A 1000-kg “glide bomb”, designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was successfully tested on Friday by dropping it on from a fighter-aircraft over the Bay of Bengal, off the Odisha coast. The bomb was dropped by an Indian Air Force fighter-aircraft, which took off from the Kalaikunda air base, near Kharagpur, West Bengal. The bomb, guided (repeat guided) by its on-board navigation system, glided for about 100 km before reaching the targeted area with precision. The flight of the glide bomb was monitored by radars and electro-optic systems, stationed at the DRDO’s Integrated Test Range at Balasore, Odisha. The glide bomb was tested a few times in 2013.
Ravi Gupta, DRDO spokesman, explained how glide bombs were different from conventional bombs. When conventional bombs are dropped from an aircraft, they have a free flight; they are at the mercy of the winds; and are influenced by the speed and direction of the aircraft. However, glide bombs have winglets, and navigation and guidance systems. So they are able to steer themselves and travel many scores of km, with the advantage of the height from which they are dropped. Their navigation system, said Mr. Gupta, took them to the target with precision.
In the assessment of Avinash Chander, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister and DRDO Director-General, “The nation today has the capability to design, develop and launch heavy bombs for delivery up to 100 km away with high precision.” G. Satheesh Reddy, Director, Research Centre, Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad, said India had now become self-reliant in the area of guided precision bombs. RCI, a missile unit of the DRDO, designed and developed the avionics package and navigation system for the glide bomb.
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Several DRDO laboratories including Defence Avionics Research Establishment (DARE), Bengaluru, Armaments Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune and Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL), Chandigarh, with RCI as the nodal facility developed the glide bomb.