Hindustan Aeronatics Test-Fires First Anti-Airfield Weapon From Hawk-I Aircraft

The indigenous stand-off weapon is the first smart weapon fired from an Indian Hawk-Mk132

Updated on: 21 January 2021 9:16 pm

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited on Thursday successfully test-fired the indigenous Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW) from the Hawk-i aircraft, the state-owned company said in a statement.

The test launch happened off the coast of Odisha. The aircraft was operated by HAL test pilots Wing Commander (Retd) P Awasthi and Wg Cdr (Retd) M Patel who executed the weapon released in a "textbook manner", successfully meeting all mission objectives.

Hawk-i Successfully Test Fires Smart Anti Airfield Weapon @drajaykumar_ias @ANI @SpokespersonMoD @DefProdnIndia @PTI_News @TOIIndiaNews @gopalsutar pic.twitter.com/fBSjgz77RS
— HAL (@HALHQBLR) January 21, 2021

The homegrown stand-off weapon, developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation's Research Centre Imarat (RCI), is the first smart weapon fired from an Indian Hawk-Mk132, the HAL said in a statement.

The telemetry and tracking systems captured all the mission events confirming the success of the trials.

"The Company owned Hawk-i platform is being extensively used for certification of systems and weapons developed indigenously by DRDO and CSIR labs," R Madhavan, CMD, HAL, said.

Arup Chatterjee, Director, Engineering and Research and Development, HAL said HAL is indigenously enhancing the training and combat capability of Hawk-i.

The HAL said it was in discussions with Indian Armed Forces for the integration of various weapons on Hawk platform.

With PTI inputs