Good news after good news..
Hope to see Tejas shooting Astra Soon..
Then all the talk of tejas limited to just 50 km range missiles (because of missiles like python or derby or the russian missiles) and bud headed comments like MIG-21 ++ will be history.
Also astra will be the most modern missile in IAf, since it is powered through out the flight like the promos of METEOR you posted in lca tejas-mk-2 thread, so it's design will be more modern than the present missiles IAF has.
Also it's data link with TEJAS or any other IAF fighter too will be more secure and will have some unique anti jamming capacity and would be an unknown quantity to the world ,unlike the other foreign missiles in IAF..
Also if ramjet propulsion is added like meteor in future versions ,increasing it's speeds to mach 4 plus, tejas armed with this missile will be more than the match for the upgraded pakistani F-16s. SO with 120 km range radar tracking and targeting capability of tejas will be an exact fit with this missile's range.
In 2004 the new demand from IAF for inclusion of missiles of this range and weight class led to strengthening of wing area and subsequent redesign of the airframe which was the reason for the delay in the TEJAS program as per open source report.
None other than the then scientific advisor to PM PARTHASARATHy wrote an article on it.So this redesign and the delay made tejas a more potent weapon platform not a delayed inferior obsolete platform as it is often criticized.
Which eventually led to empty weight increase by a ton.because these missiles with longer range impose a higher stress on airframe due to their weight and stress requirement during supersonic flight regime.