The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted two successful test flights of Very Short Range Air Defence System (VSHORADS) missile on Tuesday from a ground based portable launcher at the Integrated Test Range in Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha.
VSHORADS is a Man Portable Air Defence System (MANPAD) designed and developed indigenously by DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad in collaboration with other DRDO laboratories and Indian Industry Partners.
VSHORADS missile incorporates many novel technologies including miniaturized Reaction Control System (RCS) and integrated avionics, which have been successfully proven during the tests.
The missile, meant for neutralizing low altitude aerial threats at short ranges is propelled by a dual thrust solid motor. The design of the missile including launcher has been highly optimized to ensure easy portability. Both the flight tests have completely met the mission objectives.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh complimented and appreciated the efforts of DRDO and industry partners and said that this new missile equipped with modern technologies will give further technological boost to the Armed Forces. Secretary DDR&D and Chairman DRDO congratulated the entire VSHORADS team for this tremendous success.
Notably, earlier on September 8, India had successfully completed six flight tests of the Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM) system off the Odisha Coast as part of evaluation trials by the Indian Army.
The flight tests were carried out against high-speed aerial targets mimicking various types of aerial threats to evaluate the capability of the weapon systems under different scenarios including long-range medium altitude, short-range high, altitude manoeuvring target, low radar signature with receding and crossing target and salvo launch with two missiles fired in quick succession.
The system performance was also evaluated under day and night operation scenarios. During these tests, all the mission objectives were met establishing pin-point accuracy of the QRSAM weapon system with state-of-the-art guidance and control algorithms including the warhead chain.
(with inputs from ANI)
