Preliminary conceptual studies got underway in April 2012 at the DRDO’s Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL), following which financial approval for Rs.317.2 crore was accorded in December 2012, project completion being targetted for 2017. The detailed feasibility study phase lasted for a two-year period till 2013, following which prototype development commenced.
The airframe design selected was a scaled-up variant of the Astra-1 BVRAAM, and measured 5.5 metres and weighed up to 600kg. Propulsion was to be provided by a dual-pulse solid-fuelled rocket motor, while the sensor package comprised a wide-band passive seeker, with a W-band millimetric-wave active seeker (a variant of the seeker meant for use by the SANT anti-armour guided missile) being employed in the terminal phase of flight.
The maiden Captive Flight Trials of the RUDRAM-1 NG-ARM was conducted by an IAF Su-30MKI H-MRCA in April 2016, while Drop Flight Trials (DFT) were conducted in December 2016, when the NG-ARM was released by the Su-30MKI while cruising at a speed of Mach 0.8 at an altitude of 6,500 metres. The maiden airborne test-firing (minus the sensor package) took place on January 18, 2008, followed by another one with a fully functional sensor package on January 25, 2019 that saw the NG-ARM covering a distance of 100km over the Bay of Bengal and achieving a 10-metre CEP. The third test-firing took place on October 9, 2020.
The RUDRAM-1 NG-ARM will be used in conjunction with the existing in-service SIVA HADF pod (developed by DRDO’s DARE laboratory back in the previous decade). The SIVA is presently used primarily for real-time detection and location of hostile ground-based air-defence radars, with the targetting cues then being uploaded into the IAF’s in-service Russia-supplied Kh-3P Krypton anti-radiation missile’s on-board mission computer.
Now being developed is a ground-launched version of the NG-ARM, dubbed the RUDRAM-2, four of which will be carried in a cannister-encased configuration by a 4 x 4 LAMV. To be used by the Indian Army (IA), the RUDRAM-2 will be employed against hostile ground-based battlefield air-defence systems and networks, with high-accuracy direction-finding cues being provided by the IA’s Samyukta and Him Shakti battlefield EW networks.