The Astra Mk 1 Air-to-Air Missile

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India and Indonesia signed a historic defense agreement during their bilateral summit in Jakarta.
Under this deal, India will supply its homegrown Astra Mk 1 missiles to Indonesia.

The Astra Mk 1 is an advanced air-to-air missile that can fly in any weather.
It is a Beyond-Visual-Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM). This means pilots can shoot down enemy planes from very far away.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) designed this missile. Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) manufactures it.
The missile targets highly agile supersonic aircraft. It destroys them before they can get close enough for a dogfight.
The main goal of this system is to give Indian pilots long-range strike superiority in the sky.

The missile can fly at an extremely high speed of Mach 4.5. This is four and a half times the speed of sound.
It operates at heights from sea level up to 20 km.
The baseline Mk 1 variant has an effective strike range of 80 km to 110 km.
It uses a single-pulse, smokeless solid-fuel rocket motor. This motor leaves no smoke trail, which keeps the launching fighter jet hidden.
The missile already works on Sukhoi Su-30 MKI fighter jets. Engineers are currently integrating it with LCA Tejas Mk 1A and Rafale jets.

In the initial phase, the missile uses its pre-programmed internal systems to navigate right after launch.
During the mid-course phase, the launch aircraft sends continuous radio data updates to correct the missile's path.
In the final terminal phase, the missile uses its own Radio Frequency (RF) seeker to lock onto the target.
This built-in seeker helps the missile ignore enemy electronic jamming attempts.

The Astra Mk 2 variant has a longer range of 200 km. It uses a dual-pulse solid rocket motor that can restart near the target.
The Astra Mk 3 is also known as Gandiva. DRDO is currently developing this longest-range version.
It uses Solid Fuel Ducted Ramjet (SFDR) technology. This technology will allow the missile to strike targets beyond 350 km.