Interceptor missile testfired successfully

As the “attacker” missile reached a height of 120 km,the interceptor missile blasted off at 9.37 a.m from Wheeler Island,70 km away,zeroed in on to the target and destroyed it. The interceptor hit the “attacker” at an altitude of 16 km above the ground,blasting it into two pieces,said Ravi Gupta,DRDO spokesman.

The trial was important as the “attacker” missile had a manoeuvrable trajectory and tried to dodge the interceptor from homing in on it.

Long Range Tracking Radars located at Konark and Multi-Functional Fire Control Radar at Paradip tracked the enemy missile and passed on the information to Mission Control Centre.

The MCC relayed the impact point and assigned the AAD battery to launch the interceptor.

Besides this successful test,the DRDO has so far successfully tested its interceptor missile four times — July 26,2010,November 27,2006,December 6,2007 and March 6,2009. The interceptor trial in March 2010 was a failure.

DRDO officials said the entire mission went off in a copybook fashion and the trajectories of the both the missiles followed the pre-designated paths.

Talking to The Indian Express from Hyderabad,Avinash Chander,director of Advanced Systems Laboratory of DRDO,said with Sunday’s launch India has moved closer to the stage of having a credible ballistic missile defence system. “Of course,we would need to do some more tests in the next one-two years. We now have the capability to intercept multiple missile being fired at the same time,” he said.