India’s first air-to-air ‘Astra’ missile is finally back on track after an excruciatingly long delay due to technical glitches.
The beyond visual range (BVR) missile, with an eventual strike range of over 100 km, will be fired for the first time from a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter this year.
The need for a cheap, indigenous air-to-air missile cannot be over-emphasized. Modern day air combat is increasingly becoming all about BVR combat, rather than the dogfights of yore, with missiles with ranges of over 40 km becoming the norm. But BVR missiles are quite complex since they have to destroy highly-agile supersonic fighters packed with “counter-measures’’ at long ranges. Only a handful of countries like the US, Russia, France and Israel have managed to develop them.
DRDO chief Avinash Chander admits there are major technical problems in development of the Astra BVR missile, which sometimes pose bigger challenges than even nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. “The missile was repeatedly failing since the aerodynamically controlled interactions were very severe,’’ he said.
“Finally, we changed the entire missile configuration. It has now undergone three successful ground trials. It then underwent captive flight trials in a Sukhoi-30MKI this April. We hope to actually fire it from a Sukhoi-30MKI by year-end,’’ said Chander. The aim is to make Astra ready for induction by mid-2015.
The beyond visual range (BVR) missile, with an eventual strike range of over 100 km, will be fired for the first time from a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter this year.
The need for a cheap, indigenous air-to-air missile cannot be over-emphasized. Modern day air combat is increasingly becoming all about BVR combat, rather than the dogfights of yore, with missiles with ranges of over 40 km becoming the norm. But BVR missiles are quite complex since they have to destroy highly-agile supersonic fighters packed with “counter-measures’’ at long ranges. Only a handful of countries like the US, Russia, France and Israel have managed to develop them.
DRDO chief Avinash Chander admits there are major technical problems in development of the Astra BVR missile, which sometimes pose bigger challenges than even nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. “The missile was repeatedly failing since the aerodynamically controlled interactions were very severe,’’ he said.
“Finally, we changed the entire missile configuration. It has now undergone three successful ground trials. It then underwent captive flight trials in a Sukhoi-30MKI this April. We hope to actually fire it from a Sukhoi-30MKI by year-end,’’ said Chander. The aim is to make Astra ready for induction by mid-2015.
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