The Indian Air Force ordered a development batch of guided air-to-air Astra missiles of the Indian design for multirole Su-30MKI fighter jets, a representative of Bharat Dynamics Company told TASS at Army-2019 forum.

Indian Air Force Sukhoi-30MKII during Aeroindia 2005 (Picture source: Sheeju)

"We have recently signed a contract for the development batch of several dozen Astra for Su-30MKI of the Indian Air Force," he said.

The electronic architecture of the aircraft allows integrating Indian-designed arms. "The supplies of Astra will considerably increase the combat potential of the jets," said the representative of the designer company.

The missiles can be fired by other combat aircraft, in particular, Mirage 2000 of the French Dassault Aviation, MiG-29 of the Russian MiG, and Tejas of the Indian Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

India has been designing Astra missile for several years. It can hit an air target at an altitude of up to 20 km. The maximum range is 110 km

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