India Test Fires Advanced Air Defense Missile

India Test Fires Advanced Air Defense Missile
India's indigenously-developed interceptor missile is designed to destroy a hostile ballistic missile. Photo courtesy of Frontier India Defense and Strategic News Service.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) ─ India test-fired its indigenously developed supersonic interceptor missile from a test range off the Odisha coast on Monday.

The test, part of the Indian Ballistic Missile Defense Program, was performed by the Defence Research Development Organisation to evaluate the various parameters of the missile in its flight mode. Defense officials hailed the test as a success.

“At around 12.52 hours, the interceptor hit the target missile successfully at an altitude of about 15 kilometres,” DRDO spokesman Ravi Kumar Gupta told ANI News.

The Advanced Air Defense missile is designed to intercept hostile ballistic missiles. The hostile ballistic missile used in the demonstration off the Odisha coast was a modified surface-to-surface Prithvi, launched from a mobile launcher.

The Advanced Air Defense missile intercepted and destroyed the hostile ballistic missile within four minutes, following signals from tracking radars.

The interceptor missile is 7.5 meters long, and propelled using a missile-equipped navigation system in combination with a computer and electro-mechanical activator,the Indian Express reports.

The interceptor’s “kill effect” is currently being analyzed by DRDO scientists by examining multiple tracking sources.

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