Context: Recently, India successfully conducted the flight trial of Dhruvastra anti-guided missile at the Interim Test Range of Odisha.

Key Points

• The Indian armed forces successfully test fired the helicopter-launched Nag Missile (Helina), now named Dhruvastra anti-tank guided missile in direct and top attack mode.

About HELINA

• HELINA is developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and is one of the most advanced anti-tank weapons in the world. 
• HELINA (Helicopter based NAG) is a third generation fire and forget class anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system mounted on the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH).
• The system has all weather day and night capability and can defeat battle tanks with conventional armour as well as explosive reactive armour.
• The HELINA missile can engage targets both in direct hit mode as well as top attack mode.
• It is guided by an infrared imaging seeker (IIR) operating in the lock-on before-launch mode.
• HELINA Weapon Systems is being inducted into the Indian Army (IA).
• A variant of HELINA Weapon System called DHRUVASTRA was inducted into the Indian Air Force.
• Its Range: 500 m to 7 km.