, India on March 29 successfully test-fired a domestically made air-to-air missile for the second time in four days, defense officials said.
The Astra missile was fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea, 125 miles from Orissa’s capital Bhubaneswar, the officials said.
The single-stage solid-fuel missile, first successfully tested in May 2003, can carry a 33-pound conventional warhead and has a strike range of 12 to 50 miles.
The test comes a week after neighboring Pakistan test-fired a nuclear-capable radar-dodging cruise missile with a range of 535 miles.
The neighbors have routinely conducted missile tests since carrying out tit-for-tat nuclear detonations in May 1998.
Tensions have, however, eased since 2004 when they launched a peace process aimed at ending six decades of hostility and resolving their dispute over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir, the cause of two of their three wars.
