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UPSC VERTICAL LAUNCH SHORT RANGE SURFACE TO AIR MISSILE - English

VERTICAL LAUNCH SHORT RANGE SURFACE TO AIR MISSILE

Why in News?

Recently, Vertical Launch Short Range Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM) was successfully flight-tested by Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Navy from an Indian Naval Ship at Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.

About

• VL-SRSAM has been designed and developed jointly by three facilities of the Defence Research and Development Organisation for deployment of Indian Naval warships.
• The missile has the capability of neutralizing various aerial threats at close ranges including sea-skimming targets.
• Sea skimming is a technique many anti-ship missiles and some fighter or strike aircraft use to avoid radar and infrared detection.

Design:

• The missile has been designed to strike high-speed airborne targets at the range of 40 to 50 km and at an altitude of around 15 km.
• Its design is based on Astra missile which is a Beyond Visual Range Air to Air missile.
• Astra ("weapon") is India's first air-to-air all weather beyond-visual-range active radar homing air-to-air missile, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organization.
• A Beyond-Visual-Range missile (BVR) is an air-to-air missile that is capable of engaging at ranges of 20 nautical miles or beyond.

Features:

• Cruciform wings: They are four small wings arranged like a cross on four sides and give the projective a stable aerodynamic posture.
• Thrust Vectoring: It is the ability to change the direction of the thrust from its engine, control the angular velocity and the attitude of the missile.
  • Thrust is the force which moves an aircraft through the air.
• Canisterised system: The inside environment is controlled, thus making its transport and storage easier and improving the shelf life of weapons.

Naval Warfare

It is a combat in and on the sea, the ocean, or any other battlespace involving a major body of water such as a large lake or wide river.

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