India has Developed Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon(SAAW)

News Desk

Indian Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) conducted a successful trial of the indigenously developed Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW) off the Odisha coast from the Hawk-ijet of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on January 21, 2021. This was the ninth successful test of the system conducted over the last five years.

While earlier tests have been conducted from Jaguar, this time HAL Hawk-1 was used, thus expanding the operating scope of weapons system. There are plans to integrate the weapon with the Rafale.

It is the first smart weapon to be fired from an Indian Hawk Mk132 trainer aircraft.

HAL chairman R Madhavan said, “HAL has been focusing on the Atmanirbhar Bharat campaign. The company-owned Hawk-I platform is being extensively used for certification of systems and weapons developed indigenously by DRDO and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research labs.”

Its development began around 2012-13, with crucial inputs from the Indian Air Force and the first test was carried out in 2016. The weapon is designed to strike ground targets, especially adversary airfield infrastructure or similar strategically important installations.

SAAW is indigenously designed and developed by DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat(RCI) Hyderabad. It is a 125-kilogram class smart weapon, capable of engaging ground enemy airfield assets such as radars, bunkers, taxi tracks, and runways, up to a range of 100 kilometres. The high precision guided bomb is lightweight compared to weapon system of the same class.

It is also to be mentioned that 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 a propulsion, it is making use of the aircraft’s propulsion. It can go and land in a place according to the desired places.

The test of SAAW comes after another weapon system designed to target enemy radar and communication assets, Rudram, was tested in October last year.