India can now intercept missile of 5,000-km class: DRDO chief on flight test of Ballistic Missile Defence interceptor

New Delhi: The AD-1 missile, launched on Wednesday, will provide a major capability boost to the Indian defence sector and with it, the country can now destroy incoming enemy ballistic missiles fired at it from 5,000 km, Defence Research and Development Organisation chief Dr Samir Kamat said on Thursday.

“We initially developed in BMD (ballistic missile defence) phase 1 capability to destroy incoming missiles of 2,000 km class. Yesterday’s (Wednesday, 2 November) test now helped us to intercept any missile of the 5,000 km class,” Dr Kamat told news agency ANI.

The missile AD-1 is part of the phase 2 development programme of the BMD shield and can destroy both ballistic missiles and low-flying fighter aircraft.

The DRDO chief further said, “If our enemies target from long range, we now have the capability to intercept. It is a significant jump in our capability against ballistic missiles.”

Dr Kamat went on to explain that “once our radars pick it up, it will be able to track it. Our defence system can be activated and missile can be intercepted.”

“It is mainly endo-atmospheric but it also works in the low exo-atmospheric region. We are parallelly developing for high exo-atmospheric region,” he added.

Dr Kamat said, “By 2025, we should be able to prove our capability, including this AD-1 missile as well as the high exo-atmospheric missile. We are fully confident of making this by 2025.”

He went on to say that once the system is developed, the government will take a call on its deployment at different locations.

The entire BMD system includes long-range tracking radars which can detect the launch of missiles from submarines, land-based systems, aerial platforms or warships.

What is AD-1 Missile Interceptor?

India on Wednesday successfully conducted the maiden flight-test of phase-II ballistic missile defence interceptor AD-1 missile off Odisha coast.

#DRDOUpdates | DRDO conducts successful maiden flight-test of Phase-II Ballistic Missile Defence interceptor off Odisha coast@PMOIndia @DefenceMinIndia @SpokespersonMoD https://t.co/R8ZYoCyMZ8 pic.twitter.com/hHYOvYNinz

— DRDO (@DRDO_India) November 2, 2022

The Defence Ministry said AD-1 is a long-range interceptor missile designed for both "low exo-atmospheric" and "endo-atmospheric" interception of long-range ballistic missiles as well as aircraft.

It is propelled by a two-stage solid motor and equipped with indigenously-developed advanced control system, navigation and guidance algorithm to precisely guide the vehicle to the target, the ministry said.

With inputs from agencies

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