The Ministry of Defence announced on Sunday night that the indigenously designed SAAW (Smart Anti Airfield Weapon) guided bombs were successfully flight tested from Indian Air Force’s Jaguar aircraft at the Chandan range in Rajasthan. In the Pokhran range, another indigenously developed helicopter-launched anti-tank guided missile, ‘Helina’, was successfully tested.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) Research Centre Imarat (RCI) here has been extensively involved in the development of both the weapons, one for the IAF and the other for the Indian Army.
For the SAAW, Vinod Kabra is the project director and the missile had seen eight development trials and five missions were held at Balasore.
Defence sources said targets were hit with single-digit accuracies with high precision, with the weapon system integrated into the live warhead. This weapon is said to be capable of destroying a variety of ground targets using precision navigation.
A total of three tests with different release conditions were conducted between August 16 and 18, and all the mission objectives have been achieved. Senior officials from DRDO, HAL and Indian Air Force participated and witnessed the flight tests.
Helina has been designed and developed by the DRDL under the guidance of project director Y. Janardhan with critical mission avionics done by RCI. The weapon system has been tested for its full range after its release from the launch platform, tracking all through its course and hitting the target with high precision on Sunday afternoon.
All parameters have been monitored by telemetry stations, tracking systems and helicopters.
