BHUBANESHWAR (India), Oct 3: India on Monday successfully tested a homemade surface-to-air missile three times at a coastal range in the eastern state of Orissa, a government official said.

The multi-target missile Akash was first fired at 12:50pm from a mobile launcher at the Chandipur-on-Sea testing site, 200km northeast of Bhubaneswar, the Orissa state capital, the official said.

Two more tests followed within a span of 20 minutes.

The 700-kilogramme Akash, which can track 100 targets simultaneously with onboard radar, can move at a speed of 600 metres a second and deliver a 55 kilogramme warhead across 27 kilometres in 50 seconds.

Akash was tested three times in June this year, and also underwent a successful trial with a live warhead on November 30, 2004.

The missile is one of five being developed by India’s state-run Defence Research and Development Organization, which launched a project in 1983 to build an array of weapons. It hopes to cap the programme with a ballistic missile that can fly 5,000 kilometres.—AFP