The development is significant as India continues to heavily rely on imports for air armaments. The Israel-manufactured SPICE bomb is the biggest conventional bomb that can be delivered by the Indian Air Force.
New Delhi (Sputnik) – India has successfully tested a precision guided high speed low drag (HSLD) bomb weighing 500 kg, which is the largest bomb locally developed by the country so far. During the flight trial in the western state of Rajasthan, the 500 kg general purpose bomb was released from Indian Air Force’s (IAF) Su 30 MK1 aircraft. The bomb has been developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) of the state-owned Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
The trial covered ground adaptation, carriage and handling, limited separation and release of the bomb. Sukhoi-30MKI released PGHSLD-500 fitted on station 05/06 from an altitude of 5 km at 900 km to verify separation performance and to estimate stability.
“During the carriage trials, the aircraft touched the carriage limits of 0.85 at 150 m altitude and completed 6.5 ‘g’ and full roll maneuvers. The structural integrity of the bomb was found satisfactory after the trials,” DRDO said.
According to an official document, these bombs are effective against ground targets like railway yards/bridges, major installations, bunkers, runways and hardened targets. The bomb can be carried on various in-service aircraft like Jaguar, MiG and other advanced combat aircraft of the Indian Air Force. Such bombs play a very important role for strike missions where aircraft are tasked to destroy ground installation and enemy runways.
Indian scientists are presently working on different types of non-nuclear bombs like glide bombs and HSLD bombs. In the locally developed HSLD category, 250 kg and 450 kg variants were already in service. The successful trial of the 500 kg variant has paved the way for its early induction.
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