TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ India on Tuesday successfully test-fired Akash its supersonic surface-to-air missile with indigenous radio frequency seeker from a test range in Odisha, officials said. The state-of-the-art indigenous missile targeting an UAV ‘Banshee’, was fired from the launch complex-III of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near Balasore on Tuesday afternoon.
“The radars, telemetry and electro-optical systems along the coast have tracked and monitored all the health parameters of the missile,” an official statement said.The supersonic missile is the first surface-to-air missile with indigenous seeker to be test fired and is being inducted into the army as short range surface to air missile.
With the successful test firing, India has achieved the capability of making any type of surface to air missile, defence sources said. Akash has a strike range of about 25 km and carries a 55-kg fragmentation warhead that is triggered by proximity fuse.
It is an all-weather area air defence weapon system for defending vulnerable areas against medium range air targets penetrating from low, medium and high altitudes. Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, the Akash missile system has the capability to neutralise aerial targets like fighter jets, cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles as well as ballistic missiles.
