In a major milestone, India on Friday successfully test fired a new generation anti-radiation missile from a Su-30MKI fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force that can destroy a wide variety of enemy radars, air defence systems and communication networks from large stand-off ranges, officials said. The missile, Rudram-1, is India's first indigenously developed anti-radiation weapon system and it was test-fired by DRDO at the integrated test range.

Designed for suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD), the missile can be launched from a varying range of altitudes for destroying enemy surveillance radars, tracking and communication systems. An anti-radiation missile can hit a radiation-emitting targets such as radars. With passive homing, it can tracks sources of radiation of a wide range. Rudram-1 has a range of around 250 km. It can be fired from height ranging from 500 metres to 15 km.

This is the six missile test India has conducted in the last 20 days.

On 23 September, India tested an anti-tank guided missile from an Arjun Tank.

This test was followed by the test-firing of a Prithvi-II nuclear-capable missile by the Strategic Forces Command, part of India’s Nuclear Command Authority.

On 30 September, India tested an extended-range version of the BrahMos missile. While the earlier version of the missile had a stated range of 290 km, the new extended-range version can hit targets over 400 km away.

In early October, hypersonic nuclear-capable Shaurya missile was tested by the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

On 5 October, India tested Supersonic Missile Assisted Release of Torpedo, a system that can be used to hit enemy submarines beyond torpedo range.

According to sources a limited number of Nirbhay subsonic cruise missiles have already been moved to the Line of Actual Control (LAC), where India is locked in a tense standoff with China.

Agencies