Indo-Israeli Barak 8 Missile Test Fired in India

India has test fired Barak-8 surface-to-air missile (SAM), developed jointly with Israel.

The 4.5-meter long missile was launched today morning from a mobile launcher at the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur in Balasore district, various media in India reported Tuesday.

The missile initiated into action after getting a signal from the radars to intercept a moving aerial target supported by an unmanned air vehicle 'Banshee' over the Bay of Bengal. Further More tests will be carried out today as well as tomorrow.

The long range missile, jointly developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and India's Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), is designed to defend against any type of airborne threat including aircraft, helicopters, anti-ship missiles, and UAVs as well as cruise missiles and combat jets out to a maximum range of 70 km.

The missile system includes a Multi-Functional Surveillance and Threat Alert Radar for detection, tracking and guidance of the missile. Further, the missile Weighs around 3 tonnes and has maximum speed of Mach 2. It can also carry a payload of 70 kilograms.

Earlier, Barak-8 was test fired twice on June 30th and once on July 1st. Indian Navy had also test launched the missile on the Western Seaboard by INS Kolkata on December 30, 2015.

Following the completion of trails, these missiles would be inducted in all the three services. Many Indian industries like BEL, L&T, BDL, and TATA group of companies besides other private industries have contributed to the development of a number of subsystems which have been put into use in this flight test.