Barak-8 missile test fired for third time in two days

Balasore: For the third in the last two days, India on Friday successfully test-fired the Barak-8, the new surface-to-air missile developed jointly with Israel from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur here this morning.

The medium range missile (MR-SAM) was test fired from the launch pad-3 of the ITR at 10.26 am.

This was the Round-III test of missile. On Thursday, the missile was test fired from Chandipur thwce at 8.16 am and 2.30 pm.

Indian Defence Research Development Laboratory (DRDL), a laboratory of DRDO based at Hyderabad, has jointly developed this missile in collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

A new production facility to deliver 100 missiles a year has been established for such type of long range and medium range surface-to-air missiles at M/s Bharat Dynamics Limited, India.

Earlier, Indian Navy had successfully test launched the long range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM). The test was undertaken on the Western Seaboard by INS Kolkata on December 30, 2015, officials said.

Such medium range surface-to-air missiles (SR-SAM), having striking ranges from 50 to 70 km, can fill the gap of existing missiles that India has in its armory at present, they said.

These missiles would be inducted in all three services after user’s trial is completed, the sources said.