India’s missile defence cover in 3 yrs

India will be ready to operationalise its own missile defence shield...

India will be ready to operationalise its own missile defence shield — designed to protect high value targets such as the national capital from incoming nuclear tipped missiles — within the next three years. This will enable the country to be part of a select league of nations with such capabilities, top missile scientist V K Saraswat said here on Wednesday.

Scientists are also working on doubling India’s nuclear strike range to 6,000 km with a new version of the Agni series of missiles — the Agni IV — that is currently in the design stage. The first test for the Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) is tentatively scheduled for 2010.

An interceptor missile engaged and destroyed an incoming ‘enemy’ missile at an altitude of 15 km (endo atmospheric) off the Orissa coast last Thursday while a test in November last year ‘killed’ an enemy missile at an altitude of 48 km (exo atmospheric). Days after this successful test of the two-layered Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD), Sarawat said that India will be ready to deploy and mass produce the system within three years after a few more validation tests.

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While both China and Pakistan do not have a declared missile defence programme, the top missile scientist said that the system will not alter the military balance in the region and is necessary for India due to its ‘no-first-use’ policy. “The system is particularly necessary for our country due to the no first use policy. We will not know if any missile coming in has a conventional warhead or a nuclear warhead. We need a system to take on that threat. It is a defensive posture that will not affect the military balance,” said Saraswat.

He added that the BMD could be mass produced to cover high value assets across the nation within weeks of the final validation tests. “We have the capability of manufacturing all component of the system, including the radars, in the country. The rate of production is no issue as we have many private industries that can rise to the occasion,” said Saraswat.

Explaining the scale of anti-missile coverage the system gives, scientists said that an area of 200 sq km can be protected by one ‘battery’ of missiles. “For protecting vital assets within New Delhi, two missile batteries will be needed,” they said. The system is also being tweaked for protection against terrain hugging cruise missile — like the 700 km Babur missile test fired by Pakistan on Tuesday.

“It will be possible to use the system in an anti-cruise missile role. We will just need additional air based sensors like Air Borne Early Warning Systems or a tracking satellite integrated into the system,” Sarawat said. A more extensive missile defence system, capable of taking on Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles, will be developed in seven to eight years, he added.