Global General

India successfully testfires 2 short range missiles

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-11 19:32
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NEW DELHI: India Monday successfully testfired two air-to-air short-range Astra missiles from the coast of Chandipur in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, Defense Ministry sources said.

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"The first missile was testfired at 9:45 am and the second missile at 12:06 pm from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur. Both the missiles were testfired successfully. The flight data have been sent to the Defense Research and Development Organization for analysis," the sources said.

India is claimed to be the only country outside the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Russia to have developed a sophisticated air-to-air missile like Astra which can achieve supersonic speed.

Astra, which is more than 3.5 meters long and weighs about 300 kg, has a range of 25 to 80 km, for either tail or head-on mode.

It can hit targets flying 80 km away and has Beyond Visual Range (BVR) capability, according to the sources.
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