefensce unit located east of New Delhi .