India conducts maiden flight-test of ballistic missile defense interceptor

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) – India on Wednesday conducted a successful maiden flight-test of the Phase-II Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) interceptor AD-1 missile, according to an official statement.

The Defense Ministry said in the statement that the "missile with large kill altitude bracket" was conducted by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) from APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha in eastern India.

"The flight test was carried out with the participation of all BMD weapon system elements located at different geographical locations," it said.

The ministry noted that AD-1 is a long-range interceptor missile "designed for both low exo-atmospheric and endo-atmospheric interception of long-range ballistic missiles as well as aircraft."

"It is propelled by a two-stage solid motor and equipped with indigenously-developed advanced control system, navigation and guidance algorithm to precisely guide the vehicle to the target," the statement said.

During the flight test, it added, "all the sub-systems performed as per expectations and were validated by the data captured by a number of range sensors including Radar, Telemetry and Electro Optical Tracking stations deployed to capture the flight data."

Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh congratulated the DRDO "and other teams associated with successful flight trial of AD-1."

Singh described it as "a unique type of interceptor with advanced technologies available with very few nations in the world."

"It will further strengthen the country’s BMD capability to the next level," he said.​​​​​​​