India successfully test fires Astra missile third time in a week

Bhubaneswar  : India Monday successfully test fired its indigenously developed Astra air-to-air interceptor missile from a defence base in Odisha for the third time within a week, an official said.

The beyond-visual-range missile was tested from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, about 230 km from here. The missile intercepted a simulated target.

“There was no actual target. It successfully intercepted a simulated target at an altitude of 4 km,” ITR director M.V.K.V. Prasad told IANS.

Astra is envisaged to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft at supersonic speeds in the head-on mode at a range of 80 km and in tail-chase mode at 20 km.

The scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation which developed the missile had earlier conducted successful tests of the Astra missile from the same base Friday and Saturday.

“The exercise carried out Monday was to test the missile’s interception capability and high manoeuvring,” he pointed out.