NATO Offers Missile Defence Cooperation to India

 

Seeing missile attacks from rogue states as a common threat, U.S.-led NATO alliance has offered India cooperation and sharing of technology in the field of missile defence.

New Delhi Could Have Anti-Missile Shield by 2014

According to a new Pentagon report on China’s military, Beijing has paid India a sort of compliment. The People’s Liberation Army now targets India with its best and latest nuclear-tipped missiles, the solid-fuel Dongfeng-21 (NATO designation: CSS-5) medium range ballistic missile (IRBM), tipped with a 250-kiloton nuclear warhead that would flatten a large part of Delhi. Until now, India had been considered deserving only of China’s oldest and most decrepit missile, the primitive, liquid-fuelled Dongfeng-3 (NATO designation CSS-2).

India to test fire Agni-V by year-end

V.K. Saraswat (left) and Avinash Chander with model of the Agni-V missile

 

The development stage has been completed for India’s Agni-III ballistic missiles, with advances in their production; India hopes for succesful trials of the Agni-V missile to accelerate their development  and integration into their BMD program.

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India will for the first time test fire its 5,000-km range Agni-V ballistic missile by the end of this year in what is being seen as a major leap in the country’s missile capability.

India Developing 5,000 km-range Agni Missile

India is developing a 5,000 km-range Agni ballistic missile, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said on Friday.

“India has reached an appreciable level of competence in missile technologies, with a reach capability of 3,500 kilometres. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is developing Agni missile with a capacity to reach 5000 kilometres,” he said here.

Indian Interceptor Missile Test-Fired Successfully

In yet another confirmation of its ballistic missile defence capability, India on Sunday fired an interceptor missile, which intercepted an incoming ‘enemy’ ballistic missile at an altitude of 16 km and pulverised it in “a direct kill.”

The interceptor had a specially designed directional warhead, “which will go towards the target, look at it and cause the maximum damage.” The attacker ended up in a shower of fragments over the Bay of Bengal, “confirming a very good kill.” Both the missiles were made by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

DRDO Plans to Test 10 Missiles this Year

India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) announced that it will test at least ten missile this year. This regional display of power will include the nations first ICBM, the Agni-V. The missiles in line to be tested also includes India’s domestically developed missile defense  Advanced Air Defence (AAD) interceptor.

First Phase Of Indian Ballistic Missile Shield To Be Deployed In 2012

India could join the U.S., Russia and Israel as the only nations with operational missile defense systems by 2012. This is the projected time frame for the deployment of the first phase of their Advanced Air Defense system. This claim could be a smoke screen to distract from the recent failed interceptor missile test.

Notwithstanding the recent failure of the interceptor missile test, the first phase of the indigenous Ballistic Missile Defence System to intercept and destroy incoming enemy missiles of less than 2,000-km range is expected to be deployed in two years.

Disclosing this to The Hindu recently, V.K. Saraswat, Director-General, Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) and Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister, said the first phase would be made operational through the new concept of ‘capability-based deployment.’ The Air Defence Programme has been divided into two parts — depending upon the threat perception. While the first category of threats pertains to enemy missiles with less than 2,000-km range, the second type belongs to those with more than 2,000 km. Both the phases will have two layers. The aim of the two-tier system is to first destroy an incoming missile, at a higher altitude, in the exo-atmosphere above 50 km. If that does not happen, the endo-atmospheric interception will take place up at the height of 30 km from the earth.

Indian Interceptor Missile Test Again In June

After the aborted mission, Defense scientists are planning a fresh test of the country’s newly developed Advanced Air Defense (AAD) interceptor missile in June.

This time, a new target missile will be used for the test.

While its planned trial on Sunday was put off after the interceptor missile developed a technical snag in one of its sub-systems in the last minute, Monday’s trial had to be aborted as the target missile `Prithvi’ could not reach the pre-designated altitude leading to its deviation from the coordinated path.

India’s Missile Shield Test Fails

Indian Advanced Air Defenese Missile

India’s test of their developing missile defense shield failed on Monday. The Advanced Air Defense (AAD)  system’s radar lost the target missile as it went off its projected trajectory; as a result the interceptor missile was not launched during the test. This was the first test of the Indian AAD missile defense system. If successfully developed the system would put Indian on par with Russia, U.S. and Israel in regards to missile defense systems.

India’s homegrown interceptor defense shield developed to detect and destroy incoming ballistic missiles failed during a test on Monday, military officials said.

The test was abandoned when the radars following the target, a nuclear-capable missile, lost track of it after it blasted off from a site 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Bhubaneswar in eastern India.

“The ‘hostile’ missile went off the radars after it took off and deviated from its trajectory and so the interceptor was not launched,” an official from Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said, asking not to be named.

DRDO to Conduct Fourth Test of Interceptor Missile

Indian Advandced Air Defense Missile

India will be conducting a fourth test of its Ballistic Missile Defense interceptor, the Advanced Air Defense missile, within the next two weeks. The previous three test, November 27, 2006, December 6, 2007, and March 6, 2009, were all successful and on target. Check back in the coming weeks for details on the DRDO’s test.

In less than two weeks, India will test its Ballistic Missile Defence shield again, by launching an interceptor missile to kill an incoming “enemy” ballistic missile mid-flight.

This is the fourth time that the Defence Research and Development Organisation will be testing its interceptor missile.

While the incoming missile will lift off from the Integrated Test Range at Balasore in Orissa, the interceptor will blast off from the launch complex on the Wheeler Island, off Damra village, said V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister.