India on Sunday, 27 March, test-fired an Army missile version of the Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) from Chandipur Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Odisha, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said in a tweet.
The missile system flight was test-fired at 10:30 am, validating long-range parameters.
"The system is part of the Indian Army. In the test, the missile secured a direct hit at the target at a very far off distance," DRDO officials stated.
The Army version of MRSAM is a surface to Air Missile developed as a joint effort by India, DRDO, and IAI, Israel for the Indian Army.
Its launch was also witnessed by the army.
"The flight tests were carried out as part of the live firing trials against high-speed aerial targets. The missiles intercepted aerial targets & destroyed them completely, registering direct hits at both ranges," the Defence Ministry stated later in the day.
The Ministry added, "The first launch was to intercept a medium-altitude long-range target and the second launch was for proving the capability of a low altitude short-range target."
What is an MRSAM System?
The MRSAM system offers point and area air defence for ground assets protecting from threats like fighter aircraft, helicopters, UAVs, guided and unguided munitions, supersonic and subsonic cruise missiles, etc.
The MRSAM army weapon system comprises a command post, multi-function radar, radar power system, advanced long-range radar, mobile power system, reloader vehicle, field service vehicle and a mobile launcher system. These form the fire unit.
It is efficient enough to engage a multitude of targets at ranges up to 70 kilometres in a severe saturation scenario. The missile is powered by a rocket motor and a control system to achieve high manoeuvrability during the terminal phase.
Numerous range instruments like the radar, electro-optical tracking systems, and telemetry were placed to capture all the mission data, validating the system performance, which resulted in the destruction of the target.
(With inputs from LiveMint.)
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