DRDO successfully tests anti-ballistic missile (ABM) interceptor

The DRDO today announced a successful interception at 16 km altitude by an ABM interceptor. The official press release is pasted below

INTERCEPTOR MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM SUCCESSFULLY TESTED

Phalguna 15, 1932

March 06, 2011

The country’s prestigious Ballistic Missile Defence System was successfully flight tested at 9.37 AM off the coast of Orissa.

A Target Missile mimicking the enemy’s Ballistic Missile was launched from Launch Complex –III, ITR, Chandipur at 9.32 AM. The missile tracking network consisting of long range and multi function Radars and other Range sensors positioned at different locations detected and identified the incoming Missile threat. The interceptor missile at Wheeler Island with a directional warhead was fully ready to take off. The radars tracking the Ballistic Missile constructed the trajectory of the missile and continuous complex computations were done in real time by ground guidance computer to launch the interceptor at an exact time. The fully automatic launch computer launched the interceptor at 9.37 AM and the onboard INS (Inertial Navigation System) and ground based Radars guided the interceptor to the target (incoming Ballistic Missile). The Interceptor intercepted the Ballistic Missile at an altitude of 16 km and blasted the missile into pieces.

It was a copy book launch and all the events and mission sequence took place as expected.

In the post-launch debrief, the Program Director Sri VLN Rao mentioned about perfection of all the activities. Sri Avinash Chander, Director ASL, Sri S.K. Ray, Director RCI, Sri P. Venugopalan, Director DRDL, Dr Sekhar, Chief Controller, Sri Satish Kumar,Director TBRL and Sri S. P. Dash, Director ITR monitored all the operations and guided the teams during the launch.

The flight test was witnessed by many senior scientists and the IDS (Integrated Defence Staff) team. The success of this test is a major achievement leading towards deployment.

The Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri Dr V. K. Saraswat, who was present during launch operations, congratulated all the DRDO scientists and staff. ‘It was a major milestone in the history of Ballistic Missile Defence Programme of the country,’ he said.

The Defence Minister Shri AK Antony has congratulated the defence scientists involved in the project for today’s success.