India Friday successfully test- fired a home-made supersonic interceptor missile off the coast of the eastern state of Orissa, defence officials said.
Director of the test range S.P. Dash said “The interceptor directly hit the target and destroyed it.”
The indigenous Advanced Air Defense (AAD) interceptor missile was fired from Wheeler Island off the state coast near Dhamra in Bhadrak district, about 170 km from the Orissa state capital of Bhubaneswar, a defence official said.
It successfully destroyed an incoming ballistic missile – a modified variant of the Prithvi fired from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur on sea in Balasore district, about 70 km away from Wheeler Island.
“The missile successfully intercepted a surface-to-surface target missile — a modified version of ‘Prithvi’ missile — which was fired first around 10:30 a.m. from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur,” another official said.
The test-firing was part of India’s plan to deploy a reliable two-layer ballistic missile defense system.
India last year conducted a successful test of its ballistic missile defense system when it destroyed an “enemy” ballistic missile with an interceptor missile over the Bay of Bengal off Orissa coast
India successfully test-fires interceptor missile
