Dainik Nation News Portal
India’s attempts to develop a robust multi-layered Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield got further boost on Thursday when a homegrown supersonic interceptor successfully destroyed an incoming ballistic missile over the Bay of Bengal. The missile was intercepted in the endo-atmospheric region — at an altitude of 15 km.
Defence sources said the low altitude Advanced Area Defence (AAD) interceptor missile fired from the Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast zoomed in on the target, which was launched from the launching complex – III of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) also based in the island.
“It was a direct hit and grand success,” defence sources said after the test launch.
The earlier two tests were conducted on March 1 and February 11, 2017, as part of efforts to have a full-fledged multi-layer Ballistic Missile Defence system.
“Today’s test was conducted to validate various parameters of the interceptor in flight mode and it was all success,” the sources said.
The target missile– a Prithvi missile– was launched from launch complex 3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near Balasore in Odisha.
