Astra AAM BVR missile.

From BR

Robert Hewson, editor of Jane’s Air Launched Weapons, in a March 2003 issue of Jane’s Defence Weekly stated, “The basic Astra design uses a metallic airframe with a long low aspect-ratio wing and a single-stage smokeless rocket motor. After launch, the missile will use a combination of inertial mid-course guidance and/or data-linked targeting updates before it enters its terminal acquisition phase. In a head-on engagement, the Astra will have a maximum range of 80 km. The missile’s onboard radio-frequency seeker has been largely designed in India but incorporates a degree of outside assistance, according to DRDO sources. It will have an autonomous homing range of 15 km. The missile’s warhead is a pre-fragmented directional unit, fitted with a proximity fuze. A radar fuze already exists for the Astra, but the DRDO is currently working on a new laser fuze. According to the DRDO, the first ground-launched aerodynamic trials of the Astra will begin within the first half of this year. This will be followed by the next phase of controlled in-flight test launches.”

I say replace the metal frame with a filament would system and lower the weight and increase its range.