Tejas fires Derby missile in Jamnagar

India

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By OneIndia Defence Bureau

Bengaluru, Feb 05: Continuing with its successful stride of flight trails in 2016, India's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas achieved a major milestone on Friday.

One of the limited series production (LSP) platforms fired a Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) missile Derby for the first time.

According to sources associated with the project, the LSP-7 from Tejas flightline fired the missile in Jamnagar as part of its scheduled weapon trials. These weapon trials are part of the Final Operational Clearance (FOC) mandate.

Sources confirmed to OneIndia that LSP-7 fired the BVRAAM Derby missile on a BNG (Ballistic Non Guided) mode.

It was the 169th flight of LSP-7 and was piloted by Group Capt Rangachari of National Flight Test Centre.

Tejas is also scheduled to fire a Close Combat Missile (CCM) Python-5 missile as part of the FOC trails.

The LSP-7 along with LSP-4 were part of Indian flying assets at the just-concluded Bahrain International Air Show (BIAS-2016)

As reported earlier, the current trials are aimed at validating the accuracy of the missile.

Apart from Python and Derby, Tejas has in weapon menu Russian-made CCM R-73, laser-guided bombs (LGB) Griffin and Paveway and Russian-made gun Gsh-23.

"It's a great achievement. We are awaiting the test results. The next schedule will be decided based on our analysis. We are awaiting the data," an official attached to the weapon trials programme said.

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