The Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR) was thought to be only an Air-to-Air Missile, but a schematics from a DRDO show a ground launched variant of SFDR. The 250 kg SFDR missile is mounted on a large 450 kg booster. An official missile poster put on display by DRDO mentions XR-SAM, although no further information was provided. DRDO’s XR-SAM have the same range capability to that of S-400 system’s 48N6 SAM boasting a range of 250 km. The Ground Launched SFDR Missile (GL-SFDR) can easily attain a range of 250 km, which matches the range capability of ongoing DRDO Project XR-SAM. According to Saurav Jha, a prominent Indian Defence Journalist confirmed in his latest tweet reports that DRDO's XR-SAM a very long range surface-to-air missile system has entered testing phase.

According to officials familiar with the development report that XR-SAM is actually a spin-off of the AAD-1 Endo-atmospheric interceptor. XRSAM will be used to bridge the gap between MR-SAM (70 km) and S-400 (400 km) Air Defence System and will be using spin-off technologies developed for countries Anti-Ballistic missile Defence system.

XR-SAM will be used to bridge the gap between MR-SAM (70 km) and S-400 (400 km) Air Defence System and will be using spin-off technologies developed for countries Anti-Ballistic missile Defence system. XR-SAM will complement the S-400 systems in their role and filling the need for a robust Multi-Layered Air Defence System and a family of Ground Based Air Defence Weapon Systems (GBADWS)

The total system will be consisting of two different surface to air missiles. One will have 250 km range another will have 400 km range.

XR-SAM is actually a spin-off of the AAD-1 Endo-atmospheric interceptor with a service ceiling of 120 km and has supposedly Anti-Ballistic Missile features though its not confirmed.

India is buying two different type of surface-to-air missile for its S-400 system : 40N6 (Range: 400 km) and 48N6 (Range: 250 km). XR-SAM will have active radar homing guidance GaN ( Gallium Nitride ) based UHF radars aimed at engaging aircraft, cruise missiles, UAVs/Drones and even hostile ballistic targets.

DRDO is yet to confirm if XR-SAM Air Defence Missile system will consist of one or two different type of missile system yet but there are unconfirmed reports indicating that system will be capable of simultaneously engaging cruise missiles, aircraft and ballistic targets, hinting of using two slightly different missile configuration of same type .

XR-SAM Air Defence Missile system might utilise same network grid deployed for Anti-Ballistic missile Defence system and might be working as part of large umbrella air defence network grid consisting of ABM, S-400 and XR-SAM surveillance, guidance, tracking network of radars .

XR-SAM might be ready for developmental and engineering trials by 2020.

The XR-SAM will be complemented by an array of new missiles under development by DRDO, they are, QRSAM (a test was conducted on 4-Aug-2019), MRSAM, BARAK-8, LRSAM and the most critical Advanced Air Defence System (AAD) this gamut of missile systems under development would be able to cover most of India’s air defence requirements. (With reporting by defenceupdate.in, GlobalSecurity and DelhiDefenceReview)

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