India’s Astra Missile Achieves Indigenous Seeker Flight Success

Published on 12 Nov 2025

• Recently the DRDO and Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully tested the Astra Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) equipped with an indigenous Radio Frequency (RF) seeker from a Su-30 Mk-I fighter aircraft off the coast of Odisha.

• Beyond Visual Range (BVR) refers to the ability of a pilot to engage and shoot down an enemy aircraft that they cannot see with their own eyes

• Astra BVRAAM :

• It is the first indigenous BVR active radar homing air-to-air missile developed by the DRDO with a range of more than 100 kms .

• It is equipped with Radio Frequency (RF) Seeker, which enables the missile to detect, track, and lock onto targets using radar, ensuring high accuracy.

• It has a solid propellant motor with a missile propulsion speed of Mach 4.5.

• Also the missile uses an inertial guidance system driven by a fibre optic gyroscope with terminal guidance through active radar homing.

• Currently it has three variants Astra Mk1, Astra Mk2 and Astra Mk3 (Gandiva missile)(under development) with Mk 1 integrated in Su-30 Mk-I fighter aircraft.

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Keywords:

India’s Astra Missile Achieves Indigenous Seeker Flight Success Astra Missile DRDO and Indian Air Force IAF Defence Air-to-Air Missile Beyond Visual Range Su-30 Mk-I