India tests shield against missiles with 5000 km range

India on Wednesday successfully flight-tested the second phase of its ballistic missile defence system, demonstrating home-grown capabilities to defend against hostile missiles having a range of 5,000 km.

The flight test fully met all the trial objectives validating complete network centric warfare weapon system, the defence ministry said.

The missile was tested at the integrated test range (ITR) in Odisha's Chandipur.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh complimented the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the successful flight test and stated that it has again demonstrated India's ballistic missiles defence capability.

"The DRDO successfully flight-tested Phase-II Ballistic Missile Defence System on July 24," the ministry said.

The target missile was launched at 1620 hours mimicking an adversary ballistic missile, which was detected by weapon system radars deployed on land and sea and activated the interceptor system.

"The Phase-II AD Endo-atmospheric missile was launched from LC-III at ITR, Chandipurat 1624 hrs," the ministry said.

The phase-II AD endo-atmospheric missile is an indigenously developed two stage solid propelled ground launched missile system meant for neutralising many types of enemy ballistic missile threats in the altitude bracket of endo to low exo-atmospheric regions.

The exo-atmospheric missiles are capable of completing missions in the upper-most region of the earth's atmosphere.

The endo-atmospheric missiles are the ones that operate within the earth's atmosphere that covers an altitude below 100 km, according to experts.

The defence ministry said the flight test fully met all the trial objectives validating a complete network centric warfare weapon system consisting of long range sensors, low latency communication system and advanced interceptor missiles.

"The test has demonstrated the nation's indigenous capability to defend against the ballistic missiles of 5000 km class," the ministry said in a statement.

"The performance of the missile was monitored from the flight data captured by range tracking instruments like electro-optical systems, radar and telemetry stations deployed by ITR, Chandipur at various locations including on-board ship," it said.

India has been developing capabilities to intercept hostile ballistic missiles both inside and outside the earth's atmospheric limits.

A number of state-of-the-art indigenous technologies developed by various DRDO laboratories have been incorporated in the missile system.