India successfully tests ballistic missile defence system

India on Wednesday successfully flight-tested Phase-II Ballistic Missile Defence System from off the Odisha coast, the government said in a statement. The test demonstrated India's indigenous capability to defend against ballistic missiles of 5,000 km class, it said.

"The Target Missile was launched from LC-IV Dhamra at 1620 hrs mimicking adversary Ballistic Missile, which was detected by weapon system radars deployed on land and sea and activated the AD Interceptor system," it said.

"The Phase-II AD Endo-atmospheric missile was launched from LC-III at ITR, Chandipur at 1624 hrs. The flight test fully met all the trial objectives validating complete network centric warfare weapon system consisting of Long Range Sensors, low latency communication system and MCC and Advance Interceptor missiles," it added.

The performance of the missile was monitored from the flight data captured by range tracking instruments deployed at various locations, including an onboard ship, the statement said.

The Phase-II AD Endo-atmospheric missile is an indigenously developed two-stage solid-propelled ground-launched missile system meant for neutralising many types of enemy ballistic missile threats in the altitude bracket of endo to low exo-atmospheric regions, it said.

A number of state-of-the-art indigenous technologies developed by various DRDO labs have been incorporated into the system, it said.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said the successful flight test has again demonstrated the country's ballistic missile defence capability.