NEW DELHI: DRDO and Indian Navy have successfully conducted flight trials of a first-of-its-kind naval antiship missile (NASM-SR) that has ‘Man-in-Loop’ features, which is unique as it gives the capability of inflight retargeting.
Defence minister Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO, Indian Navy and the industries for the successful flight tests carried out from Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur on Tuesday. The trials demonstrated the missile’s capability against ship targets while launched from an naval helicopter.
“The missile uses an in- digenous imaging infra-red seeker for terminal guidance. The mission also has demonstrated the high bandwidth two-way datalink system, which is used to transmit the seeker live images back to the pilot for in-flight retargeting,” the defence ministry said.
The missile was launched in ‘Bearing-only Lock-on’ after launch mode with several targets in close vicinity for selecting one among them.
The trials have proven the missile’s ‘Man-in-Loop’ feature and scored a direct hit on a small ship target in sea-skimming mode at its maximum range, according to a statement released by the ministry.