Israel announced on Saturday it has successfully tested India's supersonic long-range surface-to-air missile (LRSAM) — Barak 8. The weapon is the first LRSAM India and Israel have co-developed.
The supersonic LRSAM, designed and developed jointly by India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), was tested from an Israeli naval vessel on Thursday.
According to a report in The Jerusalem Post, a Barack 8 was fired on a fast-moving jet-powered drone at 7 am from Lahav, a Sa'ar 5-class Corvette, positioned near Haifa in the Mediterranean Sea.
The firing and interception test was a success, the report added.
The test, during which the missile system destroyed the incoming fast-moving object, was a first for the Israeli military as it successfully tested from a ship the advanced surface-to-air missile.
The defence system will now be deployed to secure vital Israeli offshore assets like gas fields.
"In the first-of-its-kind operation test, a Barak 8 missile fired from an Israeli Navy ship successfully intercepted an enemy target registering 100% success," Israeli military sources told PTI.
The defence system is also a first for DRDO, for which it has designed and developed a dual pulse propulsion system and other safe-arm mechanisms.
More operational flight trials of the LRSAM will be conducted from the Indian Navy's newest destroyer, INS Kolkata, before it is inducted into various classes of vessels.
