Balasore: India on May 11 successfully test fired Astra, the indigenously developed air-to-air missile, for the second time in three days, from the integrated test range (ITR) at Chandipur, 15 kms from Balasore, sources said.

The 3.8 metre high and 10-inch thick prototype of Astra was test fired from a specially erected fixed launcher at about 10.58 am (IST) in launch complex number two of the ITR, the sources said.

The first test-launch of the missile took place from the ITR on May 9.

Developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the missile has a striking range of 25 to 40 kms giving it a beyond visual range interception capability.

"It is purely a technology demonstration. And the aim of repeated trial is to make the missile and its subsystem hundred per cent error free," said a jubilant DRDO scientist.

Though the missile is designed for air strike and defence system the thrust of the current trial was "to fine tune its control and guidance system", he said.

Astra would form the main interception armour of the indigenously developed light combat aircraft (LCA), sources said.

PTI