The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Army on Thursday successfully completed six flight tests of the Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM) system from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha.

According to DRDO, the flight tests were conducted as part of evaluation trials by the Indian Army.

“Tests were done against high-speed aerial targets mimicking various aerial threats to evaluate the capability of the weapon system under different scenarios including long-range medium altitude, short-range high altitude, manoeuvring target and salvo launch with two missiles fired in quick succession,” the DRDO said.

Notably, the system performance was also evaluated under day and night operation scenarios.

QRSAM is a short-range Surface to Air Missile system, designed and developed primarily by the DRDO in order to provide a protective shield to the moving armoured columns of the Army from aerial attacks.

The entire weapon system is configured on highly mobile platforms and is capable of providing air defence on the move.

The QRSAM weapon system is being inducted into the Indian Army.

The system has been jointly developed by the DRDO’s Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune; Research and Development Establishment (Engineers), Pune; Electronic and Radar Development Establishment, Bengaluru; Instruments Research and Development Establishment, Dehradun; and Missile Complex Laboratories from Hyderabad and Balasore.

During the six flight tests, all the mission objectives were met establishing pin-point accuracy of the QRSAM system with state-of-the-art guidance and control algorithms including warhead chain.

DRDO further said the performance of the system was confirmed from the data captured by a number of Range instruments including Telemetry, Radar, and Electro Optical Tracking Systems (EOTS) deployed by ITR.

These tests were carried out in the final deployment configuration consisting of all indigenously developed sub-systems including the missile with indigenous Radio Frequency (RF) seeker, mobile launcher, fully automated command and control system, surveillance and multi-function radars.

Union defence minister Rajnath Singh has complemented DRDO and the Indian Army on the successful flight trials and exuded confidence that the QRSAM weapon system will be an excellent force multiplier for the armed forces.