DRDO Flight-Tested Ballistic Missile Defence Interceptors, a Long-Range Cruise Missile and the Kusha Air Defence Missile in the Six Weeks from 10 June to 23 July 2026

Between 10 June and 23 July 2026, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the network of laboratories that designs India’s military missiles, radars and sensors, reported flight tests of a multi-layered ballistic missile defence system, a naval anti-ship missile, a long-range land-attack cruise missile and a long-range surface-to-air missile called Kusha. The Defence Ministry’s releases say the ballistic missile interceptors engaged their targets, that every objective of the cruise missile test was met, and that Kusha intercepted its target on its first flight.

Each of those is the ministry’s own account. As of 14 October 2026 this article found no independent assessment of any of the results, so what follows separates what the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the government’s official release service, actually said from what it left out.

Three flight tests on 10 and 11 June

PIB posted the release on 13 June 2026. It says three consecutive flight tests were held on 10 and 11 June “to demonstrate multi-layered defence against long range ballistic missiles and anti-ship capability at medium range.” In a layered defence, different interceptors take different bands of altitude and range, so a missile that gets past one can be tried against the next.

The release says the interceptors “successfully engaged their respective targets” and that the tests put India “in the elite group of nations having BMD capability to engage up to Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.” BMD is ballistic missile defence. The ministry made that ranking claim itself, and this article did not find an independent ranking of countries to check it against.

India had been building toward this in public. On 2 November 2022 DRDO flew the first Phase-II interceptor, AD-1, from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha, named for the missile scientist who became President. Its release describes a two-stage, solid-fuel missile built for interception both inside the atmosphere (endo-atmospheric) and just above it (low exo-atmospheric). Defence Minister Rajnath Singh called it a type of interceptor with technology “available with a very few nations in the world.”

On 24 July 2024 a full Phase-II system test followed. A target missile launched from Dhamra at 1620 hours imitated an enemy ballistic missile. Radars on land and at sea detected it, and an interceptor left Chandipur at 1624 hours. PIB said the test showed the ability to defend against ballistic missiles of the “5000 km class.”

The June 2026 release is shorter than either. It does not name the interceptors, the target missiles, the altitudes or the launch site. India TV News, summarising the same announcement, wrote that the government had given few details.

A first anti-ship flight and a cruise missile

The same June release says the maiden flight test of the Naval Anti-Ship Missile-Medium Range (NASM-MR) “was also carried out successfully.” It gives no range, launch platform or target, and the missile’s name is the only specification published.

On 15 June DRDO flew the Long Range Land Attack Cruise Missile (LRLACM) from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island. A land-attack cruise missile is a jet-powered weapon that flies at low height to hit fixed targets on the ground. PIB said “all the test objectives were fully met,” according to data from the tracking instruments of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, the Odisha coast facility where DRDO flights are monitored.

The release says every sub-system came from DRDO laboratories and Indian industry partners, and that the Aeronautical Development Establishment in Bengaluru was the nodal laboratory, meaning the lead one. Representatives of the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force, the missile’s intended users, watched the launch. No range figure was published. For how the country moved from buying such weapons abroad to building them, see India’s defence industry, from importer to maker.

Kusha, the long-range air defence missile

The Kusha test on 23 July was a maiden flight, again from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island. According to PIB, it was flown against “an electronic target simulating high-speed and high-altitude aerial threat,” and the missile system intercepted it. The release does not say more about what the electronic target was.

PIB says the system can neutralise fighter jets, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and large enemy aircraft within “a wide range & altitude envelope,” and that the missiles, radars and command and control centre all came from DRDO laboratories and industry partners. Rajnath Singh said the flight shows a capability “possessed only by a handful of nations” and that it “will also eliminate the import dependency for such systems.” Like the “elite group” line in June, this is a claim by the ministry, not a published comparison.

The release gives no range. IANS, the news agency, reported that Kusha belongs to Project Kusha, an Extended Range Air Defence System for the Air Force and Navy that was earlier called XRSAM, and that it is meant to fill the gap between the 80-kilometre-range MR-SAM and the S-400, which IANS says can hit targets 400 kilometres away. IANS adds that three variants are expected to enter service between 2028 and 2030. Neither the range nor the schedule appears in the ministry’s release, so both are reported expectations. The Deccan Chronicle reported that the system is planned as a multi-layered platform with different interceptor missiles.

Air defence has a recent record to be read against. Operation Sindoor in May 2025 included three nights of layered air defence against drones and missiles, and on 12 June 2026 Rajnath Singh told DRDO’s Defence Research and Development Laboratory in Hyderabad that the air defence system “completely thwarted the enemy’s intentions” when aerial threats loomed over the borders.

Mission Sudarshan Chakra and where these tests fit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced “Mission Sudarshan Chakra” in his Independence Day address on 15 August 2025. On 12 June 2026, the day after the ballistic missile defence tests ended, Rajnath Singh said at the Hyderabad laboratory that it is set to become a multi-level missile defence system. He said it would protect military installations, critical infrastructure and civil establishments, and that its “three-layered protection” would minimise inconvenience to citizens.

None of the test releases links a specific flight to the mission. The Deccan Chronicle wrote that Kusha “will be integrated under Mission Sudarshan Chakra,” and IANS wrote that it is expected to be part of it. Those are the outlets’ statements, not the ministry’s.

The other flights of the same weeks

Four other launches in the weeks before and during the window had their own releases.

• 8 May 2026: an Advanced Agni missile with a Multiple Independently Targeted Re-Entry Vehicle (MIRV) system was flown from Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island. The release says it carried multiple payloads aimed at different targets spread over a large area of the Indian Ocean Region, and that flight data confirmed all mission objectives were met.
• 22 May 2026: the short-range ballistic missile Agni-1 was test-launched from Chandipur under the Strategic Forces Command, the armed forces’ nuclear-weapons command. The release says the launch validated “all operational and technical parameters.” It is a user launch, not a DRDO development test.
• 2 June 2026: DRDO and the Air Force flew the RudraM-II air-to-surface missile from an aircraft. PIB names the Research Centre Imarat in Hyderabad as nodal laboratory and says the missiles were guided to a predefined target and met all objectives.
• 8 July 2026: the Pinaka Long Range Guided Rocket was fired from the in-service Pinaka launcher at Chandipur for a user-defined minimum range of 60 kilometres, according to All India Radio.

This article found no official release for a missile flight test between 24 July and 14 October 2026.

What is still open

The June releases give no interceptor ranges, altitudes or launch sites, and the Kusha release calls its test a first flight, not an acceptance trial. DRDO and the ministry are the only sources for every result above. IANS gives 2028 to 2030 as the expected window for the three Kusha variants to enter service.