DRDO carries out successful flight trials of VSHORADS missile systems

The defence ministry on Friday said three flight-trials of a very short-range air defence missile system were conducted successfully from Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.

It said the trials were carried out to "revalidate" the capability of the VSHORADS (Very Short-Range Air Defence System) missile system in neutralising high-speed threats flying at varying speed, range, and altitude.

The VSHORADS is a man-portable air defence system designed and developed indigenously by Research Centre Imarat (RCI) in collaboration with other DRDO (Defence Research & Development Organisation) laboratories and Indian industry partners.

"During all the flight-tests, the missiles intercepted and destroyed the high-speed aerial targets mimicking enemy aircraft in various threat scenarios meeting all extreme engagement points," the ministry said in a statement.

"The tests were carried out in final deployment configuration, where target acquisition and missile firing were carried out by field operators," it said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the DRDO, armed forces and the industries for the successful flight-tests of the missile system.

The three consecutive flight trials of VSHORADS are a great success, and the system can soon be inducted into armed forces, he said.

"The flight data captured by various range instruments like telemetry, electro-optical tracking system and radars deployed by Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, validated the effectiveness of VSHORADS against a wide range of aerial threats," the ministry said.

It said these user validation flight-trials were carried out in the presence of the representatives of joint forces along with senior officials from DRDO and development-cum-production partners.