Mission success
Mission success
The February 10 interceptor missile launch was the sixth successful one out of seven carried out since 2006.
PICTURES: DRDO
The "enemy" missile,a modified Prithvi, which took off from Chandipur-on-sea, Odisha, and (below) the interceptor missile, launched from Wheeler Island, which killed it in a direct hit.
INDIA now has a credible ballistic missile defence (BMD) capability if the successful launch of an interceptor missile on February 10 is anything to go by. As a modified surface-to-surface Prithvi missile took off at 10-10 a.m. from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea off the Odisha coast and mimicked the trajectory of a ballistic missile coming from an enemy country towards India, the interceptor, called Advanced Air Defence (AAD-05), rose majestically from a mobile launcher on Wheeler Island, also off the Odisha coast, and destroyed it in mid-flight at an altitude of 15 km over the Bay of Bengal. The AAD-05 used a longer range seeker to inch close to the intruder and "kill it in a direct hit".
It was a dream come true for missile and software technologists at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). "We saw the tracks of a large number of fragments form on the monitor, confirming that it was destroyed," V.K. Saraswat, Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister, told Frontline from Wheeler Island. "The mission was done in the deployment mode, close to the final user [Army] configuration"¦. Its success confirms that the country is ready to take it to the next phase of production and induction."
D.S. Reddy, Programme Director, AAD, said the DRDO had proved that India had graduated "from experimental mode to deployment mode" in the BMD programme. He added: "This vehicle [the interceptor] is capable of intercepting ballistic missiles with a range up to 2,000 km. It is for the government to give the necessary clearances and directives for future activities leading to deployment of the system." The attacker missile belonged to the 600-km-range class.
Avinash Chander, Chief Controller (Missiles and Strategic Systems), DRDO, said that "the entire operation was close to the deployment configuration".
V.G. Sekaran, Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory, Hyderabad, which had contributed to the mission, called it "a good flight".
The launch confirmed yet again that India had the technological skills to bring down enemy satellites in orbit.
G. Satheesh Reddy, Associate Director, Research Centre, Imarat, Hyderabad, was the architect of the navigation systems used in both the missiles, the attacker and the interceptor. While the navigation system in the attacker ensured that it came within the kill zone, its counterpart in the interceptor guided it towards the attacker. In both the missiles, the navigation systems used were close to the final configuration, Satheesh Reddy said.
India is the fifth country to have BMD capability after the U.S., Russia, France and Israel. The February 10 mission was the sixth successful one out of seven launches carried out since 2006. The first three launches, in 2006, 2007 and 2009, were successful. The fourth ended in partial failure as the attacker did not reach the required altitude and range because of a snag in its control system. It did not come into the "kill corridor" and fell into the Bay of Bengal. Therefore, the Launch Control Centre (LCC) on Wheeler Island did not give the command to the interceptor to take off.
The latest success means that India can destroy in mid-flight Hatf and Ghauri ballistic missiles coming from Pakistan. India felt the requirement for a BMD shield in the late 1990s when Pakistan test-fired Ghauri missiles with ranges far enough to threaten Indian cities.
Two-layered defence
As an immediate solution, a two-layered air defence system was conceived to protect the country's vital assets in the shortest possible time. Of the two layers, one was endo-atmospheric and the other exo-atmospheric. Out of six interceptor missile successes, five have been in the endo-atmosphere, that is, the attacker was destroyed at altitudes below 45 km. The sixth one was in the exo-atmosphere: the interception took place at a height of 80 km. (The altitude between 50 km and 90 km is called exo-atmosphere). While the interceptor used in endo-atmospheric missions was a single-stage missile, a two-stage interceptor was used to attack the intruder in the exo-atmosphere.
When on February 10 the single-stage Prithvi took off, radars at Konark, Puri and Paradip swung into action within 30 seconds and tracked it when it was in ascent mode. The radars communicated the attacker's velocity and position to the Mission Control Centre (MCC) at Hyderabad, situated 1,000 km from the attacker's launch point. The MCC received the data in real time, identified it as an enemy ballistic missile and issued orders to the LCC to engage it. The LCC asked AAD-05 to lift off and destroy the target missile in mid-flight. At 10-15 a.m., the interceptor collided with the attacker after the latter had re-entered the earth's atmosphere, and destroyed it.
The new elements in this mission included a seeker with a longer range than the seeker used in the earlier interceptor. This took the interceptor close to the attacker. A radio proximity fuse erupted close to the target, ensuring that the warhead hit the target and killed it. The MCC, the LCC, the radars and the data links functioned in unison. The mission proved, said Saraswat, that the system's design was good, the software was robust and the radars were reliable.
The entire interception was automated, Avinash Chander said, with the radars tracking it all the way. "We had no knowledge when the attacker would take off," he said.
A DRDO missile technologist said that "the interceptor can be inducted straightway" into the Army. There were consecutive successes with a near hit and direct hits. Directional warheads, which exploded in all directions and pulverised the intruder, were used.
An informed source in the DRDO said that although the interceptor used in this mission was capable of intercepting missiles coming from 300 to 2,000 km away, India needed ship-based platforms for launching interceptors far away from the shore. "We are planning to realise such platforms in the near future," he said.
Not real stuff, but nice reading. I hope that India has gone way past this stage well before 2020.
