India test fires surface-to-air Akash missile

Balasore, Odisha: India today test-fired the indigenously developed surface-to-air Akash missile from the Integrated Test Range launch complex at Chandipur near Balasore.

The missile targeted a floating object supported by Pilot Less Target Aircraft (PTA) ‘Lakshya’, defence officials said.

“Akash was test fired from launch complex-3 at 11.22 am,” a defence official said, adding that “some more trials would be conducted within the next couple of days”.

“During the trial, the missile was aimed at intercepting a floating object supported by a pilot-less target aircraft, flown from launch complex-II, at a definite altitude over the sea,” according to a source.

Akash is a medium range surface-to-air anti-aircraft defence system developed by the DRDO as part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

It has a strike range of 25 km and can carry a warhead of 60 kgs. It has the capability to target aircraft up to 30 km away and is packed with a battery that can track and attack several targets simultaneously, they said.

With the capability to neutralise aerial targets like fighter jets, cruise missiles, air-to-surface missiles etc, defence experts compare Akash to the American MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system.

The last trial was conducted on 6 June 2012 from the same base.

PTI