Hyderabad: India has moved closer to self-dependence in precision-guided ‘smart glide bombs’ as it conducted covert trials of these bombs successfully at Pokharan firing range in Jaisalmer on August 17 last month (Friday).Christened as ‘Garuthmaa’ and ‘Garudaa’ , the ‘Glide Bombs’ are being indigenously developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) .

Of these two drop trails, the test of Garudaa, the non-winged glide-bomb, was carried out to evaluate its precision for a range of 30 kilometres on Thursday while in another set of drop trails on Friday, both Garudaa and ‘Garuthmaa’ were successfully tested from a Su-30MKI aircraft, a DRDO official said in a newsletter released recently by the Aeronautical Society of India (AESI, Hyderabad branch) at a meeting here.

Garuthmaa, the 1,000 kg winged smart glide bomb, was tested for its maximum 100-km range , Top DRDO officials termed the tests as a ‘major success’.

Sources in DRDO said that guided by on-board navigation systems, Garuthmaa was tested for its first phase of trials in Thar Desert for assessing its accuracy in hitting a target after gliding for 100 kilometres.

News Agencies