
Rudram Missile
Why is it in News?
- India’s first indigenous anti-radiation missile, Rudram was successfully flight-tested from a Sukhoi-30 MKI jet.
Details:
- Anti-Radiation Missile:
(1) It is designed to detect, track and neutralise the adversary’s radar, communication assets and other radio frequency sources.
(2) Navigation mechanism comprises –
(a) An inertial navigation system — a computerised mechanism that uses changes in the object’s own position
(b) GPS, which is satellite-based.
(3) It can detect, classify and engage radio frequency sources over a wide band of frequencies as programmed.
- Rudram:
(1) Rudram is an air-to-surface missile.
(2) It is designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
- Why name ‘Rudram’?
(1) It includes the letters ARM (the acronym for anti-radiation missile).
(2) The word in Sanskrit describes a “remover of sorrows” (one of its meanings).
- Significance:
(1) It will enhance IAF’s Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD) capability.
(2) Anti-radiation missiles are used mainly in the initial part of air conflict to strike at the air defence assets of the enemy.
- In later parts, it will lead to higher survivability to a country’s own aircraft.