India has test-fired the first air-to-air Astra missile from Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter aircraft 0107132.

The need for a cheap, indigenous air-to-air missile cannot be over-emphasized. Modern day air combat is increasingly becoming all about BVR combat, rather than the dogfights of yore, with missiles with ranges over 40 km becoming the norm.

But BVR missiles are quite complex - with rocket/ramjet propulsion, micro-computers, active radar guidance/inertial navigation systems, terminal radar frequency seekers and the like - since they have to effectively destroy highly-agile supersonic fighters packed with "counter-measures" at long ranges. Only a handful of countries like the US, Russia, France and Israel have managed to develop them.

DRDO chief Avinash Chander candidly admits there are major technical problems in development of the Astra BVR missile, which sometimes pose bigger challenges than even nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. "The missile was repeatedly failing since the aerodynamically controlled interactions were very severe," he told TOI.

"Finally, we changed the entire missile configuration. It has now undergone three successful ground trials. It then underwent captive flight trials in a Sukhoi-30MKI this April. We are over the hump now. We hope to actually fire it from a Sukhoi Su-30MKI by year-end," said Chander.

Astra will have a Mark-I version with a 44-km range, which will be followed by the over 100km Mark-II version. "Astra will be a state-of-the-art missile that will first be fitted on Sukhoi Su-30MKIs and then Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, followed by others. We are pretty confident it will happen soon," said Chander.