India Wants Working Missile Defenses in Four Years

India plans to develop a two-tiered defense system that can intercept enemy ballistic missiles at high and low altitudes, the nation’s top missile defense scientist said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 27).

India successfully tested a high-altitude interceptor last week, when a modified Prithvi ballistic missile shot down a standard version of the Prithvi, the Associated Press reported.

A low-altitude interceptor would be tested within four months, said Vijay Kumar Saraswat of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization.  Six or seven additional tests would be required over the next four years before the system could be come operational he said.

“This is being done to increase the killing probability of our intercepting missile and to leave no leakage in the air defense system,” Saraswat said at a press conference.

Once operational, the missile defense system would fire five interceptors, two seconds apart, at each target to ensure that at least one interceptor would be successful, Saraswat said.  Using this method would mean India would have a 99.8 percent chance of successfully intercepting the enemy warhead, he said.

Eventually, India could produce 200 missile interceptors annually, costing $1.3 million each, Saraswat said (Omer Farooq, Associated Press/International Herald Tribune, Dec. 4).

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