DRDO carries out successful maiden launch of Army version of MRSAM

New Delhi, December 23, 2020

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) achieved a major milestone with the maiden launch of the Army version of the Medium Range Surface to Air Missile (MRSAM) from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur off the coast of Odisha around 1600 hours today.

"The missile completely destroyed a high speed unmanned aerial target, which was mimicking an aircraft, with a direct hit," a press release from DRDO said.

The Army version of MRSAM is a surface to air missile developed jointly by DRDO, India and and IAI, Israel for use of the Indian Army.

The MRSAM Army weapon system comprises Command post, Multi Function Radar and Mobile Launcher system. The complete Fire Unit was used during the launch in deliverable configuration, the release said

A team from the users, that is the Indian Army, also witnessed the launch. A number of range instruments such as Radar, Telemetry and Electro Optical Tracking System were deployed and captured the complete mission data, validating the weapon system performance including the destruction of the target, it said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh lauded the efforts of DRDO and associated team members involved in the mission and said that India has attained a high level of capability in the indigenous design and development of advanced weapon systems.

Dr G Satheesh Reddy, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman, DRDO, congratulated the DRDO community for successfully demonstrating the performance of the MRSAM Army weapon system, registering direct target hit in its maiden launch. He also lauded the efforts of the entire team in realizing the system within a record time and meeting the committed schedule.

NNN