NEW DELHI, Oct 30: India has successfully flight-tested the country’s first indigenously developed long-range bomb (LRB) from a fighter jet over Balasore in Odisha.
The test was carried out jointly by a team of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Friday, an official spokesman of the Defence Ministry said on Saturday.
The bomb is part of the class of weapons with a range of 50 to 150 km. The government did not share details about the weapons, but mentioned that the LRB was tested from an aerial platform.
The Defence Ministry said the bomb, “after release from the IAF fighter aircraft, was guided to a land-based target at a long-range with accuracy within specified limits. All the mission objectives were successfully met,” it added.
The flight of the bomb and the performance was monitored by a number of range sensors, including Electro Optical Tracking System (EOTS), Telemetry and radar deployed by the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur in Odisha, the statement read.
The bomb has been designed and developed by DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI) laboratory in Hyderabad, in coordination with other DRDO laboratories. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO and the Air Force for the successful flight trial and stated that this would prove to be a force multiplier for the armed forces.
(Manas Dasgupta)