NEWS

Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM) designed for Indian Naval warships was successfully flight tested

ABOUT

• Designed and developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation
• Has the capability of neutralising various aerial threats at close ranges including sea-skimming targets
• Tactic of sea skimming is used by various anti-ship missiles and some fighter jets to avoid being detected by the radars onboard warships
• Designed to strike at the high-speed airborne targets at the range of 40 to 50 km and at an altitude of around 15 km.
• Design is based on Astra missile which is a Beyond Visual Range Air to Air missile.
• Two key features are cruciform wings and thrust vectoring.
• The cruciform wings are four small wings arranged like a cross on four sides and give the projective a stable aerodynamic posture.
• The thrust vectoring is an ability to change the direction of the thrust from its engine control the angular velocity and the attitude of the missile, an official said.
• The key DRDO facilities that contributed to the development of the system are Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) and Research Centre Imarat (RCI), both from Hyderabad, and Research & Development Establishment (Engineers) based in Pune.
• Is a canisterised system, which means it is stored and operated from specially designed compartments, making its transport and storage easier and improving the shelf life of weapons