On Diwali eve, the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully tested an indigenous smart weapon that can target enemy airfield assets such as radars, bunkers, taxiways and runways, at a firing range in Rajasthan, officials familiar with the development said on Wednesday.
This was the second successful test firing of the smart anti-airfield weapon (SAAW) from the Jaguar fighter plane in a week -- it was earlier fired on October 28. The weapon has a range of 100 km.
The November 3 test is significant as it involved the imaging infrared seeker technology that exponentially enhances the terminal accuracy of the weapon, said one of the officials cited above. The weapons earlier tested -- SAAW has been test fired around 10 times -- were equipped with GPS-based navigation and terminal guidance systems.
“The two different configurations based on satellite navigation and electro optical (EO) sensors have been successfully tested. EO seeker-based flight test of this class of bomb was conducted for the first time in the country. EO configuration of the system is equipped with imaging infrared seeker technology that enhancing the precision strike capability of the weapon,” the defence ministry said in a statement.