Global Security Newswire

India plans to conduct a missile defense test in February aimed at evaluating its domestically built Swordfish long-range radar, the Press Trust of India reported today (see GSN, Dec. 6, 2007).

India's Defense Research and Development Organization is expected to launch a Prithvi Air Defense missile interceptor in an attempt to destroy a mock enemy ballistic missile outside the earth's atmosphere, Indian Defense Ministry sources said.

"The missile to be hit will be fired from a longer distance than it was in the earlier test. DRDO will test whether the radar can track the incoming missile from that distance or not," one source said.

Later this year, India plans to test-launch its Advanced Air Defense interceptor, which is designed to hit incoming missiles inside the atmosphere.

New Delhi could begin fielding the missile defenses by 2015 if it succeeds in both exercises, according to the sources (Press Trust of India/Yahoo!News, Jan. 23).