India Crossed Threshold with Successful PADE Test:DRDO

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

New Delhi, Dec 2 (UNI) Slowly -- but surely -- inching towards developing an effective anti-ballistic missile system for India, the Defence Research&Development Organisation (DRDO) today claimed it had ''crossed the threshold'' with a successful test earlier in the week validating various in-house systems.

DRDO's Chief Controller of Research&Development Dr VK Saraswat told mediapersons here that last Monday's test represented ''the crossing of a very significant milestone'' in anti-missile defence capabilities against theatre (short-range) missiles. ''Every long journey begins with a first few steps....'' On Monday last, with the successful interception of one Prithvi surface-to-surface ballistic missile by another 'modified' Prithvi at high altitude over the Bay of Bengal, India announced its entry into the high-technology arena of ballistic missile defence (BMD).

Dr Saraswat said the Prithvi Air Defence Exercise (PADE), as the interception exercise was termed, was conducted at the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur-on-sea and the rocket-testing base at Wheeler Island in Orissa.

The exercise involved a ''hostile'' Prithvi ballistic missile -- operating as an adversary missile -- being destroyed in the skies over the Bay of Bengal by another modified interceptor Prithvi missile.

The new missile had inertial guidance in mid-course and active-seeker guidance -- a radar-seeking warhead -- in the terminal phase. While the first stage of the interceptor was similar to the Prithvi missile, its second stage was a totally new segment.

The yet to be named ''high supersonic'' interceptor missile has been developed by the DRDO as part of an ''exo-atmospheric intercept system'' designed to ''hit-to-kill'' incoming ballistic missiles.

The Chief Controller said the newly-developed missile system was capable of detecting a target in less than 30 seconds and launching an interceptor missile within 50 seconds as a counter. According to the official, many technologies -- like high-manoeuvrability of the interceptor missile -- were validated in the test.

The flight time for nuclear-capable missiles launched from Pakistan is a bare 5 to 8 minutes.

UNI DG VA KP1928

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