Indigenous ‘Astra’ interceptor missile test-fired
21 Dec 2012
India Friday successfully test-fired its indigenously developed Astra 'beyond visual range' (BVR) air-to-air interceptor missile from a defence base in Odisha, officials said.
The missile was tested from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, about 230 km from Bhubaneshwar.
"The mission was successful. Today the missile was tested from land," ITR director M V K V Prasad said.
He said it was a development trial of the missile and the target was an unmanned aerial vehicle which was flown from the same base few minutes before the launch of the missile.
The sophisticated missile was test-fired from a launcher in launch pad-2 of the ITR at about 1.25 pm targeting a flying object being supported by a pilotless target air-craft 'Lakshya'.
The single stage, solid fuelled Astra' missile is more advanced in its category than the contemporary BVR missiles and is capable of engaging and destroying highly manoeuvrable supersonic aerial targets.
