Interceptor missile fails; DRDO to conduct another test soon

Bengaluru, April 06: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) faced a setback today after an Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor missile fell into the sea seconds after its launch.

The missile was test-fired from DRDO's launch facility in Wheeler Island, off the Odisha Coast.

DRDO officials, who spoke to OneIndia said that they would be back with another launch of the missile by the end of April after studying what went wrong.

"These are part and parcel of every missile trails. We had six successive missions of the interceptor missile. We suspect that one of the sub-systems in the missile might have failed," a top scientist not wanting to be named, said.

He said that Monday's test was to assess the performance of the composite motor rocket and the missile's ejection from the canister.

"These two parameters have been successfully tested. There was no target today. But one sub-system misbehaved and we are now analyzing some more data," he added.

DRDO says the missile's basic systems are all intact and worked as per the textbook. "Random problems can occur while dealing with complex systems. We will be back by the end of this month for another launch," he added.

He said that the missile caught fire after falling apart. This was DRDO's 7th interceptor missile test.

(The writer is a seasoned aerospace and defence journalist in India. He is the Consultant Editor (Defence) with OneIndia. He tweets @writetake.)