The Kusha missile maiden test was flown on Thursday from APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha, and the missile intercepted its target. The Defence Research and Development Organisation put the Long Range Surface to Air Missile up against an electronic target simulating a high speed, high altitude aerial threat, and the Ministry of Defence said the engagement was successful.

Kusha is the programme Indian air defence planners point to whenever the question of replacing imported long range surface to air systems comes up. Thursday is the first occasion on which the government has confirmed that a Kusha round has flown, and the first on which it has claimed an intercept.


What the government placed on record

Rajnath Singh called the test an important milestone in Indian defence research and development. He said the capability to develop a long range surface to air missile system is held by only a handful of nations, that Kusha will remove the import dependency India currently carries for systems in this class, and that the test signifies what he termed a giant leap in the country's air defence capability. The system can neutralise fighter jets, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and large enemy aircraft within a wide range and altitude envelope, the Ministry said.

Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, who also holds charge as Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO, monitored the launch and congratulated the teams involved.

Three claims sit inside that. One is technical, that an integrated round flew and hit. One is industrial, that the domestic supply chain behind it has matured far enough to build the whole system rather than the missile alone. The third is political, the Aatmanirbhar Bharat line the government has pressed since Operation Sindoor, that India intends to stop buying this category of equipment abroad.

Kusha missile maiden test and what DRDO says it built

The Ministry release is specific on scope. All weapon system elements, the missiles, the radars and the command and control centre, have been developed by DRDO laboratories and Indian industry partners. The radar and battle management chain is where import dependency normally bites, not the interceptor.

Kusha is carried in official usage as the Extended Range Air Defence System, and earlier documentation referred to it as XRSAM. The Defence Research and Development Organisation leads it through the Defence Research and Development Laboratory in Hyderabad, the same complex where the Defence Minister inaugurated an Advanced Weapon System Complex in June and described Kusha as a game changer for Indian security. That visit, covered in IDW's reporting on Mission Sudarshan Chakra, placed the programme inside the wider national missile defence architecture the government has been assembling.

The programme has been publicly described as a three tier system, with interceptors covering engagement bands of roughly 150 km, 250 km and 350 to 400 km on a common kill vehicle. Cabinet Committee on Security approval has been publicly reported at about Rs 21,700 crore. It is meant to plug into the Integrated Air Command and Control System.

What the announcement still does not state

Neither the post nor the release names which of the three interceptors flew. No range figure is given for the intercept, no altitude, and no designation for the radar or the seeker. The target is described only as electronic, which in DRDO usage points to a simulated rather than a physical target. Any number attached to this particular trial in circulation elsewhere is not sourced to the government.

Why the import dependency line carries weight

India's long range air defence at present rests on the Russian S-400, contracted in 2018 for five squadrons. That system works and has an operational record in Indian hands, but every follow on decision about it runs through Moscow, through export logistics that the Russia Ukraine conflict has already disrupted once, and through the payment and sanctions questions that attach to Russian defence trade. Kusha is the answer to that structural problem rather than to any shortcoming in the S-400 itself.

The medium tier is already largely indigenous. Akash serves with both the Army and the Air Force, and MRSAM has an Indian production base and a combat record from May 2025. The Defence Acquisition Council cleared further MRSAM and V-SHORADS buys in July under the Rs 52,000 crore package.

Kalam Island and the DRDO test tempo

Kalam Island has absorbed most of DRDO's heavy missile testing over the past two years. The Army version of MRSAM was put through four operational flight trials there in April 2025. The Integrated Air Defence Weapon System, combining QRSAM, VSHORADS and a directed energy weapon under one command and control centre, had its maiden flight tests off the Odisha coast that August.

Air launched work has run in parallel. DRDO and the Indian Air Force validated the RudraM-II air to surface missile in trials tracked from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, which also handles instrumentation for launches off Kalam Island.

What follows a maiden intercept

The Kusha missile maiden test opens a development trial series rather than closing one. What normally follows is repeat firings across the engagement envelope, seeker performance against representative targets, salvo and multi target engagements, and then user trials with the service that will operate the system. Public statements have placed initial Kusha elements in service around 2028, with all three tiers fielded by about 2030.

The Air Force has secured Acceptance of Necessity for the system and has been reported to be seeking it in squadron strength. Neither the squadron figure nor a production contract value has been officially stated.