India on Friday successfully test fired Astra beyond visual air-to-air missile from Su-30 Mk-I aircraft off the coast of Odisha, demonstrating its indigenous defence capabilities. The missile has a range exceeding 100 km and is equipped with state-of-the art guidance and navigation system, officials said.
“The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully conducted the flight-test of indigenous beyond visual range air-to-air missile ‘Astra’ equipped with indigenous radio frequency seeker from Su-30 Mk-I platform,” the defence ministry said. Two launches were carried out against high-speed unmanned aerial targets at different ranges, target aspects and launch platform conditions, it said.
“In both the cases, the missiles destroyed the targets with pin-point accuracy,” the ministry said in a statement. It said all subsystems performed as per expectations including the radio frequency seeker which was designed and developed by the DRDO.
“The flawless performance of the Astra weapon system was validated through flight data captured by range tracking instruments deployed by Integrated Test Range, Chandipur,” it added.
