IAF’s biggest air fire power show ” Iron Fist-2016″ which begins from March 18 at Chandan field firing range in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan will see test firing of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) developed air-to-air Astra Beyond-Visual-Range missile for the first time in the presence of VVIPs like President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi .
Demo test firing of indigenously developed Astra BVRAAM shows that weapon system has graduated from prototype/developmental stage to production stage and will complete all its test flights before missile enters production later this year said well-informed sources close to idrw.org.
Astra BVRAAM last year completed series of developmental trials, including captive flight trials successfully from India’s frontline Sukhoi-30MKI. 60-km plus range missile Astra BVRAAM is planned to be mounted on other fighter aircraft including Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, Mirage-2000 and MIG-29.
DRDO is also working on Astra-II BVRAAM and plans to start captive trials of the new missile when Astra-I enters production later this year. Sources are also hinting that DRDO will develop different versions of BVRAAMs with a different set of sensors and seekers to meet long-term future IAF’s air-to-air missile requirements and replace older foreign supplied air-to-air missile in its arsenal.
DRDO is also contemplating to develop Surface-to-air short and medium ranged mobile air defence system using different Astra missiles to meet Service requirements. idrw.org in past have informed in its report that missile system has completed series of pre-development ground-based trials from a ground-based launcher successfully validating several flight characters, needed for the development of low-level, quick-reaction surface-to-air missile system capable of engaging aircraft, helicopters, unmanned air vehicles, drones, and precision-guided munitions.