link : With Final Tests, India’s Crucial ASTRA Air-To-Air Missile Nears Finish Line
With Final Tests, India’s Crucial ASTRA Air-To-Air Missile Nears Finish Line
One of India’s most ambitious and challenging missile projects, the ASTRA (Sanskrit for ‘weapon’) beyond visual range air-to-air missile has entered a final round of trial launches ahead of service with the Indian Air Force. With over 20 The missile was fired today in a fully guided mode at a maneouvering aerial target drone. With over 20 aerial tests since it was first fired from an IAF Su-30 MKI in May 2014, the weapon is to be tested a handful more times before being handed over to the Indian Air Force for a cycle of user trials before induction into service.
As Livefist reported earlier this year, the Astra has been tested since September last with an Indian Ku-band seeker developed by the DRDO’s Research Center Imarat (RCI) in Hyderabad. Seekers are sensory
With an operational range understood to be in the area of 110 km in some firing configurations, the Astra qualifies as a beyond visual range weapon. Comparable air-to-air missiles currently in IAF inventory include the MBDA MICA, Rafael Derby and Vympel R-77. The Indian Air Force’s new Rafale jets that begin arriving in September next year will come armed with the longest range weapon of its kind, the MBDA Meteor, which sports a range in excess of 300 km in some firing configurations.
‘India has attained a high level of capability in the indigenous design and development of advanced weapon systems,’ Indian defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said today shortly after the successful Astra missile test. The Su-30 MKI fired the Astra over open ocean after taking off from the Kalaikunda air base in country’s east.
In a statement, the MoD said, ‘The missile successfully engaged a manoeuvring target with high precision meeting the mission objectives. In the series of trials held to date, Astra has been launched in the complete Su-30 flight envelope. The flight test assumes significance as it was part of the series of final pre-induction trials.’
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