Air-to-Air missile Astra successfully test fired from ITR Chandipur in Odisha

Indigenously developed Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile, Astra, was successfully test fired at the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur in Odisha on 18 March 2015. It was test-fired aboard a Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft.

The present test was a part of the series of tests planned to test the missile’s subsystems like propulsion, navigation and guidance and the smooth separation of the missile from the aircraft, etc.  

Further, the test was intended to prove the missile’s manoeuvring capability against a simulated target and also to validate various subsystems.

The previous test was conducted on 04 May 2014 from a Naval Range in the Western Sector.

Astra is a beyond visual range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) that is capable of engaging its target at ranges of 37 km or beyond. Astra missile has operational range of 60km.

About the Astra missile
It is India’s first BVR air-to-air missile. The all-weather missile was indigeniously designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

It is a state-of-the-art missile in the sense that it travels at supersonic speed (4780 km/h), possesses Single Shot Kill Probability (SSKP) with active radar terminal guidance, uses smokeless propulsion system to evade enemy radars and has the capacity to engage in multi-target scenario.

The 3.8 metre long missile is the smallest of the DRDO-developed missiles and can be launched from different altitudes.
It can reach up to 110 km when fired from an altitude of 15 km, 44 km when launched from an altitude of eight km and 21 km when fired from sea level.