India successfully test fired two Prithvi-II missiles against each other from different military test ranges on the Orissa coast.
Updated at 10.30 pm
NEW DELHI: Indian military scientists today achieved a major breakthrough in their efforts towards developing a weapon to shoot down an incoming enemy missile.
For the first time in Indian history, an indigenously developed missile system was able to track an incoming missile and shoot it down successfully this morning, said military sources. The successful test is a major boost to indigenous efforts in developing anti-missile defense system. It also puts India in a select league of nations with such ability.
According to military sources, a target Prithvi missile was launched form the Interim Missile Test Range at Chandipur in Orissa at 10.15 am. The missile was picked up in a few minutes by monitoring radars, and successfully intercepted by another Prithvi missile fired from Wheeler Islands. "It is a historic day," a DRDO scientist told DNA.
Sources said more such interception exercises, termed the Prithvi Air Defence Exercise, would be undertaken in the future. The missile that shot down the incoming missile is termed Prithvi-II, and is believed to be a 250-kilometer range liquid-propellant
ballistic missile.
Only a handful of countries such as the US, Israel, Russia and France have developed such fire power. However, today's success is no guarantee that the Defence Research and Development Organisation is anywhere close to deploying an effective anti-missile shield for the country.
The target missile took off from the launch complex number 3 of the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, some 15 kilometers from Balasore. After tracking the missile and determining its coordinates, the second missile was fired from launch complex number 4 located on Wheeler Island off Bhadrak district. As a precautionary measure, the Balasore district administration had temporarily evacuated about 600 families living in a 2-kilometer radius around Chandipur test range.
According to DRDO sources, the interceptor-missile was fired around 60 seconds later. The scientist told DNA that the 60-seconds reaction time is "very impressive" given that as soon as the "enemy" missile is detected, an array of complex activities has to take place - like detection, computing the missile trajectory, and finally launching the defense missile.
The success of Prithvi's anti-missile capability comes in the wake of a barrage of criticism targeted at DRDO's failure with the Trishul naval project as an anti-missile shield for ships. The failure of Trishul forced the Indian Navy to buy the Barak anti-missile system from Israel in 1999-2000, and the deal is now under CBI scanner. Barak systems are purely for defense of naval ships from incoming missiles. A Barak-II system with longer range, to be jointly developed by Barak manufacturers and DRDO, is underway.
According Indian strategic planners, incoming enemy missiles would be among the greatest threats to India's strategic locations in case of hostility with a foreign power.
And to protect the country from incoming missiles, India has been actively talking to the US, Russia and Israel for land-based anti-missile shield. The US has been very actively courting India to sell its Patriot III anti-missile system.
Ballistic facts
Prithvi-II is India's first indigenous anti-missile system
It is a 250-kilometer range liquid-propellant ballistic missile
It was successfully test-fired from Wheeler Island off Bhadrak district on Monday
Only US, Israel, Russia and France have developed such a system
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