Advanced Air Defence Interceptor Missile successfully test fired from Abdul Kalam Island

The indigenously built Advanced Air Defence (AAD) Interceptor Missile was on August 2, 2018 successfully test fired from Abdul Kalam Island.

The interceptor took off from Abdul Kalam Island in Bhadrak district and successfully hit the target at a height of 20 kms in the sky. The test was conducted to validate some improved features incorporated in the system of the missile.

Advanced Air Defence Interceptor Missile

• The advanced Air defence interceptor missile is yet to get a formal name.

• Developed as part of efforts to have a multi-layer ballistic missile defence system, it is capable of destroying incoming hostile ballistic missiles.

• The interceptor is a 7.5-metre-long single-stage solid rocket propelled guided missile equipped with a navigation system, a hi-tech computer and an electro-mechanical activator.

• The interceptor missile had its own mobile launcher, secure data link for interception, independent tracking and homing capabilities and sophisticated radars.

Background

The last test of this supersonic interceptor took place in December 2017 during which this Ballistic Missile Defence System of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had directly hit the target at an altitude of about 15 kilometre and destroyed it into fragments.

The missile is being developed as part the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system, which can intercept medium-range ballistic missiles travelling at speeds of Mach 3 to 8.

India is the fourth country to build such missile system. Israel, Russia, and the United States were the only three countries to have successfully developed an indigenous ballistic missile defence system.