India successfully tests first smart anti-airfield bomb

New Delhi: The Defence and Research Development Organisation (DRDO) on Friday crossed a very significant milestone when it successfully flight-tested the secretive smart anti-airfield weapon (SAAW) from an IAF aircraft at the integrated test range at Chandipur, Odisha.

Besides being well in the way to becoming the first country to possess such an air-to-surface weapon system, it is also DRDO’s first fully indigenous weapon product. Weighing easy at a mere 120 kg, the SAAW “is capable of engaging ground targets with high precision up to a range of 100 km”, a DRDO release said.

“It is an important milestone in developing weapons of this class. Friday test was a developmental one and there is still some time to go before the user trials,” DRDO spokesperson Manish Bhardwaj said.

Once completed, the SAAW would be integrated with the IAF’s Rafale, Sukhoi and Jaguar fighter aircraft that will fly with the deadly arsenal of about six such systems that can glide in and wreak havoc in enemy airfields blowing even steel fortified runaways and bunkers to smithereens effectively crippling flight operations.

Two other countries the US and Israel are reported to be attempting to develop these weapons. The French also use the Matra Durandal anti-runway penetration bombs — a sort of precursor to the SAAW.

It was in May that the first successful test of SAAW was conducted from a Jaguar fighter at the Aircraft & Systems Testing Establishment in Bengaluru. It is understood that the performance of SAAW’s subsystems, aerodynamics and wings are already completed.

While the SAAW may be seen as a force multiplier for the IAF, its use can be somewhat limited by the fact that most air forces, including India’s neighbours China and Pakistan, nowadays operate from multiple runaways and even from specially-constructed highways.