- Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) have conducted the successful flight-tests of RudraM-II Air-to-Surface Missile from an airborne platform.
- The tests were conducted under extreme release conditions with critical trajectory establishing the capability of all subsystems.
- 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.
- Rudram-II has been indigenously developed by Research Centre Imarat, 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 & Development Establishment & 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.
Key Features of RudraM-II Missile
- Speed: It can reach a peak speed of Mach 5.5.
- Range: It is capable of striking targets at a distance of approximately 300 km.
- Payload: It can carry a warhead weighing up to 200 kg.
- It can be deployed from aircraft like Sukhois flying at altitudes ranging from 3 to 15 km.
- It acts as a key force multiplier and intends to eventually replace the older Russian-origin Kh-31 anti-radiation missiles.
- It uses a hybrid navigation system combining an inertial navigation system, GPS and a sophisticated passive homing head that detects radio frequency emissions across a wide frequency band.
- It is an indigenously-developed solid-propelled air-launched missile system.