India successfully test fires missile interceptor

India Friday successfully test fired a ballistic missile interceptor from a defence base in Odisha as part of its efforts to create a shield against incoming enemy missiles, an official said.

The indigenous Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor missile was fired from Wheeler Island off the coast near Dhamra in Bhadrak district, about 170 km from here.

The interceptor was fired a few minutes after the target missile was fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea in Balasore district, about 70 km from Wheeler Island.

The interceptor missile successfully destroyed the target missile at an altitude of 15 km. The interception took place at 12.52 pm, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) spokesperson Ravi Kumar Gupta told IANS.

Long range radar and multifunction fire control radar located far away could detect the missile from take-off and track it through its entire path.

The total trajectory of the incoming missile was continuously estimated by the guidance computer and subsequently the AAD missile was launched at an appropriate time to counter and kill the ballistic missile.

"The mission was highly successful," Gupta said, adding that during the exercise a situation was also created to handle multiple targets.

He said that apart from the actual interceptor and the target, an electronically simulated attacker was created which destroyed an electronically simulated target.

The electronic target with a range of 1,500 km was launched and the radars picked up the target missile, tracked the target missile subsequently and launched an electronic interceptor missile.

This electronic interceptor missile destroyed the electronic target missile at an altitude of 120 km.

All the missiles -- the physical and the electronically simulated -- were tracked by the radars and all the guidance and launch computers operated in full operational mode for handling multiple targets with multiple interceptor.

All the missiles were in the sky simultaneously and both the interceptions took place near simultaneously.

This has proved the capability of DRDO to handle multiple targets with multiple interceptors simultaneously, he pointed out.

The complete radar systems, communication networks, launch computers, target update systems and state of the art avionics have been completely proven in this mission. - IANS