Chandipur, June 2 (IANS) Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully conducted flight-tests of RudraM-II air-to-surface missile from a Sukhoi Su-30 MKI aircraft at the interim firing range in Odisha’s Chandipur on Tuesday.

The tests were conducted under extreme release conditions with critical trajectory establishing the capability of all subsystems, officials said.

“The missiles, after release were guided to a predefined target with pin-point accuracy. All the test objectives were fully met as confirmed by the flight data captured by various range instruments deployed by Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur,” an official said.

RudraM-II has been indigenously developed by Research Centre Imarat in Hyderabad as the nodal DRDO laboratory in collaboration with other sister labs such as Defence Research and Development Laboratory, High Energy Materials Research Laboratory, Armament Research and Development Establishment and ITR.

Along with the Development-cum-Production Partners (DcPPs), agencies like Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Regional Centre for Military Airworthiness, Missile System Quality Assurance Agency and many other industries have contributed significantly towards achieving this goal.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh lauded the effort of DRDO, IAF, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), DcPPs and the industry for the successful flight-tests.

The tests have demonstrated the growing maturity of indigenous defence technologies, contributing significantly to ‘Aatmanirbharta’ (self-reliance) in advance weapon systems, Singh said.

Department of Defence R&D Secretary and DRDO Chairman, Rajesh Kumar Singh, also congratulated all the teams associated with the test for the commendable achievement.

Why RudraM-II is a gamechanger for India?

The indigenously developed RudraM-II air-to-surface missile is capable of achieving speeds of up to Mach 5.5, engaging targets at ranges of around 300 km, and carrying a 200-kg warhead. It can be launched from fighter aircraft such as the Sukhoi Su-30MKI operating at altitudes between 3 km and 15 km. The missile is expected to serve as a major force multiplier for the Indian Air Force and is slated to gradually replace the ageing Russian-origin Kh-31 anti-radiation missiles currently in service. RudraM-II employs an advanced hybrid guidance architecture that integrates an Inertial Navigation System (INS), GPS-based navigation, and a sophisticated passive homing seeker capable of detecting and tracking radio-frequency emissions across a broad spectrum, enabling highly accurate strikes against enemy radar and air-defence assets.

–IANS

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