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New Defence Milestone: India Test Fires Interceptor Missile Successfully
Swarajya Staff
Feb 12, 2017, 05:29 PM | Updated 05:29 PM IST
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India successfully tested a home grown interceptor missile that is capable of destroying an incoming ballistic missile, in a demonstration of the country’s Ballistic Missile Shield (BMD) capability. The test was conducted on Saturday (11 February) over the Bay of Bengal.
The two-tier BMD system, a brainchild of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), will be ready for deployment in two years, with the ability to protect a city or a strategic installation. While the DRDO had earlier promised a two-layered missile shield with a range of 2,000 km by 2014, scientists this time are positive about meeting their target.
The interceptor was test-fired at 7.45 am using a Prithvi defence vehicle, with a two-stage target missile (used as a mock ballistic missile) being simultaneously launched from Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha.
Phase-I of the BMD system uses interceptors flying at high-supersonic speeds of 4.5 Mach to block and take down hostile missiles with a strike range of 2,000-km. Phase-II aims at taking down 5,000-km range missiles, with interceptors operating at hypersonic speeds of 6-7 Mach.
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