Calling it a “significant jump” in India’s military capability against ballistic missiles, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief Dr Samir Kamat on Thursday said the maiden flight test of phase-II ballistic missile defence interceptor AD-1 can intercept any projectile off the 5,000 km-class.
Speaking to the news agency ANI, Kamat said, “We initially developed in BMD phase 1 capability to destroy incoming missiles of 2000 km class. Yesterday’s test now helped us to intercept any missile of the 5000 km class. If our enemies target from long range, we now have the capability to intercept. It is a significant jump in our capability against ballistic missiles.”
He further said that the interceptor will provide great operational flexibility to the users and have the capability to engage many different types of targets. “Once our radars pick it up, it will be able to track it, our defence system can be activated and the missile can be intercepted. It is mainly endo-atmospheric but it also works in the low exo-atmospheric region. We are parallelly developing for the high exo-atmospheric region,” he said.
On being asked when will the entire system be developed following the flight test of the AD-1 missile, he said, “By 2025, we should be able to prove our capability, including this AD-1 missile as well as the high exo-atmospheric missile. We are fully confident of making this by 2025.”
About AD-1 interceptor missile
On Wednesday, the defence ministry said the flight test was conducted from APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha and it was carried out with the participation of all ballistic missile defence (BMD) weapon system elements located at different geographical locations. Phase-II ballistic missile defence interceptor AD-1 is capable of engaging different types of targets.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh described the missile as a “unique type” of interceptor having advanced technologies that are available to very few nations in the world.
“Defence Research and Development Organisation conducted a successful maiden flight test of Phase-II Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) interceptor AD-1 missile with large kill altitude bracket from APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha on November 2,” the ministry said, adding that the 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.
It is propelled by a two-stage solid motor and equipped with indigenously-developed advanced control system, navigation and guidance algorithm to precisely guide the vehicle to the target, the ministry said.
The exo-atmospheric missiles are capable of completing missions in the upper-most region of the earth’s atmosphere.
According to experts, the endo-atmospheric missiles are the ones that operate within the earth’s atmosphere that covers an altitude below 100 km. “During the flight-test, all the sub-systems performed as per expectations and were validated by the data captured by a number of range sensors including radar, telemetry and electro optical tracking stations deployed to capture the flight data,” the ministry said in a statement.
(with inputs from PTI)
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