Hawk-i successfully fires Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon

In a major boost to the indigenous Hawk-i program, state-owned aircraft maker Hindustan Aeronautics Limited on Thursday successfully test-fired a Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon from the Hawk-i aircraft off the coast of Odisha. 

Developed by DRDO's Research Centre Imarat, the indigenous stand-off weapon is the first smart weapon fired from an Indian Hawk-Mk132.
 
"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 CSIR labs," HAL CMD R Madhavan said.
 
Flown by HAL test pilots Wg Cdr (Retd) P Awasthi and Wg Cdr (Retd) M Patel, the aircraft executed the weapon release in a textbook manner and all mission objectives were met. 

The telemetry and tracking systems captured all the mission events confirming the success of the trials.
 
Arup Chatterjee, Director of Engineering and R&D at HAL said the company is indigenously enhancing the training and combat capability of Hawk-i. 

"HAL is in discussions with Indian Armed Forces for integration of various weapons on Hawk platform," the state-owned company said.
 
The Hawk-i is HAL's internally-funded program offering the Indian Armed Forces an upgrade and combat capability for the Hawk, transforming it into an Advanced Jet Trainer providing training on sensors and weapons in peacetime into a potent combat platform during a conflict.

SAAW has been designed to be launched from two aircraft -- the multirole Sukhoi Su-30 and the ground attack Jaguar. The SAAW is an aircraft launched, advanced, precision strike weapon of 125 Kg category used to attack and destroy enemy airfield assets such as radars, bunkers, taxi tracks, runways within a range of 100 kms.  

It has been earlier successfully test-fired from Jaguar aircraft. The SAAW is India's attempt at building an indigenous weapon for the specialised operations. 

These precision-guided glide bombs are cheaper than conventional missiles since they do not have the complex propulsion systems that are the norm for cruise missiles.

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• Hawk-I
• India
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• Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon
• bunkers
• destroy enemy airfield
• precision strike weapon
• radars
• runways
• taxi tracks
• weapons test
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