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LCA Tejas Successfully Fired an Air-to-Air BVR Missile

Published on April 30, 2018
The indigenously developed LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) Tejas has successfully fired Derby an air-to-air BVR (Beyond Visual Range) missile off the Goa coast.
LCA Tejas successfully fired an Air-to-Air BVR missile
  • It demonstrated its overall capability as an effective combat jet, and inched closer to receive final operational clearance.
  • Tejas was earlier given clearance for deployment of armaments and other missiles.

Key Facts

  • Tejas has now successfully completed a series of captive flight trials to clear the Derby for full operational capability in the entire final operational clearance (FOC) envelope. 
  • The aircraft was tracked by two other Tejas aircraft in close formation to capture the firing event in the specially instrumented high-speed cameras for detailed analysis.
  • The entire planning, practice and final firing was carried out by DRDO's autonomous society – Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and its National Flight Test Centre (NFTC).
  • Tejas has qualified for the armaments and missile release related trials. 
  • The Indian Air Force (IAF) had ordered 40 Tejas Mark-1 version and a request for proposal (RFP) was issued to HAL by the IAF in December for procurement of another batch of 83 Tejas at a cost of around Rs 50,000 crore.
  • IAF tested its war-waging capabilities in a possible two-front scenario involving Pakistan and China during Gagan Shakti 2018.
  • During the Gagan Shakti 2018 exercise, eight Tejas jets were deployed. 
  • The IAF has already committed to buying at least 123 Tejas fighters for Rs 75,000 crore from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). 

Features of Derby BVR missile

  • It is a short to medium range BVR Air-to-Air missile.
  • It is developed jointly by Israeli armament development agency Rafael and Israel Aircraft Industries MBT has a maximum effective range of about 50 km.
  • Launch weight – 118 kg
  • Length – 3.8 metres
  • Wingspan – 64 cm 
  • Diameter – 16 cm
  • It is an active radar air-to-air missile for the fighter aircraft and has the capability to be launched at a target day or night and in all weather conditions.
  • It has look-down/shoot-down capability, fire and forget mode and an advanced ECCM tailored to the customer's operational requirements.
  • It is a dual-use missile (air-to-air and surface-to-air).
  • The missile's light weight allows it to be adapted to various modern fighter aircraft.
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