India's missile shield test fails: officials

[MZUBAIR]

BHUBANESWAR, India — India's homegrown interceptor defence shield developed to detect and destroy incoming ballistic missiles failed during a test on Monday, military officials said.

The test was abandoned when the radars following the target, a nuclear-capable missile, lost track of it after it blasted off from a site 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Bhubaneswar in eastern India.

"The 'hostile' missile went off the radars after it took off and deviated from its trajectory and so the interceptor was not launched," an official from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said, asking not to be named.

DRDO spokesman Ravi Gupta in New Delhi confirmed the seven-metre (23-foot foot) interceptor missile was not launched during Monday's botched test.

India would join Israel, Russia and the United States in developing and possessing such technology if it is rolled out per schedule this year.

The system's tracking and fire control radars have been developed by the DRDO jointly with Israel and France.

Last month, India announced it would test a nuclear-capable missile with a range of over 5,000 kilometres within a year.

India's current longest-range nuclear-capable missile, Agni-III, can travel 3,500 kilometres.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan, with which India has fought three wars since their independence six decades ago, has said India's missile programme could trigger a new arms race in the region.

AFP: India's missile shield test fails: officials

 

[Hyde]

and in another thread they are discussing this test was postponed?

Whats going on here?

 

[gubbi]

"The 'hostile' missile went off the radars after it took off and deviated from its trajectory and so the interceptor was not launched," an official from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said, asking not to be named.

AFP: India's missile shield test fails: officials

You win some, you lose some. However in developing projects, one will encounter failures and glitches and you learn and improve from such mistakes.

For me this, the bold-faced sentence, is the most interesting thing. If an incoming missile veers off or changes trajectory and the missile defense system can pick up the change in trajectory and readjust/recalculate trajectories to fire the interceptor for a successful interception, that would be the pinnacle of anti-missile technology.

Now whether DRDO is capable of pulling off such an advanced technology wherein an interceptor system can reevaluate an incoming missile's trajectory would be interesting. If they do come up with a solution, expect that piece of technology to mature such that intercepting cruise missiles or missiles which change trajectories in their terminal stages can be successfully intercepted.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[gubbi]

and in another thread they are discussing this test was postponed?

Whats going on here?

From what I understand, the interceptor missile did not launch during this trial. So the test will be repeated again on Wednesday with a new 'rouge' missile being fired and AAD trying to intercept it.

 

[deckingraj]

This is what Hindu have reported...Look at the bolded part...


*****************************************************************

Interceptor missile fails to take off

The interceptor missile test on Monday, which features an attacker missile and an interceptor to kill it, ended in partial failure with the attacker Prithvi missile not reaching its required altitude and range.

The interceptor missile, therefore, did not take off from the Wheeler Island, off the coast of Orissa. The Launch Control Centre on the Wheeler Island did not deliberately give the command for the interceptor to take off as part of the built-in safeguard system, said missile technologists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

As per the original plan of the interceptor missile test on Monday, a modified Prithvi missile, mimicking an “enemy” ballistic missile’s trajectory, would have lifted off from the launch complex at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Balasore on the Orissa coast. A few minutes later, an interceptor missile called Advanced Air Defence System (AAD) would have lifted off from the Wheeler Island, 60 km across the sea from the ITR, and destroyed the incoming adversarial missile in mid-flight at an altitude of 20 km. Thus, the interception was to take place in endo-atmosphere, that is, below an altitude of 50 km.

But what happened was this: The modified Prithvi missile took off from the ITR but did not reach the required altitude of 110 km. It reached an altitude of only 60 to 70 km. It also did not reach its expected range. It fell into the Bay of Bengal. The Launch Control Centre at the Wheeler Island, therefore, did not give the command for the AAD to lift off. “Some onboard item in the attacker missile could have malfunctioned. Some component could have misbehaved. We have to study the telemetry,” said DRDO missile technologists. The interceptor was not launched at all because “we cannot anticipate the velocity with which the modified Prithvi missile will come down,” they explained.

The interceptor’s launch was precluded by “built-in safeguards” in the LCC.

“Unless the attacker missile reaches a particular altitude and range, the interceptor will not take off,” they explained.

They said a team would study why the modified Prithvi missile did not reach its specified altitude. This Prithvi missile was 11 metres long and weighed five tonnes. Its diameter was one meter. It is powered by liquid propellants. The interceptor is 7.5 metres tall, weighs 1.3 tonnes and has a diameter of 0.5 metres. It has solid propellants.

The DRDO has successfully conducted three interceptor missile tests earlier in November 2006, December 2007 and March 2009 as part of its efforts to establish a Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield against incoming ballistic missiles from enemy countries.





The Hindu : News / National : Interceptor missile fails to take off

 

[mjnaushad]

A thread already opened and discussed to 10 pages.

 

[cosmos]

This is what Hindu have reported...Look at the bolded part...

But what happened was this: The modified Prithvi missile took off from the ITR but did not reach the required altitude of 110 km. It reached an altitude of only 60 to 70 km. It also did not reach its expected range. It fell into the Bay of Bengal. The Launch Control Centre at the Wheeler Island, therefore, did not give the command for the AAD to lift off. “Some onboard item in the attacker missile could have malfunctioned. Some component could have misbehaved. We have to study the telemetry,” said DRDO missile technologists. The interceptor was not launched at all because “we cannot anticipate the velocity with which the modified Prithvi missile will come down,” they explained.

The interceptor’s launch was precluded by “built-in safeguards” in the LCC.

“Unless the attacker missile reaches a particular altitude and range, the interceptor will not take off,” they explained.

The Hindu : News / National : Interceptor missile fails to take off

So it can only follow a pre-programmed flight path to a designated position. Good luck shooting at enemy missiles that you have no clue of..

 

[Creder]

ok so i dont get this, your prthvi doesnt work either ?? i mean wth

 

[Kompromat]

Bad luck .... Let them try again !

 

[cosmos]

Didn't Go as "Scripted".

 

[Renegade]

So it can only follow a pre-programmed flight path to a designated position. Good luck shooting at enemy missiles that you have no clue of..

Not only is your reasoning devoid of basic common sense, it also seems to be handicapped of the understanding of the basic laws of Physics.

Any projectile followes a trijectory to reach a point and this trijectory is set depending on the initial factors, so the trijectory of any projectile can be very easily be mapped once its launch and other basic parameters have been tracked by a radar.

This logic is not unique to the Indian ABM programme, its basic Physics and applies to all other ABM programmes.

 

[KeenGuy]

It failed. What a surprise.

 

[Renegade]

ok so i dont get this, your prthvi doesnt work either ?? i mean wth

Yeah. Unlike you we didnt get a fully developed missile programme from the North Koreans...

 

[paritosh]

So it can only follow a pre-programmed flight path to a designated position. Good luck shooting at enemy missiles that you have no clue of..

mr. rocket scientist....the purpose of having an anti-bm shield is to neutralize the incoming missile...and it's effectiveness is solely based on the ability to track a launched missile...through the usage of satellites and Radar....
once the enemy missile is launched...it can be tracked and it's flight path be predicted....it really isn't that hard...the difference is that with an enemy missile it would take longer for the computation of it's flight parameters than from a test subject missile...
in this case...the prithvi 'enemy' missile's control systems failed to execute the flight program fed to it's mission computers...
the test is an early test in a series of tests to reach the goal of having to just scan and track a missile and launch an interceptor to take it down...

 

[KeenGuy]

Yeah. Unlike you we didnt get a fully developed missile programme from the North Koreans...

I bet it sucks not having friends who care about you.