The Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) have conducted successful flight-tests of indigenously-designed and developed Rudram-II air-to-surface missile (ASM) from an airborne platform. 

The tests were conducted under “extreme release conditions” with critical trajectory establishing the capability of all sub-systems, the Defence Ministry announced in an official release on Tuesday. 

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), Chandipur, the MoD stated.

Rudram-II has been indigenously developed by Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad as the nodal DRDO laboratory in collaboration with other sister labs such as the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL), Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE) & 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, the statement added.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has lauded the effort of DRDO, IAF, 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’ in advance weapon systems, the Defence Minister said.

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