Global Security Newswire

An Indian missile interceptor on Friday brought down a target ballistic missile in a test, RIA Novosti reported (see GSN, Feb. 8).

New Delhi's indigenously produced Advanced Air Defense interceptor was launched from Wheeler Island in eastern India, the Hindustan Times reported. The endoatmospheric weapon eliminated an altered short-range Prithvi ballistic missile that was launched from the Integrated Test Range facility at Chandipur, which is separated from Wheeler Island by approximately 43 miles.

"The interceptor directly hit the target and destroyed it," Integrated Test Range head S.P. Dash said (RIA Novosti, Feb. 10).

"The incoming target missile was tracked by long-range tracking radars developed with Israeli help," an unidentified Indian defense official told the New Indian Express. "Then the radar in turn conveyed the threat to the endomissile battery fitted in Wheeler Island and subsequently the interceptor was fired and destroy[ed] the target."

The solid-fueled, single-stage interceptor is intended to eliminate incoming missiles at heights of approximately 9 to 12 miles, military insiders said.

The interceptor had its first successful trial in December 2007. The system, though, did not launch in a March 2010 test (Hemant Kumar Rout, New Indian Express, Feb. 10).

"India is the fifth nation to have these ballistic missile defence capabilities in the world," Indian Defense Research and Development Organization spokesman Ravi Gupta said in an Agence France-Presse report, which indicated two ballistic missile targets had been eliminated in the test (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, Feb. 10).