Last month, India
awarded a US$424.4 million contract to state-run Bharat Dynamics Limited to supply the homegrown Astra Mk1 beyond-visual-range (BVR) air-to-air missile to its armed forces.
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Under the contract, Bharat Dynamics will supply 400 Astra Mk1 missiles and their associated equipment, to be delivered in four years. The missiles will be used on the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Su-30MKI and LCA-MK fighters and the Indian Navy’s (IN) MiG-29K carrier-based fighters.
The missiles will be assembled in Bharat Dynamics’ 632-acre manufacturing facility at Bhanur, which was established in 2017 at a cost of $74.5 million.
Astra was developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) in the early 2000s and has since been manufactured by Bharat Dynamics. According to DRDO, India’s main agency for military research and development, the all-weather, night-capable missile is designed to engage and destroy fast-maneuvering supersonic aircraft.
It is equipped with a fully indigenous active terminal guidance system and advanced electronic counter-countermeasures (ECCM) to reduce the effectiveness of enemy jamming. The missile also features lock-on before launch (LOBL) and lock-on after launch (LOAL) capability, allowing launching aircraft to take advantage of its reported maximum range of more than 100 kilometers.
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