India Successfully Tests Ballistic Missile Defence Interceptor Capable of Neutralising Long-Range Adversary Missiles

What’s in Today’s Article:

• India’s Ballistic Missile Defence System
• News Summary

Why in news?

• India conducted the first successful flight test of the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) interceptor missile from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast.

India’s Ballistic Missile Defence programme

• India’s Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) programme aims to provide an air-defence shield from all types of hostile missiles, even the nuclear ones.
• DRDO is developing a two-tier BMD system to provide a multi-layered shield against ballistic missile attacks.
• The two-tier system is intended to destroy an incoming missile, at a higher altitude, in the exo-atmosphere and if that miscarries, an endo-atmospheric interception will take place.

Two-tires of BMD system

• Prithvi Air Defence (PAD) missile
  • This can intercept and destroy missiles at exo-atmospheric altitudes of 50–180 kilometres.
  • It is based on the Prithvi missile. Pradyumna Ballistic Missile Interceptor is going to replace the Prithvi air defence.
• Advanced Air Defence (AAD) Missile
  • The second layer is Advanced Air Defence (AAD) Missile for lower altitude interception.
  • This is designed to knock down hostile missiles in the endo-atmosphere at altitudes of 15-40 kilometres.
    • Akash Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAM) is part of AAD.

‹ ›

Origin and current status

• The development of anti-ballistic missiles is said to have started by the DRDO around the 2000s in view of the development of ballistic assets by Pakistan and China.
• The phase-1 of the programme is said to have been completed towards the end of 2010s
  • The government, however, has so far refrained from sanctioning the full-scale operational deployment of this system at any vital location.
  • This could be due to the high costs involved, or even strategic calculations that it may provoke Pakistan to go in for a larger nuclear arsenal and countermeasures to defeat the BMD system.
• The second phase of this programme focuses on the development of anti-ballistic defence systems like the US’s Theatre High-Altitude Area Defence system, which can neutralise intermediate-range ballistic missiles.
  • DRDO had also planned to develop two new ballistic missiles, namely AD-1 and AD-2, in phase 2 of the missile shield development.
  • The AD-1 and AD-2 interceptors can engage intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) / intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

Other missiles boosting India’s defence capabilities

• India also conducted its first successful anti-satellite (ASAT) test, under Mission Shakti in March 2019.
• India is also getting the Russian S-400 Triumf air defence system.
  • S-400 Triumf is one of the world’s most advanced air defence systems that can simultaneously track numerous incoming objects and neutralise them.
• Recently, the first deliverable firing unit of Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile (MRSAM) system was handed over to Indian Air Force.
  • It provides a point and area air defence for ground assets against a wide range of threats.
• With the induction of Indian naval ship Dhruv, the nuclear missile tracking ship, Indian joins an elite group of countries like the US, Russia, China, UK and France to have such capability.

News Summary

• India conducted a critical test to validate and showcase its ballistic missile defence (BMD) capabilities to intercept long-range missiles.
• The long-range interceptor missile, called AD-1, was successfully tested by the DRDO.
  • The AD-II, which is capable of neutralising missiles of even higher ranges, is also said to be under development.

AD-1 (Air Defence)

• AD-1 is a long-range interceptor missile designed for both low exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric interception of long-range ballistic missiles as well as aircraft.
• The missile is propelled by a two-stage solid motor and equipped with an indigenously developed advanced control system and a navigation and guidance algorithm.
  • These algorithms precisely guide the vehicle to the targets that move at very high speeds.