New Delhi: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) on Thursday successfully carried out the maiden flight test of Long-Range Surface-to-Air Missile Kusha from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that the successful test flight of Kusha marks an important milestone in Indian defence R&D. “The capability in developing long range surface-to-air missile systems is possessed only by a handful of nations. This will also eliminate the import dependency for such systems and signifies a giant leap in air defence capability of the nation. I congratulate DRDO and other stakeholders for this achievement,” he said in a statement.
This maiden test was conducted against an electronic target simulating high-speed and high-altitude aerial threat which was successfully intercepted by the missile system.All weapon system elements, including the missiles, radars, command and control centre, have been developed by various DRDO laboratories and Industry partners.The Kusha missile system is capable of neutralising a wide variety of aerial threats, including fighter jets, missiles, UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and large enemy aircraft within a wide range and altitude envelope.
