India’s manufacturers of ammunitions and missile systems Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and MBDA of United Kingdom (UK) have signed a licensing agreement to establish a facility for the Final Assembly, Integration and Test (FAIT) of Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) missiles in India. Under the agreement, MBDA will transfer the equipment and knowledge to BDL for establishing the facility expected to commence operations by 2022-23. Commodore Siddharth Mishra (Retd), CMD, BDL stated that signing of the licencing agreement reinforces the BDL’s commitment to contribute towards ‘Make in India’ and the ‘Atmanirbhar’ initiatives in the defence sector.
The Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile, also known by its United States identifier AIM-132, is an imaging infrared homing (heat seeking) air-to-air missile, produced by MBDA UK, that is designed for close-range combat. It is in service in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), replacing the AIM-9 Sidewinder. ASRAAM is designed to allow the pilot to fire and then turn away before the opposing aircraft can close for a shot. It flies at well over Mach 3 to ranges in excess of 25 kilometres (16 mi). It retains a 50?g manoeuvrability provided by body lift technology coupled with tail control.
ASRAAM is a high speed, extremely manoeuvrable, heat-seeking, air-to-air missile. Built by MBDA UK, it is designed as a “fire-and-forget” missile. ASRAAM is intended to detect and launch against targets at much longer ranges, as far as early versions of the AMRAAM, in order to shoot down the enemy long before it closes enough to be able to fire its own weapons. In this respect the ASRAAM shares more in common with the AMRAAM than other IR missiles, although it retains high manoeuvrability. The main improvement is a new 128×128 resolution imaging infrared focal plane array (FPA) seeker manufactured by Hughes before they were acquired by Raytheon.
Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) (IAST: Bh?rat ??yan?miks limi?e?) is one of India’s manufacturers of ammunitions and missile systems. It was founded in 1970 in Hyderabad, Telangana, India.[4] BDL was established in the year 1970 to be a manufacturing base for guided weapon systems. Begun with a pool of engineers drawn from Indian Ordnance Factories, DRDO and aerospace industries, BDL began by producing a first generation anti-tank guided missile – the French SS11B1. BDL has three manufacturing units, located at Kanchanbagh, Hyderabad, Telangana; Bhanur, Medak district, Telangana and Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
