SPACE WIRE
India tests home produced air-to-air missile
BHUBANESWAR, India (AFP) May 09, 2003
India Friday test-fired its first indigenously developed air-to-air missile from a site in the eastern state of Orissa, officials said.

The missile named Astra (Weapon) was tested from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, 200 kilometres (124 miles) from the Orissa capital Bhubaneswar.

It was the debut test-firing of Astra, which is powered by solid propellant and has a strike range of 25 to 40 kilometres (15 to 25 miles), officials from the ITR said.

The missile test came hours before US deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage was due to arrive in New Delhi to discuss India's recent peace moves with nuclear rival Pakistan.

In the past few days both countries have announced the resumption of diplomatic and air links, severed in December 2001 after a deadly attack on India's parliament which New Delhi blamed on gunmen backed by Islamabad.

The attack triggered the mobilisation of a million troops to their common border and brought the countries to the brink of war last year.

On Thursday Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee turned down a proposal by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf for a nuclear-free South Asia.

The two South Asian rivals conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in May 1998, sparking concerns in the international community that their mutual animosity over Kashmir could lead to a catastrophic exchange of weapons of mass destruction.

The Astra prototype was launched from a ground-based fixed launcher with the help of a booster engine.

It is a new system in India's Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme and more trials will be held in the next few days.

Defence analysts in New Delhi said the Astra was a tactical missile and part of India's missile development programme.

"Its significance lies in the fact that India has been able to acquire the ability to design and test fire air-to-air missiles of such parameters," said C.U. Bhaskar, deputy director of a New Delhi based military think-tank, the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis.

"It is niche capability which very few developing nations currently possess."

According to reports, the Astra missile is being developed for India's ambitious Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) christened "Tejas" (Brilliance) by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last weekend.

The multi-role combat aircraft -- in development since 1983 -- has been a long-cherished dream of India's air force chiefs who want to reduce the country's dependency on foreign imports.

The fighter, whose development was partly delayed by US sanctions imposed after India's nuclear tests, can carry seven weapon stations and has a provision for inflight refuelling.

On Wednesday Defence Minister George Fernandes said two variants of India's nuclear-capable intermediate range Agni missile will be deployed this year.

Agni I has a range of 700 kilometres (437 miles) and Agni II a range of 2,000 kilometres.

Fernandes said a third variant, Agni III, with a range of 3,000 kilometres was under development.

Besides the Agni, India is also developing the short-range surface-to-surface Prithvi (Earth), the surface-to-air Akash (Sky) and the anti-tank Nag missiles.

India is also developing a supersonic cruise missile "BrahMos" in collaboration with Russia to arm Indian submarines and warships.

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