BHUBANESWAR, March 29: India on Monday twice test-fired medium range surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles within two minutes of each other from a site in the eastern state of Orissa, a defence official said.

One Akash (Sky) missile was fired from a mobile launcher at 3.55 pm (1025 GMT) in India's Chandipur-on-sea testing site, 200 kilometres northeast of Orissa's state capital Bhubaneswar, the official said.

Another indigenously-built Akash was fired at 3.57 pm (1027 GMT) and successfully hit a target that was air-dropped from a military aircraft, he said.

Monday's tests of the 650-kilogram Akash bring the number of times it has been test-fired so far to eight. It carries a 50 kilogram warhead and is designed to travel 25 kilometres. -AFP