Suryastra, a Universal Rocket Launcher System, made its first public appearance at the Republic Day parade. Described as the country's first indigenously developed universal multi-calibre rocket launcher, it is designed to deliver accurate surface-to-surface strikes against targets 150 km and 300 km away. A single Suryastra platform can fire a number of different rocket and missile types. In a separate milestone for the Indian Army, Captain Hansja Sharma earned the distinction of being its first woman officer to qualify as a pilot of the Rudra armed helicopter.