Rudram-II Air-to-Ground Missile to Undergo Mirage-2000 Integration Trials in 2025, Tejas Mk2 Also Slated for Future

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), is gearing up for further trials of the Rudram-II air-to-ground missile in 2025. This next phase of testing will focus on integrating the missile with the Mirage-2000-5 fighter jet, expanding its compatibility beyond the Su-30MKI.

The Rudram-II, weighing 800 kilograms and carrying a 200-kilogram warhead, is a potent weapon designed to neutralize enemy radars and communication systems. The Indian Air Force (IAF) is keen to integrate this missile across its diverse fleet, enhancing its operational versatility and strike capabilities.

The integration process will involve captive and release flight trials scheduled for next year, followed by firing trials expected by the end of 2025, contingent on the success of preliminary tests. An IAF official highlighted the missile's versatile launch capabilities, allowing deployment from various altitudes and targeting enemy assets over 100 km away.

The IAF also plans to equip the Tejas Mk2 with the Rudram-II missile when the aircraft enters service, expected around 2030. This expanded compatibility across multiple fighter platforms will significantly enhance the IAF's ability to suppress enemy defences and command and control systems, giving it a decisive edge in combat scenarios.

Key Features of Rudram-II​

• Lock-On-Before/After-Launch Systems: These advanced systems provide flexibility in targeting, allowing the missile to adapt to dynamic battlefield conditions.
• Internal Guidance System: Once launched, the missile can autonomously navigate to its target, ensuring precision strikes.
• Extended Range: The missile's effective range of 50 km to 300 km makes it a formidable weapon in long-range engagements.

The Rudram-II program represents a significant step towards self-reliance in defence technology for India. Its integration with multiple fighter aircraft will significantly enhance the IAF's combat capabilities and strengthen its position as a dominant force in the region.

 

[sanket]

That's great news. But again, Mirage-2000 has been integrated with most of the ground-based target weapons, unlike the BVR Astra series or Meteor system & AESA radar integration. Rafale, too, lacks an anti-radiation missile in its weapon package. Next will be integration on Rafale fighter jets.

 

[Apocalypse gupta]

I have a wild idea. But hear me out. Instead of spending 100+ billion dollars on fighter aircrafts etc. (Conventional military), why not focus on investing that money on long range missiles and drones.

Houthis are super poor, dont have air force but still arw able to send millions of israelis running to bunkers at night by launching long range missiles. Israel has 5th gen fighters, modern tanks, best tanks in the world, a formidable navy, they still cant stop the houthis.

3 things are needed today in military- long range missiles and drones, and SAM systems. Iran is doing this, but its missiles, drones and SAMs are not of good quality.

Instead of spending money on tanks, APC, fighters, AWACS, refueling aircraft, Carriers etc, imagine having millions of drones and missiles. Nobody in the world would dare mess with you.

this is the exact reason(on a smaller scale) israel, america, saudi etc dont want to escalate with Iran, a country without a functional army, navy or air force but only having a rocket force and drone force.

 

[beencensured]

I have a wild idea. But hear me out. Instead of spending 100+ billion dollars on fighter aircrafts etc. (Conventional military), why not focus on investing that money on long range missiles and drones.

Houthis are super poor, dont have air force but still arw able to send millions of israelis running to bunkers at night by launching long range missiles. Israel has 5th gen fighters, modern tanks, best tanks in the world, a formidable navy, they still cant stop the houthis.

3 things are needed today in military- long range missiles and drones, and SAM systems. Iran is doing this, but its missiles, drones and SAMs are not of good quality.

Instead of spending money on tanks, APC, fighters, AWACS, refueling aircraft, Carriers etc, imagine having millions of drones and missiles. Nobody in the world would dare mess with you.

this is the exact reason(on a smaller scale) israel, america, saudi etc dont want to escalate with Iran, a country without a functional army, navy or air force but only having a rocket force and drone force.

You have a great idea, but Houthis have essentially no defence and only offensive capabilities. Houthis are a nomadic, poor people, not worried that everything of theirs would be destroyed, which allows them to think only of offensive capability and not worry about defence. Though for them the strategy is sound, our cities would suffer greatly in such a scenario, but villages would be mostly unscathed. But offensive ability scares the enemy, and India's over-reliance on defence encourages our enemies to commit terrorism and arm Maoists/naxals. So, our enemies usually laugh at us while funding terrorism as over-emphasis on defence. India acts like a bullied child just trying to protect themselves in a world of bullies and does not understand that until the enemy is scared that you will hit them, the bullying would not stop.

Further, look at India waiting for Tejas II to put this great offensive weapon on, and the outdated junk Mirage 2000, which has neither the radar nor etc., to use. It is like India does not want to sell the far better Tejas, nor have an offensive stand-off capability. This is why some people take offense to impotent officials in office, but then, there was nothing worse than Nehru.

 

[De_SECULARISED]

When you are planning to retire mirages in next 5-6years, what's the need to integrate them with such.

 

[Out_for_vendetta]

I have a wild idea. But hear me out. Instead of spending 100+ billion dollars on fighter aircrafts etc. (Conventional military), why not focus on investing that money on long range missiles and drones.

Houthis are super poor, dont have air force but still arw able to send millions of israelis running to bunkers at night by launching long range missiles. Israel has 5th gen fighters, modern tanks, best tanks in the world, a formidable navy, they still cant stop the houthis.

3 things are needed today in military- long range missiles and drones, and SAM systems. Iran is doing this, but its missiles, drones and SAMs are not of good quality.

Instead of spending money on tanks, APC, fighters, AWACS, refueling aircraft, Carriers etc, imagine having millions of drones and missiles. Nobody in the world would dare mess with you.

this is the exact reason(on a smaller scale) israel, america, saudi etc dont want to escalate with Iran, a country without a functional army, navy or air force but only having a rocket force and drone force.

Eh, while I agree that Bharat needs to increase our portfolio of available long-range missiles and rockets, not only in numbers but also range & types, these missiles are only one part of the offensive.

Your argument would have merit until this point, but you also ask that we don't need AWACS, refuelers, carriers and heck, even APCs.

Mere bhai, no war is going to be decided and ended by missiles and rockets; you still need thousands upon thousands of men, raiding enemy posts and taking them over. For that, you need decent MRAPs, APCs & IFVs.

As for the refuelers and AWACS, they are called force multipliers for a reason. We need all of these as well as long-range missiles and rockets. I've been here long enough and read many of your posts; you're smart enough to understand this.

 

[Sandeep]

When you are planning to retire mirages in next 5-6years, what's the need to integrate them with such.

Trust me those jets will still be in service and will only start retiring from 2040 onwards

 

[Sandeep]

This is good news as we need to integrate it among all of our jets so we can cut down on foreign expensive imports. We need to make sure that we manufacture this 100% indigenously and don’t use any parts, components or technology.

 

[Apocalypse gupta]

Eh, while I agree that Bharat needs to increase our portfolio of available long-range missiles and rockets, not only in numbers but also range & types, these missiles are only one part of the offensive.

Your argument would have merit until this point, but you also ask that we don't need AWACS, refuelers, carriers and heck, even APCs.

Mere bhai, no war is going to be decided and ended by missiles and rockets; you still need thousands upon thousands of men, raiding enemy posts and taking them over. For that, you need decent MRAPs, APCs & IFVs.

As for the refuelers and AWACS, they are called force multipliers for a reason. We need all of these as well as long-range missiles and rockets. I've been here long enough and read many of your posts; you're smart enough to understand this.

My point is that there is no need to fight conventional wars anymore. If you have millions of drones and missiles, no one will dare attack you. Similarly, since you won't have the capability to take enemy territory, you won't attack anyone. World peace achieved. Just look at Iran; its conventional military is terrible, but it has a formidable arsenal of drones, missiles, and SAMs. Yet Israel, which has 5th-gen fighters and a very strong conventional military, does not dare to escalate with them.

 

[Out_for_vendetta]

My point is that there is no need to fight conventional wars anymore. If you have millions of drones and missiles, no one will dare attack you. Similarly, since you won't have the capability to take enemy territory, you won't attack anyone. World peace achieved. Just look at Iran; its conventional military is terrible, but it has a formidable arsenal of drones, missiles, and SAMs. Yet Israel, which has 5th-gen fighters and a very strong conventional military, does not dare to escalate with them.

Millions of drones won't overthrow men from bunkers at 15,000 ft. Millions of men won't hold vast swathes of land across the Tibetan plateau. You need manpower for that.

And what is this about Iran? Israel literally bombed them a month ago. The Shaheeds didn't stop them.

Besides, there are ways to overcome drones. The later stages of the Russo-Ukrainian war taught us this.

 

[Dipesh Debnath]

How does the radar track an emitter if the emitter is changing frequency every 3-5 seconds? I read some AI is needed to scan the whole spectrum and make the decision that another beam is actually from the same emitter but with a different frequency. Does Rudram have that type of AI?

 

[Apocalypse gupta]

Millions of drones won't overthrow men from bunkers at 15,000 ft. Millions of men won't hold vast swathes of land across the Tibetan plateau. You need manpower for that.

And what is this about Iran? Israel literally bombed them a month ago. The Shaheeds didn't stop them.

Besides, there are ways to overcome drones. The later stages of the Russo-Ukrainian war taught us this.

It is true that millions of drones won't overthrow men from bunkers at 15,000ft nor help hold the Tibetan plateau. But if you point those drones and missiles at Lahore and major Chinese cities, they will not dare cause trouble.

Regarding the strike by Israel, it was on a very small scale. Compare that with the strike on Iran. Both countries only wanted to send a message and not cause big damage, which would cause escalation.

Look at Ukraine. Russia has stealth fighters, yet it is unable to use them in any effective manner. Ukraine is able to use long-range drones packed with explosives to hit Russian arms depots and refineries hundreds of kilometers away from the front line.

Ukraine had 0 stockpile of missiles or drones before the war. Imagine if Ukraine had tens of thousands of them. Russia would never have invaded.

 

[Arin Kumar]

The entire existence of the Indian Air Force has been put into question by the absence of an indigenously built aircraft engine.

The Chinese, who are our primary adversary, started four universities dedicated to aeronautics during the 1960s and 1970s. And their main focus was always aircraft engine development. The result is now that the Chinese can manufacture their own aircraft engines—be it fighter aircraft, military transport, reconnaissance, helicopters, drones—you name it, they manufacture it.

So many Indian analysts mocked the Chinese attempts to make aircraft engines, saying they last for about 100 hours of flight. But any Chinese engine that has a lifetime of 100 hours is 1000 times better than our GE F404 engine in Tejas that lasts 3000 hours. Why? Because the engine is Chinese—it is their own—they can improve the design on their own. During the testing phase, many brave Chinese test pilots lost their lives because their planes crashed. But the Chinese did not stop.

Because China has the world's largest population, they can afford the death of 1000 test pilots. So they kept innovating indigenously and kept testing. Also, they did not try fighter aircraft engines first; they first attempted basic trainer aircraft engines. Later, when they gained relative expertise, they moved into bigger engines.

As a result, now Chinese engines are almost as good as Russian engines. And they can manufacture 100,000s of them in case of a war.

What are we doing with the world's largest population? We have not tested a single aircraft with an indigenously built aircraft engine. Not even a basic trainer aircraft.

So the Indian Air Force is not much better than the Pakistan Air Force when compared with China. China is 50 years ahead of us in R&D and dynamism.

We should rather learn from the Taliban on how to escape air attacks. Because, whatever you may say, the Taliban survived 20 years of American air and drone raids.

 

[Arin Kumar]

200 kg warhead for an 800 kg air-launched missile. That is 25% of the missile's weight.

The British Storm Shadow has a 450 kg warhead for 1300 kg weight, that is 34% of the missile's weight.

We need to make the Rudram II lighter or increase the warhead weight - keeping the missile weight the same or lower.

But it is still an admirable step - because we are trying, testing, and improving. This must be commended.

Kudos to the Rudram II team of DRDO.

 

[Mango_Indian]

We are importing Israeli air-ground missiles when we have Rudram missile ....that means Rudram is still not mature.