Global Security Newswire

India might deploy missile detection and tracking satellites as part of a next generation of missile defense technologies New Delhi hopes to begin fielding by 2014, the Times of India reported today (see GSN, March 6).

New Delhi is planning to develop interceptors capable of striking longer-range missiles that fly considerably faster than the weapons India's current missile defense are designed to defend against. Last week, the nation successfully tested a two-stage interceptor that destroyed its target flying 80 kilometers above the Earth. Another test of that system is scheduled for September, the Times reported.

"What we are now perfecting are Phase-I interceptor missiles, which fly at 4.5 Mach high-supersonic speeds. We are already working on Phase-II interceptors, which will have hypersonic speeds of 6-7 Mach," said V.K. Saraswat of India's Defense Research and Development Organization.

The more capable systems could also give India an antisatellite capability, the Times reported (Rajat Pandit, Times of India, March 10).