India successfully test-fires interceptor missile
11 Feb 2017
India today successfully test-fired its interceptor missile off the Odisha coast, achieving a significant milestone in the direction of developing a two-layered Ballistic Missile Defence system.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully tested an exo-atmospheric missile interception from the Abdul Kalam Island (Wheeler Island) at about 7.45 am, as part of the ballistic missile defence programme.
This "PDV mission is for engaging the targets in the exo-atmosphere region at an altitude above 50 km of earth's atmosphere", said a DRDO official.
"Both, the PDV interceptor and the two stage target missile, were successfully engaged," he said.
The target was developed for mimicking a hostile ballistic missile approaching from more than 2,000 km away was launched from a ship anchored in the Bay of Bengal.
In an automated operation, radar based detection and tracking system detected and tracked the enemy's ballistic missile at a height of 100km with a direct hit by an interceptor missile, said a top DRDO official.
India has built a double-layered BMD system capable of tracking and destroying hostile missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth's atmosphere. The success of the AAD test will boost India strengthen its position in the exclusive club of US, Russia and Israel.
The first phase BMD system capable of killing enemy missiles fired from 2,000 km away is expected to be inducted in the armed forces soon. Development is on for the second phase anti-ballistic missile defence system, capable of destroying enemy missiles fired from 5,000 km away.
Developed by DRDO, the 7.5-metre tall interceptor is a single stage solid rocket propelled guided missile equipped with an inertial navigation system and an electro-mechanical activator totally under command by the data uplinked from the ground-based radar.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hinted that India may have successfully developed a 'THAAD-type anti-missile defense system.
Speaking at an election rally at Budaun in Uttar Pradesh today, PM Modi congratulated Indian scientists for developing one of the best missile defence systems at a time when a number of countries, including Pakistan, are busy developing missiles.
PM Modi said that the new system has been successfully developed by Indian scientists and it can destroy any incoming missile at the height of 150 kilometres.
''I want to congratulate Indian scientists,'' he said,
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is one of the recent addition to the US' anti-ballistic missile arsenal. It has been designed to hit missiles as they dive towards the earth, not when they go up. THAAD can engage with incoming missiles at the maximum altitude of 93 miles above the surface of the Earth.
It seems Indian scientists have also developed a similar anti-missile system, Modi said.
