BMD System Testfired Successfully

The third successful test of the ballistic missile defence (BMD) system on Friday has put India into an exclusive club of countries such as the US, Russia and Israel which are developing Star Wars kind of capabilities. With this test, India reached another milestone towards making the homegrown BMD system operational by 2011-12. The test was carried out from Wheeler Island in Orissa around 4.30 pm when the two-stage “exo-atmospheric” hypersonic interceptor missile fitted with advance systems hit the target at an altitude of 75 km. A complex and expensive technology, the BMD system provides India an effective defence shield against both China and Pakistan fielding a wide variety of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles. Though these capabilities are a crucial necessity, a BMD system can be overwhelmed by a flurry of ballistic missiles. It’s quite vulnerable to cruise missiles since they fly at low altitudes. The two-tier BMD system being developed by the DRDO, capable of tracking and destroying hostile missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth’s atmosphere, has already been tested two times—the exo-atmospheric test at 48-km altitude on November 27, 2006, and the endoatmospheric at 15-km on December 6, 2007. The two tests had demonstrated India’s capabilities akin to the Israeli Arrow-2 BMD system and the US Patriot system. After the third test, the DRDO plans to test both the “exo” and “endo” interceptor missiles together in an integrated mode by September-October. In Phase-I, a BMD system capable of taking on “2,000-km class targets” is being developed. Phase-II, in turn, will be geared towards tackling threats from missiles up to 5,000-km, said sources. DRDO chief controller for missiles, V K Saraswat, had earlier said that the BMD system of Phase-I should be ready for deployment by 2011 or so, after several tests against a variety of missiles to ensure “a kill probability of 99.8%”. There have been some Israeli and French imprints in the ongoing development of India’s BMD system. The crucial long-range tracking radars used to detect and track the ‘enemy’ missile as well as guide the interceptor to it, for instance, can be traced to the two Israeli Green Pine early-warning and fire control radars imported by India in 2001-2002.