DRDO successfully flight tests Air-to-Air Missile Astra from Su-30 MKI

Defence Research and Development Orgsation (DRDO) has successfully flight tested the Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) 'Astra' from Su-30 MKI platform off the coast of Chandipur in Odisha.

The trails were held between September 16-19 which were conducted by Indian Air Force (IAF) against Jet Banshee target aircraft simulating all possible threat scenarios, Ministry of Defence said in an official statement on Thursday.

The five trials conducted during this period tested missiles in different configurations.

The statement said that during the trial campaign, three missiles were launched in combat configuration with warhead, and manoeuvring targets were neutralised to establish the end game capability of the missile.

"The five successful trials of Astra will culminate into the induction of the missile system into Indian Air Force, which will certainly be a force multiplier considering its accuracy and effectiveness in neutralizing aerial threats," the ministry said.

The present flight trials have proved the end-to-end performance of the missile system in various combat scenarios giving greater confidence to users.

The trial campaign also included a direct hit of the target by the telemetered missile at maximum range.

"All the subsystems performed accurately meeting all the mission parameters and objectives," the ministry added.

Astra BVRAAM has a range of more than 100 km with modern guidance and navigation techniques. The missile has mid-course guidance and RF seeker based terminal guidance to achieve target destruction with pinpoint accuracy.

The effort for building a state-of-the-art BVRAAM by DRDO, together with IAF has completed the user trial phase of the weapon system successfully.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has played a role in modifying the aircraft for weapon integration. More than 50 public and private industries have contributed to building the Astra weapon system.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and DRDO Chairman G Satheesh Reddy congratulated DRDO and IAF teams for the successful trials and for developing and flight testing such a formidable class of weapon system.

"The technologies developed under the programme will be the building blocks for the development of future variants of Air-to-Air and Surface-to-Air Missiles," he said.

( With inputs from ANI )