India Successfully Test-Fires Long-Range Guided Bomb from Fighter Jet

India has focused on developing sophisticated weapons in recent months as tensions with its neighbours, China and Pakistan, worsen. India has reportedly deployed more than 50,000 additional troops and weapons in the western sector of the Line of Actual Control during a continuing border stand-off with China.

India’s state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) team jointly test-fired an indigenously developed Long-Range Bomb (LRB) at the integrated test range off the eastern coast of Odisha on Friday, the defence ministry said.

“The long-range bomb, after release from the IAF fighter aircraft, flew to a land-based target a long way away with accuracy within specified limits. All the mission objectives were successfully met,” the statement from the defence ministry read.

Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh said that the successful test of the bomb will prove to be a force multiplier for the Indian Armed Forces. Countries such as the US, China, and Israel have been operating such bombs for years.

On Wednesday, the Strategic Forces Command of the Indian Army test-fired the country’s longest-range ballistic missile Agni-V. The nuclear-capable ballistic missile can hit targets across Asia and some parts of Europe and Africa.