DRDO’s indigenously developed Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon (SAAW) was successfully test fired, on 21 January, from Indian Hawk-Mk132 of HAL for the ninth time in the last five years. The weapon is designed to strike ground targets, especially adversary airfield infrastructure or similar strategically important installations.
It was a text book launch, which met all mission objectives. The telemetry and tracking systems installed at Interim Test Range (ITR), Balasore captured all the mission events.” While earlier tests have been conducted from Jaguar, this time HAL Hawk-1 was used, thus expanding the operating scope of weapons system.
The system belongs to the glide bomb category and its development began around 2012-13, with crucial inputs from the Indian Air Force and the first test was carried out in 2016.
The press statement said, “SAAW is indigenously designed and developed by DRDO’s Research Centre Imarat (RCI) Hyderabad. This is a 125-kilogram class smart weapon, capable of engaging ground enemy airfield assets such as radars, bunkers, taxi tracks, and runways, up to a range of 100 kilometres. The high precision guided bomb is lightweight compared to weapon system of the same class. The weapon was earlier successfully test fired from Jaguar aircraft.”
