India’s Indigenous STAR Supersonic Target Missile Advances to Final Integration Trials

The ability to realistically simulate incoming aerial threats is essential for any modern military force. Such systems help in testing air defence weapons, radar systems, and training personnel to respond effectively during high-pressure combat scenarios. In a significant stride towards enhancing this capability, India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has made remarkable progress with its indigenous STAR Missile project.

The STAR, which stands for Supersonic TARget, is a special-purpose missile designed to mimic the flight behaviour of fast and agile enemy missiles. It can simulate threats emerging from the air, sea, or land, making it an invaluable tool for air defence exercises and operational readiness training.

Reaching a Critical Development Stage

The STAR Missile has now entered its third and most crucial phase of development — full-system integration trials. In this stage, engineers combine all the missile’s key subsystems into a complete prototype. These include:

• High-speed propulsion systems

• Advanced guidance and control systems

• Onboard avionics and telemetry units

• Sophisticated navigation systems

Once integrated, the missile is put through extensive validation trials, where it undergoes real flight tests in combat-like conditions. These tests assess the missile’s accuracy, manoeuvrability, and reliability against simulated threats.

Simulating High-Speed Enemy Threats

With an impressive maximum speed of Mach 2.5 — over two and a half times the speed of sound — the STAR Missile is capable of mimicking the flight characteristics of modern anti-ship cruise missiles, standoff weapons, and other supersonic threats. It can perform sharp turns, rapid altitude changes, and complex flight patterns — all essential behaviours to challenge and train India’s air defence systems.

This feature enables operators to practise intercepting highly dynamic and agile targets, improving their readiness to handle real high-speed threats in wartime scenarios.

Key Features of the STAR Missile

One of the STAR Missile’s standout features is its entirely indigenous development. Unlike systems such as the BrahMos missile, which involves joint technologies from abroad, STAR has been developed solely by Indian engineers and defence scientists. This move strengthens India’s push towards self-reliance in advanced defence technology and reduces dependency on costly imported equipment.

The missile’s modular design further enhances its flexibility. This allows it to be reconfigured quickly for different types of target simulation missions, whether over land, coastal areas, or open seas. As a result, STAR will serve the operational training needs of all three Indian armed forces: the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Technical Specifications

Here’s a brief overview of the STAR Missile’s performance parameters:

• Maximum Speed: Mach 1.8 to 2.5

• Altitude Range: 100 meters to 10 kilometers

• Operational Range: 55 to 175 kilometers

• Flight Time: 50 to 200 seconds

These specifications ensure that the missile can accurately replicate a wide variety of enemy missile profiles, providing realistic training opportunities under diverse operational conditions.

Strengthening India’s Defence Readiness

The progress of the STAR Missile marks an important milestone in India’s missile technology sector. DRDO has successfully developed several critical components for this system, including composite rocket motors, precision navigation units like ring-laser gyroscopes, and state-of-the-art onboard electronics.

Such technological mastery not only boosts India’s defence preparedness but also ensures that its missile development projects remain unaffected by international restrictions or technology control regimes.

Once fully inducted, the STAR Missile will provide a cost-effective, supersonic target simulation solution for live interception drills, giving India’s armed forces a significant edge in defending against modern aerial threats.