Six strategic breakthroughs place India among elite missile powers

Successful interceptor, anti-ship, MIRV and hypersonic technology tests have strengthened India's position among a select group of advanced missile powers

India has consolidated its position as a major military power in South and South-east Asia by notching up six key milestones in a month that make it one of the few countries capable of building both advanced offensive deterrence and sophisticated defensive missile shields.

 

The latest achievement came last week when the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully conducted three consecutive flight tests of two world-class next-generation interceptor missiles and the maiden trial of the Naval Anti-Ship Missile-Medium Range (NASM-MR) from the Integrated Test Range off the Odisha coast.

 

Defence sources said the twin tests of interceptors (AD-I and AD-II) and the anti-ship missile demonstrated a multi-layered Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield and India's ability to neutralise long-range threats, including intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range of over 5000-km, while simultaneously enhancing maritime strike capabilities.

 

"The interceptors successfully engaged their respective targets. The systems have been designed and developed with the latest technologies to address the emerging missile threats," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

 

Describing how a BMD system functions, the sources cited above said targets are first tracked by radars, which continuously monitor their speed, altitude and trajectory before passing commands to launch the interceptors.

 

Interception is executed in one of two ways – the interceptors either use 'hit-to-kill' kinetic energy to physically crash into the threat or detonate the target to destroy or disable it before impact.

 

Launched in 1999, a year after Pakistan conducted its nuclear test, India's BMD programme has evolved steadily over the last two decades. The first phase focused on intercepting short and medium-range ballistic missiles through a two-layered interceptor system - endo-atmospheric (within Earth’s atmosphere) and exo-atmospheric (beyond Earth’s atmosphere).

 

Phase-II of the programme, involving advanced AD-series interceptors (AD-I and AD-II), has been designed to engage targets travelling at significantly higher velocities and greater ranges, including IRBMs and ICBMs. The DRDO, sources said, has initiated Phase-III development under the projects code-named AD-AH and AD-AM to counter cruise missiles, hypersonic glide vehicles and missiles that carry multiple independent nuclear warheads.

 

The successful completion of Phase-II development of the BMD system assumes significance at a time when ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Europe have highlighted the growing threat posed by ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones against cities, military installations and critical infrastructure. Beyond strengthening deterrence, the latest tests signal India's transition from a nation relying primarily on retaliatory capability to one possessing both the sword and the shield.

 

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hailed the achievement, stating that the success has put India in the elite group of nations having ballistic missile defence capabilities to engage missiles up to ICBMs. "These tests have successfully demonstrated multiple crucial technologies bolstering nations defence capabilities against different types of enemy threats," he said on social media platform X.

 

India has also demonstrated its ability to kill satellites with Mission Shakti, a BMD system, through which a modified three-stage PDV Mark-II destroyed an orbiting Indian satellite (Microsat-R) in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at an altitude of about 282 km in 2019.

 

So far, only a handful of countries, including the United States, Russia, China and Israel, have developed operational BMD systems capable of intercepting advanced ballistic missile threats through layered defence systems.

 

The United States remains the global leader with systems such as Ground-Based Midcourse Defence (GMD), THAAD, Aegis BMD and Patriot PAC-3. Russia operates the A-135 and the newer A-235 missile defence systems around Moscow.

 

Israel has developed the world's most combat-tested layered shield through Iron Dome, David's Sling, Arrow-2 and Arrow-3. China possesses a mature, multi-layered BMD network with robust GMD capabilities. Its midcourse interceptor arsenal includes the highly capable HQ-19, alongside the DN-series (DN-2, DN-3) and SC-series.

 

India's latest accomplishment follows another series of strategic successes in May, when DRDO validated three critical technologies - an advanced Agni missile equipped with Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) capability, the Tactical Advanced Range Augmentation (TARA) glide weapon system, and a scramjet combustor technology that forms the foundation of future hypersonic missile programmes.

 

While MIRV-equipped Agni missiles enhance India's nuclear deterrent, the BMD system aims to protect strategic assets and the country from hostile missile attacks. The hypersonic and glide weapon programmes will ensure that India remains competitive in next-generation warfare technologies being pursued by major military powers.

 

Taken together, the six achievements represent one of the most significant periods in India's strategic weapons development since the country's missile programme was launched under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme in the 1980s.

 

"These milestones showcase the country’s growing mastery in next-generation strategic technologies spanning nuclear deterrence, hypersonic propulsion, anti-ballistic and precision stand-off strike capabilities. The validation of MIRV technology and advanced BMD systems has added a new dimension to the country’s strategic deterrence capability at a time when Asia is witnessing one of its most volatile security environments in decades," said Nanda Kishore Samal, a retired wing commander.

 

The significance of such a capability has grown in recent years. For India, the challenge is compounded by its geopolitical environment. China possesses one of the world's largest and most sophisticated missile inventories, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, hypersonic glide vehicles and intermediate-range systems. Pakistan continues to modernise its missile arsenal while developing systems capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear payloads.

 

Apart from the BMD, the successful maiden trial of the NASM-MR is equally important when strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific intensifies. The NASM-MR programme is a part of India's indigenous anti-ship missile family. It follows recent successful demonstrations of the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRAsM) and NASM-Short Range (NASM-SR). The medium-range variant is expected to provide significantly greater stand-off strike capability for surface combatants and potentially other naval platforms.

 

This all-weather, over-the-horizon anti-ship missile has a strike range up to 350 km and can destroy small to medium sized targets like frigates, corvettes and destroyers. It will have different versions, including ship-launched, air-launched and submarine-launched variants.

 

Defence experts said the development assumes added importance as India seeks to enhance maritime deterrence in the Indian Ocean region. China's expanding naval footprint, including increased deployments in the Indian Ocean, has heightened the importance of indigenous anti-ship capabilities and sea-denial weapons for the Indian Navy.

 

"The lesson from recent conflicts is simple - deterrence alone is not enough. Nations require both sword and shield. India's missile defence architecture is evolving into that shield," said Samal, besides adding that the indigenous anti-ship capabilities have become central to India's sea-denial strategy.  

Country	BMD system	Interception range
United States	GMD, THAAD, Aegis BMD, Patriot PAC-3	SRBM, MRBM, IRBM, ICBM
Russia	A-135, A-235 Nudol, S-500	IRBM, ICBM
Israel	Iron Dome, David's Sling, Arrow-2, Arrow-3	SRBM, MRBM, IRBM, Cruise missiles
China	HQ-19, HQ-26, Midcourse Defence Programme	MRBM, IRBM, evolving ICBM defence
India	PDV, AAD, PDV, AD-I, AD-II	SRBM, MRBM, IRBM, ICBM

 

Range integration

 

Prior to the BMD and NASM-MR tests more than 11,000 people from 10 villages within a 3.5 km radius of the launching complex III of the ITR were shifted to cyclone shelters and temporary camps for two consecutive days. They received compensation according to MoD guidelines. Fishermen in Balasore and Bhadrak districts were also alerted not to venture into the sea while police in motorboats patrolled the eastern coast round the clock.