India successfully test fires exo-atmospheric missile interceptor

India successfully test-fired for the first time an exo-atmospheric missile interceptor at a defence base in Odisha Sunday.

The missile operates outside the atmosphere and is part of the country's efforts to create a shield against an incoming enemy missile at an altitude of over 100 km, a senior defence official said.

The indigenously developed interceptor missile was fired from Wheeler Island off the coast near Dhamra port in Bhadrak district, about 170 km from here.

It successfully intercepted an incoming ballistic missile, a modified variant of the Prithvi fired from a ship off the coast near the integrated test range at Chandipur-on-sea in Balasore district, about 70 km from Wheeler Island.

"The test was successful," test range director M.V.K.V. Prasad told IANS.

Defence Research and Development Organisation spokesperson Ravi Kumar Gupta told IANS the mission was to test the exo-atmospheric interception at about 120 km altitude and it has been completed and the interception parameter has been achieved.

He said both the interceptor and the target missiles were new ones.