Indo-Israeli Medium Range Surface-To-Air Missile Test Next Week

India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has scheduled to conduct a test series of Indo-Israeli joint venture Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM) from Tuesday.

Developed jointly with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), DRDO has considered to test launch at least five MRSAM at Chandipur-on-sea, a defence base off the Odisha coast, Express News Service reported Sunday.

The missile guided by a radar system and on-board avionics will be fired against a pilot-less target aircraft, imitating an attacking combat aircraft.

Both Indian and Israel teams will participate in the launch campaign. Designed and developed by Research Centre Imarat (RCI), a DRDO lab and IAI, the missile has been manufactured by the Hyderabad-based Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL).

Various Indian firms, including Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), L&T, Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and TATA group have also been involved in developing many subsystems which will be put into use in the flight tests.

The 4.5-meter long ballistic missile weighs around 270 kg and can carry a payload of 60 kg. Besides missile, the system has also been equiped with a Multi-Functional Surveillance and Threat Alert Radar (MFSTAR) for detection, tracking and guidance of the missile.

Capable of intercepting incoming aerial threats up to a range of 70 km, the MRSAMs can be deployed to protect sensitive defence bases, metro cities and other important installations like nuclear stations.

The MRSAM system can travel at a speed of Mach 2. The missile can identify and destroy airborne threats like jets, missiles and rockets, including projectiles launched simultaneously.

The MRSAM is a variant of long range surface to air missile (LRSAM), known as Barak-8 that the DRDO and IAI are developing for the Navy.