..:: India Strategic ::. IAF: India tests Astra BVRAAM Successfully for a 3rd time

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Editorial

India tests Astra BVRAAM Successfully for a 3rd time

Published : June 2014

Goa. India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has tested the indigenous Astra Beyond visual Range Air-ro-Air Missile (BVRAAM) for a third time successfully from an Indian Air Force (IAF) Su-30 MKI aircraft.

According to an official statement, the missile, code-named Astra (meaning weapon in Hindi), was fired from the aircraft June 20 from a naval range off Goa on India's western seaboard in the Arabian Sea. Pictures and video of the test were released to the press. This was the second test this month, the earlier being on June 9.

Before that, a similar test was conducted on May 4 at the same location.

While India is likely to buy the European Meteor BVRAAM as part of the Rafale Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) as and when that deal goes through, the Astra would be fitted on both the Su 30 MKIs and Light Combat aircraft (LCA) variants that DRDO and HAL are developing for IAF and the Indian Navy.

India's top missile scientist Dr Avinash Chander, who is Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister and Director General, DRDO, attributed the continuing success of the development trials to the joint efforts by DRDO and Indian Air Force working together as team. He congratulated the scientists as well as the Air Force Test team from IAF's Aircraft Systems and Testing Establishment (ASTE) for carrying out the trials despite the heavy monsoons in the west coast.

ASTE, located in Bangalore in southern India, is IAF's highly respected test pilots school operated by its Top Guns. They certify every aircraft, when it is purchased, and when it is refurbished with new systems.

According to the statement: The latest test was conducted on 20th Jun 2014 from over 6 km altitude. It was a control and guidance flight which successfully demonstrated interception of an electronically simulated target at long range. Both tests, today's test and earlier launch on 09th June 2014 conducted to demonstrate the aerodynamic characteristics of the missile, have demonstrated the repeatability, robustness and endurance capability of Astra BVR-AAM as a weapon system.

The range of the missile was not disclosed.

Dr VG Sekaran, Director General of DRDO's Missiles and Strategic Systems (MSS), observed that “the continuous success of Astra development trials is a confirmation of the maturity of DRDO in air-to-air missile design and implementation” while Project Director Dr.S Venugopal said that the air-launch trials of Astra "are going on as scheduled with the full support of Air Force and will meet all performance requirements of the IAF."