New Delhi, Apr 23 (Agency)
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Navy successfully conducted the maiden flight trial of sea-based endo-atmospheric interceptor missile from a ship off the coast of Odisha in the Bay of Bengal yesterday. The purpose of the trial was to engage and neutralize a hostile ballistic missile threat, thereby elevating India into the elite club of Nations having Naval Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) capability, the defence ministry said. Prior to this, DRDO had successfully demonstrated land-based BMD system with capability to neutralize ballistic missile threats, emerging from adversaries.
Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh congratulated DRDO, Indian Navy and Industry involved in the successful demonstration of ship based Ballistic Missile defence capabilities. Secretary DDR&D and Chairman DRDO Samir V Kamat complimented the teams involved in the design and development of the missile. He said the nation has achieved self-reliance in developing highly-complex network-centric anti-ballistic missile systems, it added. In November last year, DRDO had successfully tested for the first time a long-range interceptor missile, called AD-1, designed for both exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric interception of ballistic missiles.