Context: New generation Anti Radiation Missile (RUDRAM) was successfully Flight tested onto a radiation target located on Wheeler Island off the coast of Odisha. The missile was launched from SU-30 MKI fighter aircraft. 
About RUDRAM

• The RUDRAM is first indigenous anti-radiation missile of the country for Indian Air Force (IAF), being developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). 
• The missile is integrated on SU-30 MKI fighter aircraft as the launch platform, having capability of varying ranges based on launch conditions.
• It has INS-GPS navigation with Passive Homing Head for the final attack.
• The RUDRAM hit the radiation target with pin-point accuracy. 
• The Passive Homing Head can detect, classify and engage targets over a wide band of frequencies as programmed.
• The missile is a potent weapon for IAF for Suppression of Enemy Air Defence effectively from large stand-off ranges. 
• India has established indigenous capability to develop long range air launched anti-radiation missiles for neutralising enemy Radars, communication sites and other RF emitting targets. 

What is an anti-radiation missile?

• Anti-radiation missile are designed to detect, track and neutralise the adversary’s radar, communication assets and other radio frequency sources, which are generally part of their air defence systems.
• Such a missile’s navigation mechanism comprises an inertial navigation system — a computerised mechanism that uses changes in the object’s own position — coupled with GPS, which is satellite-based.
• For guidance, it has a “passive homing head” — a system that can detect, classify and engage targets (radio frequency sources in this case) over a wide band of frequencies as programmed.
• Officials said once the Rudram missile locks on the target, it is capable of striking accurately even if the radiation source switches off in between.
• The missile has an operational range of more than 100 km, based on the launch parameters from the fighter jet.

How was Rudram developed?

• DRDO initiated development of anti-radiation missiles of this type around eight years ago, and its integration with fighter jets has been a collaborative effort of various DRDO facilities and formations of the IAF and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
• While the system has been tested from a Sukhoi-30 MKI, it can be adapted for launch from other fighter jets too.
• The development was full of challenges, such as development of radiation seeker technologies and guidance systems, besides integration with the fighter jet, said a DRDO scientist.
• An official said the Sanskrit name Rudram was given in keeping with tradition, because it includes the letters ARM (the acronym for anti-radiation missile) and the word in Sanskrit describes a “remover of sorrows” (one of its meanings).

Significance of RUDRAM missiles in aerial warfare

• Rudram has been developed for the IAF’s requirement to enhance its Suppression of Enemy Air Defence (SEAD) capability.
• As one of the many aspects of SEAD tactics, anti-radiation missiles are used mainly in the initial part of air conflict to strike at the air defence assets of the enemy, and also in later parts, leading to higher survivability to a country’s own aircraft.
• Neutralising or disrupting the operations of the adversary’s early warning radars, command and control systems, surveillance systems that use radio frequencies and give inputs for anti-aircraft weaponry, can be very crucial.
• Scientists said modern-day warfare is more and more network-centric, which means it comprises elaborate detection, surveillance and communication systems that are integrated with the weapons systems.