India’s first indigenously developed long-range bomb

• DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) team successfully flight tested the indigenously developed Long-Range Bomb from an aerial platform.
• The LR Bomb was flight tested from a Sukhoi-30 fighter jet over Balasore, Odisha.
• The bomb is part of the class of weapons with a range of 50 to 150 km.
• The government did not share details about the weapons, but mentioned that the LRB was tested from an aerial platform.

About LR Bomb

• The LR Bomb is designed and developed by Research Centre Imarat (RCI), a DRDO laboratory located in Hyderabad.
• During the test, the LR Bomb was fired from a Sukhoi-30 fighter jet at an altitude of 10 kilometers.
• The Bomb has a range of 100 kilometers and can carry a warhead of 1000 kilograms.
• During the test flight, the bomb hit the desired target inside the sea using laser guidance and the bomb completed all the mission objectives that were necessary to call the test successful.
• The flight of the bomb and the performance was monitored through sensors which included Electro-Optical Tracking System (EOTS), Telemetry, and radar deployed by the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur in Odisha.

Significance

• With this successful LR Bomb test, the nation can stay well within its territory and hit enemy targets at 100 kilometers with high accuracy.
• India has been using Israeli laser-guided bombs in the past.
• From Kargil to operation Bandar in Balakot in 2019, India has used foreign technology, but with the LR Bomb, this will change soon.