The indigenous Indian Air Force(IAF) on January 13 announced the induction of the 110-km range Beyond Visual Range(BVR) air-to-air-missile, Astra.
While showing its strength on Rajpath in the Republic Day Parade, IAF declared that the “Astra has been integrated with Sukhoi-30MKI and will be integrated with the Mirage-2000, Tejas, and MiG-29 in the future.”
On Feb 26 when India attacked Pak in cross border air-strike on the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist camp at Balakot then Pakistan Air Force (PAF) AIM-120 AMRAAMs with a range of 110 km attacked India in retaliation to our attack. Then IAF’s frontline Su-30 MKIs were forced into defensive manoeuvres.
The Astra fills up the vacant space for air to air missile vis-a-vis Pakistan, which was revealed during the post-Balkot aerial confrontation near the line of control on Feb 27 last year.
Astra 110 km range neutralizes Pak’s advantage over India in air to air weapon space.Astra is capable of engaging both short range targets at a 20 km distance and long-range targets up to a distance of 80-110km, at different altitudes.
