India’s Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has confirmed that it conducted a successful launch of the Advanced Area Defence (AAD) interceptor missile at 1015 hrs on 1st March from Abdul Kalam Island, Odisha.
The endo-atmospheric missile, capable of intercepting incoming targets at an altitude of 15 to 25km, successfully destroyed the incoming missile. DRDO reports that all the mission objectives were successfully met.
The weapon system radars tracked the target and provided initial guidance to the missile which was able to precisely home on to the target and destroy it in an endo-atmospheric intercept. The complete event including the engagement and destruction was tracked by a number of electro-optical tracking systems using infrared imagery.
Radars and telemetry stations tracked the target and the interceptor till the destruction of the target. DRDO says the launch proves India’s Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) prowess.
The AAD covers the lower tier of India’s two-layer BMD system. The upper, exo-atmospheric tier is covered by the Prithvi Air Defence missile.