The final flight trials of Astra, a Beyond Visual Range Air to Air Missile (BVRAAM), were successfully conducted off Chandipur coast between September 11 and 14. A total of seven trials were conducted against Pilotless Target Aircrafts (PTA).
“The missions included engagement of target at very long range, engagement of high manoeuvring target at medium range and multiple launches of missiles in salvo to engage multiple targets. All the sub-systems performed accurately, meeting all the mission parameters and objectives. Two missiles were also launched in the combat configuration with warhead and the targets were neutralised,” a defence Press release said.
The effort for building a state-of-the-art BVRAAM by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), together with the Indian Air Force (IAF) has completed the development phase of the weapon system successfully. The Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAl) has played a role in modifying the aircraft for weapon integration. More than 50 public and private industries have contributed in building the Astra weapon system.
Programme Director Dr S Venugopal led the launch operations and flight trials along with the teams from multiple organisations.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman congratulated the DRDO, the IAF Air Force, the Defence Public Sector Undertaking (DPSU) and the industries for the successful trials of the Astra missile.
DRDO Chairman and Department of Defence (R&D) Secretary Dr S Christopher congratulated the ‘Team Astra” for developing and flight-testing such a formidable class of weapon system.
Director General, Missiles and Strategic Systems Dr G Satheesh Reddy said the technologies developed under the programme will pave way for development of more variants of air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles.