Indigenous air-to-surface RudraM-II missile clears flight trials; Rajnath praises team

DEFENCE

3 JUNE 2026

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) have successfully conducted flight-tests of the indigenous RudraM-II Air-to-surface Anti-Radiation Missile (ARM) / “Radar Buster”, marking a significant milestone in India’s efforts to strengthen its precision strike capabilities and advance self-reliance in defence technology.
• According to the Defence Ministry, the missile was test-fired from a Su-30MKI aircraftunder extreme release conditions, with the trials designed to validate the performance of all critical subsystems and flight parameters.
• Data captured through a network of tracking and monitoring instruments deployed by the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur, confirmed the missile’s performance and the success of the trials.
• RudraM-II was developed by Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Hyderabad, the nodal DRDO laboratory for the programme, in collaboration with other DRDO establishments, including Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL), Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE), and ITR.

Operational Range:

• Travels between 100 km to 250 km, heavily depending on the launch altitude.

Speed:

• Achieves supersonic speeds of Mach 2+

Launch Envelope:

• Can be safely released from flexible altitudes ranging from 500 metres up to 15 km

Launch Platforms:

• Integrated primarily onto the Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter jet. It is designed to be adapted for other IAF assets like the HAL Tejas and Mirage 2000

Passive Homing Head (PHH):

• Developed by the Defence Electronics Research Laboratory (DLRL), this seeker detects, classifies, and locks onto radio-frequency emissions from enemy radar systems up to 100 km away.

Shut-Down Evasion capabilities:  

• If the enemy turns off their radar mid-flight to break the lock, RudraM-I defaults to its INS-GPS navigation system. It will continue tracking and strike the last known geographical coordinates of the radar installation with extreme accuracy.

RudraM-I

• RudraM-I (originally known as the New Generation Anti-Radiation Missile, or NGARM) is India’s first indigenously developed air-to-surface anti-radiation missile.
• It forms the foundational baseline for India’s tactical Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD) capabilities.
• Initially test-fired in 2020, the missile successfully underwent critical operational and warhead-validation trials.