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The Indian Ballistic Missile Defense Program is an initiative to develop and deploy a multi-layered Ballistic missile defense system to protect India from missile attacks.[1][2] Introduced in light of the ballistic missile threat from Pakistan,[3] it is a two tiered system consisting of two interceptor missiles, namely the Prithvi Air Defence (PAD) missile for high altitude interception, and the Advanced Air Defence (AAD) Missile for lower altitude interception. The two-tiered shield will be able to intercept any incoming missile launched 5,000 kilometers away.[4] PAD was tested in November 2006, followed by AAD in December 2007. With the test of the PAD missile, India became the fourth country to have successfully developed an Anti-ballistic missile system, after United States, Russia and Israel.[5] On March 6, 2009, India again successfully tested its missile defense shield, during which an incoming "enemy" missile was intercepted at an altitude of 75 km.[6]
[edit] BackgroundSince the early 90s, India has faced the threat of ballistic missile attacks from Pakistan, against which it has fought multiple wars in the past. With the heightening of tensions in the region, and in response to Pakistan's deployment of M-11 missiles bought from China, in August 1995, the Indian Government procured six batteries of Russian S-300 Surface-to-air missiles to protect New Delhi and other cities. In May 1998, India for the second time (since its first test in 1974) tested nuclear weapons (see Pokhran-II), followed by Pakistan (see Chagai-I) with its first ever nuclear test. With Pakistan's testing of nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems, this threat intensified. India has also developed and tested missile delivery systems (see IGMDP). In 1999, the Kargil War between India and Pakistan became the first direct conflict between two declared nuclear powers. As the war progressed, the first hint of the possible use of a nuclear weapon was on May 31, when Pakistani foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad made a statement warning that an escalation of the limited conflict could lead Pakistan to use "any weapon" in its arsenal.[7] This was immediately interpreted as an obvious threat of a nuclear retaliation by Pakistan in the event of an extended war. The leader of Pakistan's senate noted that "the purpose of developing weapons becomes meaningless if they are not used when they are needed."[8] Some experts believe that following nuclear tests in 1998, Pakistani military was emboldened by its nuclear deterrent cover to markedly increase coercion against India.[9] Development of ABM System began in late 1999,[10] suggesting that India initiated the program in light of Pakistans eschewing of a nuclear No first use policy and heightened tensions during the Kargil war including a possibility of full scale nuclear war. [edit] India-Israel cooperationIndia was interested in acquiring the Arrow-II Missile System, which had been jointly developed by US and Israel. However, the deal fell through due to US refusal to approve the sale of the missile and the Yellow Citron control system. India and Israel jointly developed the Long Range Tracking Radar (LRTR), which is target acquisition and fire control radar for PAD Missile System. LRTR radar has a capabiltiy to detect multiple targets. [edit] Development[edit] Phase 1Development of ABM System began in 1999. Around 40 public and private Companies were involved in the development of ABM System. They include Bharat Electronics Ltd and Bharat Dynamics Ltd, Astra Microwave, ASL, Larsen & Toubro, Vem Technologies Private Limited and KelTech. Development of LRTR (Long Range Tracking Radar) and MFCR (Multi-function Fire Control Radar) was lead by Electronics and Radar Development Establishment (ERDE).[11][12] For the AAD Missile System, Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL) developed the mission control software. Research Centre, Imarat (RCI) developed navigation, electromechanical actuation systems and Active Radar Seeker. Advanced System Laboratory (ASL) provided the motors, jet vanes and structures for the two missiles. High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) supplied the propellants for the missile.[12] [edit] DescriptionThe two-tiered BMD System consists of the PAD, which will intercept missiles at exo-atmospheric altitudes of 50–80 km; and AAD Missile for interception at endoatmospheric altitudes of up to 30 km. The deployed system would consist of many launch vehicles, Radars, launch control centers (LCC) and Mission Control Center. All these are geographically distributed and connected by a secure communication network.[10] Mission control center (MCC) is the software intensive system of the Ballistic Missile Defense. It receives information from various sources like Radars, Satellites etc which is then processed by ten computers running simultaneously. MCC is connected to all other elements of the System through a WAN. MCC performs target classification, target assignment and kill assessment. It acts as a decision support system for the commander. It can also decide the number of interceptors required for the target for an assured kill probability.[10] MCC after performing all the functions, assigns the target to Launch Control Center (LCC) of a battery. Launch Control Center (LCC) starts computing the time to launch interceptor based upon information received from Radar. This is decided based on the data received from radar, on the speed, altitude and flight path of the target. LCC prepares the missile for launch in real time, carries out ground guidance computation.[10] After the interceptor is launched, it is provided target information from the radar through a datalink. When the Interceptors closes on to the Target ballistic missile, it activates the Active Radar Seeker to search for target missile and guides itself to intercept the target. Multiple PAD and AAD interceptors can be launched against a target for high kill probability.[10] [edit] Prithvi Air Defence (PAD) / Pradyumna Ballistic Missile Interceptor
Prithvi Air Defence (PAD) is an anti-ballistic missile developed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles outside atmosphere (Exoatmosphere). Based on the Prithvi missile, PAD is a two stage missile with a maximum interception altitude of 80 km. The first stage is a liquid fuelled motor that uses two propellants and oxidizers while second stage is solid fuelled.[14].[10] It has divert thrusters which can generate a lateral acceleration at more than 5 Gs at 50 km altitude. Guidance is provided by intertial navigation system, mid-course updates from long range tracking radar (LRTR) and active radar homing in the terminal phase.[10] PAD has capability to engage 300 to 2,000 km class of ballistic missiles at a speed of Mach 5.[10] Long Range Tracking Radar is the target acquisition and fire control Radar for PAD Missile. It is an active phased array radar having capability to track 200 targets at a range of 600 km.[10] The Prithvi Air Defense missile has been named as Pradyumna.[15] Further development led to the improvement of the interception range to 80 km from the 50 km range. The improved missile will utilize a gimbaled directional warhead, a technology that until now has only been used by the US and Russia. This technology allows for a smaller warhead to destroy the target missile.[16] [edit] Prithvi Air Defense ExercisePADE (Prithvi Air Defence Exercise) was conducted on November 2006 in which PAD Missile successfully intercepted a modified Prithvi-II Missile at an altitude of 50 km. The Prithvi-II Ballistic Missile was modified successfully to mimic the trajectory of M-11 missiles. DRDO plans to test the Anti-ballistic shield against missiles with a range of 1500 km. The test will be conducted with a modified Prithvi missile launched from a naval ship and the anti-ballistic missile launched from wheeler island. The interception of the target missile will take place at 80 km altitude.[17] On March 6, 2009 DRDO carried out a second successful test of PAD interceptor missile. The target used was ship launched Dhanush missile which followed the trajectory of a missile with range of 1500 km. The target was tracked by swordfish (LRTR) Radar and destroyed by PAD missile at 75 km altitude. [edit] Advanced Air Defence (AAD)/Ashwin Ballistic Missile Interceptor
Advanced Air Defence (AAD) is an anti-ballistic missile designed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles in endoatmosphere at an altitude of 30 km. AAD is single stage, solid fuelled missile. Guidance is similar to that of PAD: Inertial Navigation System, midcourse updates from ground based radar and active radar homing in terminal phase. It is 7.5 metres tall, weighs around 1.2 tonnes and a diameter of less than 0.5 metres.[19] On 6 December 2007, AAD successfully intercepted a modified Prithvi-II missile acting as an incoming ballistic missile enemy target. The endo-atmospheric interception was carried out at an altitude of 15 km. The interceptor and all the elements performed in a copy book fashion validating the endo-atmospheric layer of BMD System. The launch was also shown through a video link at control room of DRDO Bhawan, Delhi. The sequence of events of the test was as follows. At 11 a.m. the Prithvi missile lifted off from Launch Complex III at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur Orissa. Radars at Konark, Paradip detected the missile and were continuously tracking it. The target information was sent to Mission Control Centre (MCC) for further processing. MCC classifies the target, calcuates the trajectory of the missile and assigns the target to AAD Battery located on Wheeler Island, 70 km across the sea from Chandipur. AAD is launched when Prithvi reaches an apogee of 110 km. AAD with the help of midcourse updates and terminal seeker manoeuvres itself towards the target. AAD makes the direct hit at an altitude of 15 km and at a speed of Mach 4. Radars detected formation of a large number of tracks, signifying that the target had broken into multiple pieces. The thermal cameras located on Wheeler Island also picked up the direct hit through thermal images[12] Due to two successful interceptor missile tests carried out by India, the scientists have said that the AAD missile could be modified into a new surface-to-surface missile that could be possibly named as ‘Ashvin’. AAD intercepted a missile at 15 km from the surface of the earth, thus the missile could be used as a surface-to-surface missile. [20] [edit] Swordfish RADARMain article: Swordfish Long Range Tracking RADAR Swordfish is a target acquisition and fire control radar for the BMD system. The LRTR currently has a range of 600 km, which the DRDO plans to upgrade to 1,500 km by 2011. [21] [edit] DeploymentAccording to scientist V. K. Saraswat of DRDO the missiles will work in tandem to ensure a hit probability of 99.8 percent.[22] Induction of the system into services is expected to be in 2011. [edit] Phase 2
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