In major milestone, Hawk-i test fires smart anti-airfield weapon

The State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited on Thursday achieved a major milestone by successfully test-firing a Smart Anti Airfield Weapon (SAAW) from the Hawk-i aircraft off the coast of Odisha.

The indigenous stand-off weapon, developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation's Research Centre Imarat (RCI), is the first smart weapon fired from an Indian Hawk-Mk132, the HAL said.

"This was the first test conducted from the Hawk-i aircraft.The results were on the expected line when it hit the target with precision," an HAL official told PTI.

The aircraft flown by HAL test pilots Wing Commander (Retd) P Awasthi and Wg Cdr (Retd) M Patel executed the weapon release in a text book manner and all mission objectives were met.

The telemetry and tracking systems captured all the mission events confirming the success of the trials.

"The Company owned Hawk-i platform is being extensively used for certification of systems and weapons developed indigenously by DRDO and CSIR labs," R Madhavan, CMD, HAL, said.

Arup Chatterjee, Director, Engineering and Research and Development, HAL said HAL is indigenously enhancing the training and combat capability of Hawk-i.