BHUBANESWAR: India’s attempts to develop a robust multi-layered Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield received a further boost on Thursday as homegrown supersonic Advanced Area Defence (AAD) interceptor successfully destroyed an incoming ballistic missile at endo atmospheric region over the Bay of Bengal.
Defence sources said the low altitude high speed interceptor missile fired from Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast zoomed in on the target launched from launching complex-III of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur and intercepted it at an altitude of 15 km.
“The tracking systems picked up the target missile, tracked it and provided command to launch the interceptor missile. The mission was brilliant as the interceptor missile achieved a direct hit paving the way for its early deployment in the armed forces,” said a defence official.
With the success, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has completed its ‘Mission 2017’ on a happy note. This was second successful test of the interceptor missile and it has demonstrated its killing capability in a row. It was last test fired from the same test range on March 1.
Radars of the weapon system tracked the target and provided the initial guidance to the interceptor which could precisely home on to the target and destroyed it in endo-atmospheric layer. The complete event, including the engagement and destruction was tracked by a number of electro-optical tracking systems using infrared imagery.
“The Fibre Optic Gyro (FOG) based INS in interceptor, on-board computers, guidance systems, actuation systems and the critical Radio Frequency (RF) seekers used for the terminal phase have performed excellently. The launch has proved the BMD prowess of the country,” added the official.
Indigenously developed by DRDO, the AAD interceptor is a single-stage missile powered by solid propellants. It is 7.5 metres tall and weighs around 1.2 tonnes. It had a diameter of less than 0.5 metre.
The DRDO has developed both high-altitude and low-altitude anti-ballistic missiles. While the first phase seeks to destroy incoming enemy missiles in exo-atmospheric region (outside the atmosphere), the second phase envisages killing enemy missiles of more than 2,000 km range in endo-atmospheric (inside the atmosphere) region.