With reference to RudraM-II Missile, which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. It is an air-to-air missile.
2. It was tested in Rajasthan in May 2024.
Select the correct answer using the c

Question

With reference to RudraM-II Missile, which of the following statements is/are correct ?
1. It is an air-to-air missile.
2. It was tested in Rajasthan in May 2024.
Select the correct answer using the codes given below :

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — B, Neither 1 nor 2. Both statements are wrong, and each is wrong for a clean, checkable reason. Statement 1 misclassifies the weapon: RudraM-II is an air-to-SURFACE anti-radiation missile, not an air-to-air missile. It is launched from a fighter but it hunts targets on the ground — the enemy's radars, jammers and communication emitters that make up an integrated air-defence network. That is the whole point of the RudraM family: it is India's SEAD weapon (Suppression of Enemy Air Defences), homing on the radiation an enemy radar emits rather than on another aircraft. An air-to-air missile — Astra, R-73, Meteor — is designed to kill aircraft, a completely different mission. Statement 2 misplaces the test: the RudraM-II was flight-tested on 29 May 2024 from a Sukhoi Su-30MKI off the coast of ODISHA, over the Bay of Bengal, not in Rajasthan. Odisha is where DRDO's missile testing infrastructure sits — the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur and the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Island launch complex — because a sea range lets a long-range missile fly out over empty water. Rajasthan hosts the Pokhran field firing ranges, used mainly for land-attack, armour and short-range trials, which is why 'Rajasthan' reads plausibly and traps candidates who remember only that India tests missiles in a desert somewhere. With statement 1 false on classification and statement 2 false on geography, the answer is (b), neither.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Would require the May 2024 test to have happened in Rajasthan. It did not: the RudraM-II was fired from a Su-30MKI off the Odisha coast on 29 May 2024, over the Bay of Bengal. DRDO's long-range missile trials run from the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur and from Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Island, both on the Odisha coast. Rajasthan's Pokhran ranges are a land range and were not the venue.  (c) Would require RudraM-II to be an air-to-air missile. It is an air-to-surface anti-radiation missile: it is carried by a fighter, but its targets are surface-based radiation emitters — surveillance and tracking radars, jammers, communication nodes. It uses a passive homing head that locks on to the enemy radar's own transmissions, plus an imaging infrared seeker, and it has a range of roughly 300–350 km. India's air-to-air missiles are a different line altogether (Astra BVR, the imported R-73/R-77 and Meteor).  (d) Doubles up both errors — wrong class of missile and wrong test location. RudraM-II is air-to-surface anti-radiation, and the 29 May 2024 trial was off the Odisha coast. Note the exam craft here: the setter has built a two-statement item in which BOTH statements are false, so a candidate who half-remembers the news and assumes at least one statement must be right walks straight into (a), (c) or (d).

Concept: An anti-radiation missile (ARM) is a weapon that homes on to the radio-frequency energy an enemy radar radiates. Because a radar must transmit to see, it gives away its own position; an ARM turns that transmission into a beacon. The mission is called SEAD — Suppression of Enemy Air Defences — and it is what a strike package does first, blinding the adversary's radar picture so that follow-on aircraft can operate. The RudraM series is DRDO's indigenous answer: RudraM-I (the New Generation Anti-Radiation Missile, NGARM), first fired from a Su-30MKI over the Bay of Bengal off Odisha on 25 January 2019 with a reach of roughly 150–200 km; RudraM-II, tested on 29 May 2024, an air-to-surface missile of 300–350 km with a two-stage rocket motor, a passive homing head and an imaging-infrared seeker; and the longer-ranged RudraM-III under development. All are launched from fighters — chiefly the Su-30MKI, with the Mirage 2000 and other platforms in the plan.

State PCS 2024 Q57 — Science & Technology PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2024 Q57 — Science & Technology PYQ with Answer