Nation to test new air-to-air, beyond visual range missile

New Delhi: India will within a month conduct the first full test flight of an indigenously built air-to-air missile that targets aircraft beyond visual range, a senior official said on Wednesday.

If successful, the Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) Astra will make India the fifth country to possess this technology.

Only the US, France, Russia and Israel have advanced missiles that can hit aircraft 90-120km away.

"The test flight will take place either at the end of July or the beginning of August," a DRDO official said on condition of anonymity.

During the test, Astra will be fired from a Sukhoi fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF). The missile has been tested on ground to prove its avionics, guidance and other sub-systems including propulsion. "Astra is a futuristic missile and can intercept a target even at a speed of 1.2 to 1.5 Mach," the official said. The speed of sound is 1 Mach.

Astra can be carried by the Mirage 2000, MiG-29 or Sukhoi-30MKI aircraft used by the IAF as well as the indigenously built Light Combat Aircraft Tejas. In terms of technology, Astra is more complex than the nuclear-capable Agni series of strategic ballistic missiles, the official said.

Following the closure of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme after a quarter of a century in December 2007, DRDO scientists are now focusing primarily on Astra and four other missile systems.

The other four are the 700km range K-15 submarine-launched ballistic missile, the 290km BrahMos supersonic and hypersonic cruise missile, the 3,500-km range Agni-III ballistic missile and the long-range surface-to-air missile system being developed jointly with Israel.