ENDO-ATMOSPHERIC INTERCEPTOR MISSILE

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Context

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Navy successfully conducted a maiden flight trial of a sea-based endo-atmospheric interceptor missile off the coast of Odisha in the Bay of Bengal.

What is the purpose?

• The purpose was to engage and neutralize a hostile ballistic missile threat, thereby elevating the country into the elite club of nations having Naval Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) capability.

Background

• DRDO has successfully demonstrated land-based BMD system with capability to neutralize ballistic missile threats, emerging from adversaries.
• India has achieved self-reliance in developing highly-complex network-centric anti-ballistic missile systems.

India’s Ballistic Missile Shield

• India’s Nuclear Weapon Policy has always been a No First Use against Nuclear Nations and No Use against Non-Nuclear countries.
• But with such hostile neighbors and their threats of using nuclear weapons whenever a tensed situation escalates.
• The Indian Ballistic Missile Defence Program is an initiative to develop and deploy a multilayered ballistic missile defence system to protect our country from ballistic missile attacks.

Phases

• The work for its development started with two phases. Phase 1 has been successfully tested and completed and deployment awaits final official permission. Phase 2 is under development.
• Phase 1 focuses on intercepting missiles with a range of upto 2000 km (basically focusing Pakistan’s missile arsenal). It includes three things PRITHVI AIR DEFENCE (PAD), ADVANCED AIR DEFENCE (AAD) and SWORDFISH RADAR.
• Phase 2 will be capable of Intercepting missiles upto 5000 km and it is under development.

PRITHVI AIR DEFENCE (PAD)

• This missile is an EXO-Atmospheric Anti-Ballistic missile.
• It means it can intercept a missile out in the atmosphere, with a Flight Altitude of 80 Km and Range from 300 to 2000 km.
• It has a two stage rocket booster with first stage: Dual propellant liquid fuel and oxidizer and second solid fuel.
• It has a Maximum speed of Mach 5-8.

ADVANCED AIR DEFENCE (AAD)

• This is an Endo atmospheric Anti-Ballistic missile and can intercept and destroy a target in lower atmospheric layer.
• It’s a single stage solid fueled missile with a maximum range from 150 to 200 km and Maximum altitude of interception range is 30 km.
• Maximum speed is nearly about 4.5 Mach.

PRITHVI DEFENCE VEHICLE

• This missile is also an EXO-Atmospheric Anti-Ballistic missile.
• It means it can intercept a missile out in the atmosphere and has the same range as PAD (300- 2000 km) but its Flight Altitude is enhanced to 150 km with a more accurate Guidance system using Ring Laser Gyro based inertial navigation system.

PRITHVI DEFENCE VEHICLE Mk-2 or ASAT

• This missile is an EXO-Atmospheric Anti-Ballistic missile too and will intercept a missile/satellite out in the orbit.
• With a Maximum Flight Altitude of 1200 km.
• It has two stage rocket motor with a third stage added as a kinetic kill vehicle

SWORDFISH RADAR

• Swordfish is an Indian active electronically scanned array (AESA) long range tracking radar based on Israeli EL/M-2080 Green Pine long range radar and it works on L Band frequency.
• It is made by Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics & Radar Development Establishment with a range of 1500 km and can track upto 200 targets with maximum speed of Mach 12.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/drdo-indian-navy-test-odisha-india-successfully-tests-sea-based-ballistic-missile-interceptor-joins-elite-club-101682168564539.html