NEW DELHI – A pre-induction trial of India’s indigenously developed beyondvisual range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) ‘Astra’ was successfully conductedWednesday over Bay of Bengal near Chandipur in Odisha, defence sources said.

The missile was fired from a fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force inthe afternoon and targeted an unmanned aerial vehicle ‘Banshi’ which itsuccessfully engaged, the sources said.

‘Astra’ was successfully test fired by the IAF from a Su-30 aircraft thathad taken off from Air Force station, Kalaikunda, a defence statement said.The missile successfully engaged a maneuvering target with high precision,meeting the mission objectives, it said.

The statement said, “In the series of trials held to date, Astra has beenlaunched in the complete Su-30 flight envelope. The flight test assumessignificance as it was part of the series of final pre-induction trials”