NEW DELHI — India this month will test the endo-atmospheric capability of its indigenous Prithvi Air Defence (PAD-1) anti-ballistic missile system, part of a two-step effort to develop a missile defense network by about 2015. Designed and developed by the state-owned Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the system is being developed with Israeli help, sources in the DRDO said.An exo-atmospheric test was conducted in November, when the system killed an incoming missile above the Earth’s atmosphere. The endo-atmospheric test will attempt to hit an incoming missile within the Earth’s atmosphere, at a range of about 25 kilometers.
Missile tests are planned at IndiaÂ’s missile testing range at Balasore in the eastern state of Orissa, but no details are available, the sources said.
“The endo-atmospheric interceptor will engage targets at 25 kilometers,” a DRDO scientist said, compared with the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, which has a range of about 15 kilometers.
The planned test will use the same radars and other guidance systems as were used in the 2006 test, including the Israeli Green Pine Radar. “It is long-range, active phased-array radar developed jointly,” the DRDO scientist said. The Israeli radar has been modified by India, DRDO scientists said, but is not being called the Green Pine radar.
The PAD-1 system can kill a missile at a range of more than 50 kilometers, the DRDO scientists claimed. The guidance system has not been specified, but sources said it is an overseas technology. In the first stage of PAD-1, the missile is powered by liquid fuel with two propellants. The second stage has a solid propellant. Two more exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric tests are planned before the missile system is ready for induction into the Indian Defence Forces, DRDO scientists said.
PAD-2, which has yet to begin, will involve the use of hypersonic missiles to destroy attacking ballistic missiles at a range of more than 100 kilometers.
Both systems are being developed by DRDO laboratories and government-owned defense companies at a cost of more than $1 billion. DRDO scientists said they expect the PAD system to make India part of the elite club of countries that have anti-ballistic missile capabilities. It is estimated that PAD-1 and PAD-2 will not be ready for induction earlier than 2015, DRDO sources said.