India test-fires anti-ballistic interceptor missile

India has successfully test-fired a new anti-ballistic missile capable of intercepting targets and destroying any incoming long-range missile outside the earth’s atmosphere.

The missile, dubbed Prithvi Defense Vehicle (PDV), was launched from a ship in the country’s Bay of Bengal at 9:07 a.m. local time (0323 GMT) on Sunday. It can engage targets in the exo-atmosphere region at more than 120 kilometers altitude.

India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), which has developed the missile, said in a statement that a computer network with the help of data received from radars predicted the trajectory of the incoming ballistic missile while PDV, which was kept fully ready, took off once the computer system gave the necessary command for lift-off.

“Both, the PDV interceptor and the two stage target equipped with motors were specially developed for the mission. The target was developed for mimicking a “hostile” ballistic missile approaching from more than 2000 kilometers away,” DRDO said in the statement.

“This (test) is part of the ballistic missile defense system which we are developing…,” said DRDO spokesman Ravi Kumar Gupta. “The mission has been completed and the interception parameter has been achieved.”

The test moves India closer to membership in a small club of nations, including the United States and Russia, which possess an anti-ballistic missile system.

India is developing a two-tier missile defense system that aims to provide a multi-layered shield against ballistic missile attacks.

DRDO has already successfully tested six interceptor missiles, both in endo-atmosphere (within 30 kilometers altitude above sea level) and exo-atmosphere stage (above 30 kilometers altitude).