India’s state run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has claimed a successful test flight of Smart Anti-Airfield Weapons (SAAWs) fired from a Hawk-i aircraft off the coast of Odisha on Thursday. The stand-off weapon was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation and is the first smart weapon to be fired from an Indian Hawk-Mk132.
The telemetry and tracking systems captured all the mission events, confirming the success of the trials, the company claimed.
The SAAW is an aircraft-launched, advanced, precision strike weapon in the 125kg-category used to attack and destroy enemy airfield assets such as radars, bunkers, taxi tracks, runways within a range of 100km.
The weapon's guidance system corrects its course and is able to manoeuvre effectively despite variations in wind conditions.
"This is a sort of guided bomb and it will be much cheaper than a missile or rocket, the reason being that it is not having propulsion, it is making use of the aircraft's propulsion", the DRDO has stated in the past.
Last August, China unveiled a new “guided glide dispenser bomb” which can carry some 240 submunitions of six different types that disperse over a target, covering an area of up to 6,000 square metres, or about 1.5 acres.