India’s First BVR Missile Astra on Verge of Commercial Production

https://twitter.com/vkthakur/status/909651662133903364

 

So what is SFDR for ??

 

From FB....

Astra air-to-air missile is major indigenous success, analysis of the trials below with a (new image).

On Friday, the defence ministry announced the successful development of the most challenging missile India has developed so far – the Astra. Fired from a fighter aircraft travelling at over 1,000 kilometres per hour, the Astra destroys an enemy fighter at a max 90-100 kilometres away.

According to the ministry, the latest round of trials conducted off the Odisha coast on September 11-14 saw seven Astra missiles fired from a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter at pilotless aircraft that were designated as targets. All seven Astras hit their targets.

The seven missions included:
engagement of target at very long range, engagement of high manoeuvring target at medium range and multiple launches of missiles in salvo to engage multiple targets. All the sub-systems including the indigenous RF Seeker performed accurately, meeting all the mission parameters and objectives. Two missiles were also launched in the combat configuration with warhead and the targets were neutralized.

This round of tests “has completed the development phase of the [Astra] weapon system successfully”, stated a defence ministry release on Friday. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman congratulated the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO), which developed the Astra; Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), which integrated the Astra onto the Su-30MKI fighter; and over 50 private firms that participated in building the missile.

Fired from a pylon on the wing of a Su-30MKI fighter, the Astra’s smokeless propellant quickly accelerates it to about 4,000 kilometres per hour, as it screams towards its target. The Su-30MKI tracks the target continuously on its radar, and steers the missile towards it over a data link. About 15 kilometres from the target, the Astra’s on-board radio seeker locks onto the target; now, it no longer needs guidance from the Su-30MKI. When it reaches a few metres from the enemy fighter, the Astra warhead is detonated by a “radio proximity fuze”, spraying the target with shrapnel and shooting it down.

The Astra can be launched with 'buddy-mode' guidance (third-party guidance), in a boresight mode and slaved to an infrared search-and-track system or helmet-mounted sight. Lock-on-before-launch (LOBL) and lock-on-after-launch (LOAL) modes are available and the seeker can conduct autonomous searches for a target before launch.

The Astra is fired from the Russian Vympel launcher – a rail under a fighter aircraft’s wing from which the missile hangs, and is launched. The Vympel launcher is integrated with all four of India’s current generation fighters — the Su-30MKI, MiG-29, Mirage 2000 and the Tejas – allowing the Astra to be fired from all of them.

In Picture - Another view of Astra firing from cockpit where the Astra on the port side is being fired, we can also see the Astra on the starboard pylon attached along with a Su-30MKI in the back.

Source- Ajai Shukla & LiveFist.

 

Latest Astra Missile Test Video Link here:
http://tarmak007.blogspot.com/2017/09/video-of-latest-astra-trials_17.html

 

There is Indian and then there is Drdo "Indian".

 

Astra destroys an enemy fighter at a max 90-100 kilometres away.

Can anyone please confirm this?

 

By fighter they probably mean a slow, less maneuverable drone.Would be very hard to take out a maneuvering fighter equipped with countermeasures from that distance.
The test probably was to validate max range of Astra under ideal conditions.In real world scenario Astra might never be fired from that distance.

 

The max range any AAM will fire will be 45kms for 4th or 4.5 gen fighters, that to at a good altitude. More than that evasive measures will dry the missile out.

 

Well the R27 offered similar advantages as MICA IR, which today plays even greater roles with advanced EW and EO sensors.
But apart from that, we know that we were dependent on ToT for a lot of our indigenous developments. The fact that we took R77 techs, might indicate, that we didn't had better options available back then. Israel supplies us with a lot, but are restricted by the US as well, we need to keep that in mind too! The US also rejected the EL2052 to India for a long time, since it contains some US tech as well.
Wonder if Barak 8 had something to do, with the sudden replacement of the Russian seeker in Astra?

 

Why Astra MK1 to Astra CCM won’t be easy for India
Published September 18, 2017 SOURCE: Anand SG / FOR MY TAKE / IDRW.ORG


R-73 used for Representation Pic

Enforcing Air Superiority in a war always will remain a primary factor for Indian Air Force and critical driving force which will factor in will be Air-Air Missile (AAM) deployed. AAMs now not only determine the outcome of a dogfight but it will also determine the outcome of the war. In the pursuit to enforce Air Superiority doctrine and boost its fighter weapon system design and development. India’s premier weapons research and development organization ” DRDO” achieved an important milestone when its Astra MK1 Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) achieved 7 Successful launch and interceptions of Aerial targets tested out in real combat situations with indigenous seeker thus completing its developmental trials which first begin in 2003. Astra MK1 will enter limited production with 50 units and will enter Batch production in coming following years and for the first time, DRDO Chief acknowledged Astra has opened up doors to further develop newer other variants of Air-Air Missiles which will provide indigenous alternatives to fighter weapon systems. Path DRDO has taken is that a Successor program already has been initiated and will use Next Generation Propulsion system along with improved range to provide Indian Air Force next-generation Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile. Research and Development with help from Russia already have been initiated and Ground firing trials along with engine trials should commence soon. Recent reports also hint that IAF and DRDO have begun talks on the development of another important aspect in Air-to-Air Weaponry that is the development of Withing Visual Range (WVR) or Close Combat Missiles (CCM) Air-to-Air Missiles. Astra BVRAAM program has provided enough of basic research data to work on Close Combat Air-to-Air Missiles, but it is also an acknowledged fact that CCM is also much more difficult to develop then BVRAAMs due to the exceptional performance required at such short range leaving were no room for error in a dogfight. CCM plays a vital and critical role in operational deployment for Indian air force since most of the forward bases between India and Pakistan are just a few minutes away from flight time and chances of deployment of BVRAAMs are quite low in a dogfight. IAF has in their possession framed R-73 Archer, MICA and Python-5 CCMs which are world renowned for their technical superiority at short range dogfights and for Indian alternative CCM it will need to be a world beater and maybe even technologically superior to the existing systems. Close Combat Air-to-Air Missiles need high angular tracking rates, superior aerodynamics agile performance and one of the best seekers to defeat a rival in a dogfight. Since the range between two aircraft sometimes is less than 300 meters, CCM Seekers need to operate at high turn rates while carrying out violet maneuvering in engagement geometry where Air Intercept Radar still has not achieved a Lock on of the target. Also, Close Combat Air-to-Air Missile motor is required to work in sync with seeker and onboard processor to achieve No Escape zone against a high maneuvering target at close range. Use of Thrust vectoring nozzles and flight homing algorithm also plays a critical role. Another set of challenges is that the aerodynamic design of a CCM is usually much more complex since it needs to provide the best of stability at a high angle of attack and also be capable of pulling much more G Capabilities then BVRAAMs.

Conclusions

Development of CCM will no doubt will bring in the complex set of challenges for DRDO and quick turnaround should not be expected from them. In fact, average development time for CCM usually have been 12-15 years even in the western countries which have more established defense sector, but Within Visual Range (WVR) or Close Combat Missiles (CCM) Air-to-Air Missiles still remain a vital component of every fighter jet and will continue to do so even in future, when the world is already making a gradual shift towards 5th generation fighter jets which usually try to avoid dogfights to remain invisible at long ranges .

http://idrw.org/why-astra-mk1-to-astra-ccm-wont-be-easy-for-india/ .

 

Its not 'sudden'. The development started 6-7 years ago in RCI and its very the seeker is very similar to Agat. Israelis providing seeker tech is very unlikely scenario. PKS had an article on it.

 

Might be, but the change came only after the complain about the Russian seekers and possible issues of integrating Russian missiles with Israeli radar. If DRDO's pulse doppelt radar would had been a success, we might had seen R77s been integrated now. So the change away from Russian techs was not made too long ago, 2 years?

 

Its been a long incremental progress. For an outsider its always an overnight success.
They would love to jump in to conclusions. For them after all DRDO is incompetent !

Cant help,

 

No its not. The change came when the tech matured. R77 had problems from start itself (early 2000's).
Are you referring to R73 and LCA ? How is that relevant ? R73 is IIR CCD.

 

Need to understand what seeker has been put on Astra Mk1. Is it the same as that in QRSAM?