After two consecutive failures in the user trial of the Air Force version missile Akash this week, the weapon was successfully test-fired on Saturday.
The indigenously-developed surface-to-air Akash was fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near Baleswar. The missile was test-fired twice in quick succession from the launch Complex-3 of the ITR, first at 11.54 am and secondly at 11.59 am after the Pilotless Target Aircraft (PTA) 'lakshya', took off at 11.42 am.
Describing both the trials as 'fully successful', ITR Director MKV Prasad said the whole exercise was carried out as part of a user trial by the Indian Air Force.Akash is a medium range surface-to-air anti-aircraft defence system developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.
While the Air-force version has already been inducted, the Army version is in the final stage, they said.The missile has a strike range of 27 km and can carry a warhead of 60 kilograms. It has the capability to target aircraft up to 30 km away and is packed with a battery that can track and attack several targets simultaneously, they said.
With the capability to neutralise aerial targets like fighter jets, cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles, Defence experts compare Akash to the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system of the USA.