By Rohit Srivastava

It’s raining success for missile programmes of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). On Monday, it conducted two successful launches of Vertical Launch Short Range Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM).

The VL-SRSAM is based on Astra air-to-air missile.

“The launches were carried out today from a static vertical launcher from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast of Odisha. Indigenously designed and developed by DRDO for Indian Navy, VL-SRSAM is meant for neutralizing various aerial threats at close ranges including sea-skimming targets,” Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

“The current launches were carried out for demonstration of vertical launch capability as part of its maiden launch campaign. On both occasions, the missiles intercepted the simulated targets with pinpoint accuracy. The missiles were tested for minimum and maximum range. VL-SRSAM with Weapon Control System (WCS) were deployed during the trials,” statement said.

DRDO has been working on the Astra based system for last couple of years for Indian Navy.

The launches were monitored by senior scientists from various DRDO labs involved in the design and development of the system such as DRDL, RCI, Hyderabad and R&D Engineers, Pune.

Israel and United States are other two countries who use common missile for air-to-air and surface-to-air roles. Israel uses Spyder and Derby missiles and US uses AIM 120 AMRAAM. It was logical for India to use its home grown air-to-air missile to use as SAM.

During the test launches, flight path and vehicle performance parameters were monitored using flight data, captured by various Range instruments such as Radar, EOTS and Telemetry systems deployed by ITR, Chandipur.

The present trials have proved the effectiveness of the weapon system and few more trials will be conducted shortly before deployment on Indian Naval ships. Once deployed, the VL-SRSAM system will prove to be a force multiplier for the Indian Navy.

Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO on the successful trials. Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary DD R&D & Chairman DRDO congratulated the teams involved in successful flight test of VL-SRSAM Missile System.