India test-fires ballistic missile interceptor

[li0nheart]

India doing really good in BMDS. They released the videos immediately after the test. Not many countries have videos of such tests.

yes it does seem more transparent... maybe a bit too much? what's your opinion?

 

[timetravel]

yes it does seem more transparent... maybe a bit too much? what's your opinion?

I doubt they are revealing all the details.. many things and advances would still be under the wraps. This is just to showcase the tip of the real strength. They wont display the complete actual capabilities.

 

[SpArK]

India's ballistic missile shield: DRDO: 2, Enemy missiles: 0


Saurav Jha

Here at Geek at Large we like to follow the Defence Research and Development Organization's (DRDO's) ballistic missile defence program (BMD) rather closely. More than once in the recent past the organization has said that as far as India's long range ballistic missile programs and missile defence programs are concerned, the country is both self-sufficient as well as proficient. Today's twin intercepts - one actual and one simulated seems to attest that view.

In one of the two tests conducted today, DRDO's AAD endo-atmospheric interceptor achieved a radio proximity fuse triggered explosive intercept on a target missile derived from elements of the Prithvi short range ballistic missile (SRBM) family. Do note however that this target missile is modified in a manner that allows it to re-enter at an angle of attack and at a velocity usually associated with medium range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) which are faster given that their apogee is greater. In fact that is precisely what this Prithvi derived target missile also does in order to attain the velocities required to simulate longer ranged missiles.

Near simultaneously an exo-atmospheric test was also conducted albeit electronically to confirm the intercept of an electronically simulated ballistic missile launched from 1500 km away thereby demonstrating a salvo interception capability. The second intercept was achieved at an altitude of 120 km, which is pretty significant given that the United States Air Force (USAF) hands out 'astronaut wings' to its personnel if they happen to find themselves at an altitude of more than 80 km above mean sea level. 120 km is also a shade over the so called 'Karman line' which defines the boundary between the earth's atmosphere and outer space as being 100 km above sea level and this metric is accepted by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.

However international legal norms also define the lower boundary of space as the minimum altitude at which an orbit around the earth can be sustained. This is apparently 150 km for an unpowered space vehicle and 130 km for a satellite with propulsion. Why do these definitions matter? Well, it may be the case that a non-proliferation treaty (NPT) for limiting the weaponization of space on the lines of the nuclear NPT (NNPT) is in the offing. The relationship between such a treaty and the existing outer space treaty is a matter of conjecture but India cannot afford a repeat of what happened vis a vis the NNPT in the sixties. That of course does not mean that we necessarily go about blowing up apparently defunct satellites in outer space as the Chinese and Americans have done. But India should nevertheless make it clear that India could if it wanted to.

The successful twin tests were apparently done in a deployable condition which means that the rollout of the AAD as a deployed entity may happen soon. The AAD intercept shows that Indian seeker technology has now matured and the exo-atmospheric test is representative of DRDO's progress in ground based radar technology. Indeed, according to DRDO 'The complete Radar Systems, Communication Networks, Launch Computers, Target update Systems and state of the art Avionics have been completely proven in this Mission'.

It is no wonder that the Americans want to collaborate closely with India to track space debris. DRDO is apparently planning more exo-atmospheric tests which will look to demonstrate intercept capability at an altitude of 300 km. After that, I don't think anybody would be able to keep India out of any future 'Space NPT' hypothetical or otherwise.

Anyway, enjoy the photos and videos of today's tests.

Saurav Jha's Blog : India's ballistic missile shield: DRDO: 2, Enemy missiles: 0

 

[arp2041]

India Signals Ballistic Missile Defence Will Be In Place Soon


India has signaled that it is ready to deploy a home-grown Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system in the near future with a successful testing of an advanced interceptor missile, prompting the defence scientists to claim a shield could be thrown over Delhi skies by 2014.

The big fireworks over the Bay of Bengal when India tested its experimental BMD system resulted in elation as the trial turned out to be "bang-on accurate".

The interceptor missile destroyed an incoming target missile in a direct hit at an altitude of nearly 15 km over the Bay of Bengal, demonstrating the efficacy of the system.

DRDO officials said the electronically simulated target, which mimicked a missile coming from a distance of 1,500 km, was electronically hit at an altitude of 120 km.

Within minutes of the launch of the real attacker missile, a modified surface-to-surface Prithvi from Chandipur, Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile, the actual interceptor, took off from Wheeler Island and destroyed the 'hostile' missile at an altitude of 15 km in the endo-atmospheric mode at 12.52 p.m.

Missile technologists from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for the first time tested the configuration for destroying an incoming actual missile and another electronically simulated missile. The score: BMD - 2, Enemy Missiles - 0.

Celebrations broke out at Wheeler Island following the success of the mission, which was the eighth ballistic interceptor missile test. So far seven missions have been successful and one of them, the first one was conducted in exo-atmopshere at an altitude of 48 km in November 2006.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony lauded the DRDO scientists for the successful test.

This was the seventh time the BMD system has been tested successfully over the last six years and promptly, the DRDO declared a missile shield could be deployed for New Delhi by 2014.

"We are now ready to convert the BMD system from an experimental to an operational one that can be deployed on demand. I am confident we can deploy the Phase-I of the BMD system by 2014," said DRDO chief V K Saraswat said of the result from the Wheeler Island test range off Odisha coast.

All said and done, even American missile defence systems like Patriot Advanced Capability-3, Aegis BMD-3 and THAAD (terminal high-altitude area defence), as also Russian and Israeli ones, are not fully foolproof as of now and further efforts are on to perfect them.

As soon as the target missile was launched, the Long-Range Tracking Radars and the Multi-Functional Radars traced it and passed on the data to the guidance computer to launch the AAD, which homed on to the target missile and pulverised it.

In the latest BDM test, only one of the incoming missiles was real: a modified Prithvi missile mimicking M-9/M-11 class of Chinese Dong Feng short-range ballistic missiles. The other was an electronically simulated missile of a longer range of 1,500km.

But both the 'enemy' missile launches were, however, conducted "in the same window" to test the BMD system's capability to handle "multiple threats" simultaneously.

"This has been done only by the two superpowers (US and Russia) till now. The real missile was destroyed at an altitude of 14.7-km by the interceptor missile with a direct hit," Saraswat was quoted as saying.

"The entire test was done practically in deployment configuration," he said.

Meanwhile, DRDO has also begun work on adding a third tier to the BMD system.

The existing two-tier system is designed to track and destroy ballistic missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth's atmosphere. The third layer is planned to tackle low-flying cruise missiles, artillery projectiles and rockets in the line with the overall aim to achieve "near 100% kill or interception probability".

"Look what is happening in the Middle-East (Hamas firing rockets at Israeli cities before the recent ceasefire)...hence, protection against low-cost, very close range threats is also needed. We have begun some initial work on the third-tier. We will try to integrate it with the BMD system once it fructifies," Saraswat said.

At present, the BMD system's phase-1, under which interceptors fly at 4.5 Mach high-supersonic speeds to intercept enemy missiles, is meant to tackle hostile missiles with a 2,000-km strike range.

Under DRDO's plans, the BMD phase-2 will take on 5,000-km range missiles, virtually in the class of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), with interceptors at hypersonic speeds of 6-7 Mach.

During the present test, Long Range Radar and MFC Radar located far away could detect the enemy missile from take-off and tracked it through its entire path. The total trajectory of the incoming Missile was continuously estimated by the guidance computer and subsequently the AAD Missile was launched at an appropriate time to counter and kill the ballistic missile, DRDO officials said.

"The Ring Laser Gyro-based navigation system in target, Fibre Optic Gyro based INS in Interceptor, on board computers, guidance systems, actuation systems and the critical RF Seekers used for the terminal phase have performed excellently," a defence scientist said.

"The AAD Missile system, initially guided by Inertial Navigation system, was continuously getting update of the target position by the radar through a data link. The Radio Frequency (RF) seeker tracked the missile and on board computer guided the missile towards the target missile and hit the target. The Radio Proximity Fuse (RPF) exploded the warhead thereby destroying the target missile completely," he added.

In this mission, a special feature of intercepting multiple target with multiple interceptor was demonstrated successfully, DRDO spokesperson Ravi Gupta said.

"An electronic target with a range of 1500 km was launched and the radars picked up the target missile, tracked the target missile subsequently and launched an electronic interceptor missile. This electronic interceptor missile destroyed the electronic target missile at an altitude of 120 km," Gupta said.

"All the four missiles were tracked by the radars and all the guidance and launch computers operated in full operational mode for handling multiple targets with multiple interceptors. All the four missiles were in the sky simultaneously and both the interceptions took place near simultaneously" he said.

"This has proved the capability of DRDO to handle multiple targets with multiple interceptors simultaneously. The complete Radar Systems, Communication Networks, Launch Computers, Target update Systems and state-of-the-art Avionics have been completely proven in this mission," he added.

DRDO Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems) Avinash Chander, Research Centre Imarat Associate Director Sateesh Reddy and AD Mission Programme Director Adalat Ali were present.

India Signals Ballistic Missile Defence Will Be In Place Soon

 

[Kloitra]

can it be used against tactical nukes inside Pakistani territory?

Depends, it cannot be used against short ranged ballistic missiles, like Nasr etc. Against cruise missiles and aircraft, yes. But it wont make any sense to use any missile like Babur with longer range for such short distance.

Yes it can be used against tactical missiles like Nasr.

No it cannot. Iron Dome is meant for rockets and artillery. Not ballistic missiles. (Considering you were referring to it and not Akash)

 

[ROCKETRAJA]

congrats to DRDO;;;;;;;;

 

[Gessler]

Depends, it cannot be used against short ranged ballistic missiles, like Nasr etc. Against cruise missiles and aircraft, yes. But it wont make any sense to use any missile like Babur with longer range for such short distance.



No it cannot. Iron Dome is meant for rockets and artillery. Not ballistic missiles. (Considering you were referring to it and not Akash)

Ofcourse ID can be used against Nasr, provided the said ID battery lies in the Nasr's path or
where the Nasr is meant to hit. We may have to fire multiple missiles to shield off a Nasr
attack on a given armored formation. Although Akash/AAD-1 are better systems to be used in
interception of BMs in this regard.

AAD-1 will be more ffective at taking out Nasr/Ghaznavi, i hope the TELs for AAD-1 are canisterised
and sent to assist armored thrusts.

 

[fast]

Not bad for blowing up the incoming missile equipped with a homing beacon.

 

[Bobby]

Some people dont like it......

 

[BlueDot_in_Space]

Not bad for blowing up the incoming missile equipped with a homing beacon.

Did you sit on the barbecue? It smells burning.

 

[punit]

okay. Majak na banana mera but how can our missiles will defeat anti missile system of enemies .there has to be a countermeasure!

 

[Icewolf]

Good for India.. But still more tests needed as Indias weapons do not always work as expected to

Not bad for blowing up the incoming missile equipped with a homing beacon.

You are very right bro... But atleast give em credit... Atleast their missile flew up in the air, this is a big accomplishment for India as when India does missile tests, the missile usually falls back to the ground

 

[Kloitra]

Ofcourse ID can be used against Nasr, provided the said ID battery lies in the Nasr's path or
where the Nasr is meant to hit. We may have to fire multiple missiles to shield off a Nasr
attack on a given armored formation. Although Akash/AAD-1 are better systems to be used in
interception of BMs in this regard.

AAD-1 will be more ffective at taking out Nasr/Ghaznavi, i hope the TELs for AAD-1 are canisterised
and sent to assist armored thrusts.

It was meant for short ranged, slow rockets and artillery. I couldn't find any reference which says it can intercept ballistic missiles, even short ranged ones. If you have any good reference, please do share. Otherwise, it is just an speculation.

 

[Hindustani]

Did you sit on the barbecue? It smells burning.

You honestly think he's Amrikan?

Congrats to India for this achievement

It's been stated before that the interceptor has been successful in the past.

 

[Chanakyaa]

Good for India.. But still more tests needed as Indias weapons do not always work as expected to

You are very right bro... But atleast give em credit... Atleast their missile flew up in the air, this is a big accomplishment for India as when India does missile tests, the missile usually falls back to the ground

TROLL...
Seems u just arrived Planet Earth.