The surface-to-surface tactical missile was blasted off from a canister strapped to the ground launcher from launch complex 4 of the Integrated Test Range in the APJ Abdul Kalam Island around 12.10 pm.
Against the backdrop of long delays in its projects, the Government today asked the premier research agency Defence Research and Development Organisation to accelerate the work on its major military development programmes and complete them in time. The Cabinet Committee on Security headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was briefed by the DRDO on its major projects including the futuristic Agni-6 and the recently launched Agni-5 long-range missile programmes.
India on Friday successfully test-fired indigenously-developed anti-tank guided missile systems, 'Helina' and 'Dhruvastra', paving their induction into the Army and the Indian Air Force respectively, officials said.
As India and the United States are set to begin negotiations on two transformational deals -- Security of Supply Arrangement (SOSA) and Reciprocal Defence Procurement Agreement (RDP) -- the Pentagon has said that the defence industries of the two nations will come together once the negotiations conclude.
Sources in the military establishment also said the present global scenario "necessitates a flexible and adaptive approach" to tackle defence and national security challenges.
After launching missiles from land and sea, India is in the process of developing suspersonic missile aircraft that would hit long range targets from air.
Python-5 missile live firing was conducted to validate target engagement from all aspects as well as beyond visual ranges. In all the live firings, missile hit the aerial target.
Top DRDO scientists say indigenous missiles would cost barely half as much as a foreign alternative, reports Ajai Shukla.
The massive exercise code-named Iron First 2016 would involve the participation of 181 aircraft departing from multiple bases, and demonstrate a synchronized aerial ballet that would showcase its deadly combat capability over the entire spectrum of aerial operations.
The India-US strategic partnership is characterised by mutual trust and both sides are increasingly in agreement on key issues, such as countering China's aggression, promoting a free and open Indo-Pacific and addressing regional security challenges, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday.
Out of its 47 operational satellites, India currently has six to eight satellites which are used entirely for military purposes.
The quick reaction surface-to-air-missile missile developed by DRDO was test launched from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near here at about 3.08 pm from a vertical launcher against an electronic target at a very low altitude.
This is the third test firing of the missile in the last five days, the sources said.
Observers of India's struggle to design and build defence equipment might wonder why the indigenous missile programme has been so much more successful than many other projects that the Defence Research and Development Organisation has taken up.
By the end of next year, Indian fighter planes could be equipped with indigenously-developed 'glide bombs', which will be guided to their targets for precision attacks.The first-of-its-kind bomb in the country, being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, will boost India's strike capabilities as targets can be hit even beyond the range of a fighter aircraft.
India on Sunday test-fired the 290-km range BrahMos cruise missile from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur off the Orissa coast. "It was a user's trial by the defence forces," said a Defence Research and Development Organisation official. "User's trial of BrahMos conducted by the Indian Army was successful," ITR Director S P Dash said after the missile blasted off from a mobile launcher at nearly 11.35 am from the launch complex-3 of the test range.
India has already deployed a sizeable number of the original BrahMos missiles and other key assets in several strategic locations along the de-facto border with China in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.
Government on Tuesday removed the chief of top defence research organisation Avinash Chander, 15 months before his contract was to end.
The missile has a strike range of 2000 km, the sources said soon after it blasted off from a mobile launcher at the Launch Complex-4 of the Integrated Test Range, the sources said.
A lot of new technologies developed indigenously were successfully tested in the trial.
Defence sources said the missile, which was launched from a mobile launcher at 3.15 pm, successfully hit a target attached to a pilotless target aircraft.
Aero India, the largest air show in Asia and one of the world's most important military aviation exhibitions, is all set to kick-start at Yelahanka Air Force Station in Bangalore, from February 6 to 11.
The Akash missile systems have over 96 percent indigenous components and the weapon can hit targets at a range of 25 km.
Describing the trial as "fully successful", the sources said, the sophisticated missile travelled for 19 minutes and covered 4,900 km.
Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia, defence ministry's top acquisition council on Thursday cleared the purchase of an estimated Rs 40,000 crore Russian S-400 Triumf air defence missile systems, besides giving the go-ahead to other projects worth over Rs 25,000 crore.
Prithvi-2 is capable of carrying 500-1,000 kg of warheads and is powered by liquid propulsion twin engines, the sources said.
Under the next phase of missile development programme, the DRDO was working on Long Range Surface-to-air Missiles (LR SAM), which have a range of 70 km, with international collaboration, Prahlada said but declined to name the countries with whom the joint research will be done.
Moving a step closer to completing its nuclear triad, India today successfully test fired a ballistic missile, with a strike range of around 1,500 km, from an underwater platform in Bay of Bengal. "The medium range K-5 ballistic missile was test fired successfully today from an underwater pontoon and all parameters of the test firing were met," said Defence Research and Development Organisation chief V K Saraswat from the undisclosed test area.
India will test fire its long-range surface-to-surface missile, Agni-III, by the year end and has started induction of the Agni-I and Agni-II versions in a newly raised strategic command, Dr M Natrajan, scientist claimed on Tuesday.
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The missile was aimed at a moving object, sources said.
The MoD did not reveal the number of missiles procured through the latest contract.
However, this information was inadvertently revealed through an official MoD photograph that accompanied the announcement.
After failing to hit its target in the previous test, a new version of the 290 km-range supersonic BrahMos cruise missile was on Wednesday successfully test launched at a firing range in Pokhran in Rajasthan.
With a range of 25km, Akash is one of the five missiles currently under development by the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
The indigenously built multi-target missile can carry a 50kg payload.
The defence minister has 20 months to learn the military's ethos, culture and to publicly bat for an organisation that feels increasingly marginalised and underappreciated.
"The Prithvi missile was test-fired as part of a user's trial by the Indian Army and the test was successful," defence sources said. The 8.56 metre-long and one metre thick Prithvi missile can carry a pay load of 1000 kg explosives.
This will be the second launch of the 3,000-km range missile after an unsuccessful test on July nine last year from the integrated test range at Wheeler Island near Balasore in Orissa, defence officials said.
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