Python-5 air to air missile
GS PAPER III: Security challenges and their management in border areas - linkages of organized crime with terrorism.
Context: Set of trials, extensive missile carriage flight tests were conducted at Bengaluru to assess integration of Python-5 missile with aircraft systems on board Tejas, like Avionics, fire-control radar, missile weapon delivery system and flight control system.
- India’s Indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas has added capability of firing Israeli-origin Python-5 air-to-air missile (AAM) after successful tests that concluded.
- These set of tests were aimed to validate the enhanced capability of the already integrated Israeli-origin Derby beyond visual range AAM on Tejas.
- The test firing at Goa completed a series of missile trials to validate the performance under extremely challenging scenarios.
- The Derby missile achieved direct hit on a high-speed manoeuvering aerial target and Python missiles also achieved 100 per cent hits, thereby validating their complete capability.