NEW DELHI – In a Big Worry for Pakistan, India set to launch new age ofballistic missile defence system, India media had reported.
India is set to test its ballistic missile defencelink)Phase II interceptor missiles and other futuristic weapons next year withits first floating test range (FTR) in place to allow trials at differentranges without a land mass limitation or threat to the population. Only aselect group of nations has FTR capability .
Designed by the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), thenew FTR is a 10,000 tonne ship, 200 metres long and 60 metres wide,equipped with state-of-the art electro-optical missile tracking (EOTS),S-band radar tracking and telemetry devices apart from a launch pad, alaunch control and mission control centrelink,Hindustan Times has reported.
While the missile establishment is tight-lipped about the FTR, HindustanTimes has learnt that the ship will be able to launch conventional missilesupto a range of 1,500 kilometres from a distance of 400 to 500 nauticalmiles in the sea without fear of the weapons threatening any populated areaon India’s east coast.
The FTR will not belinkfor testing the Agni series of ballistic missiles as it is not designed tohandle the thrust of a long-range weapon. “ The FTR has all thecapabilities of Interim Test Range (ITR) with the capability to testmissiles in deep sea with minimum safety precautions as the latter allowsonly a cone of two to three degrees to launch a missile. It is for testingall missiles including BMD,” said a senior official who didn’t want to benamed.
According to authoritative sources, the idea behind FTR is to test missilesfrom a range of 100 kilometres to 1,500 kilometres without any land mass orsea lanes limitations. This means that the FTR will be used for the BMDPhase II system, which is designed to destroy enemy missiles mid-air atdifferent altitudes and different ranges with a long-range DRDO missile.
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Phase II of BMD envisaged intercepting and destroying enemy missile with arange of 2,000 kilometre. The FTR will be also used to test tacticalmissiles like Prahar and other futuristic missiles.
With the FTR allowing live tests, not simulations, to interdict long-rangemissiles fired from the APJ Abdul Kalam Island off the Odisha coast, theIndian BMD system will become more efficient with improved single -hot killprobability (SSKP) ratio, a term used for surface-to-air weapons.
“The FTR will speed up missile projects as it provides a ready-made safetycorridor without getting caught into the advances notices to ships andaircraft flying in the area as well as the fear of hitting populated areaswhile testing BMD system. With this we can use interceptor missile tointerdict enemy missiles both endo and exo-atmosphere,” said a secondsenior official.
By: Shishir Gupta
