India eyes missile defence in 3 years

NEW DELHI—The first tests of India’s home-grown anti-ballistic missile system have been successful and the country expects it to be ready for military use in three years, its top missile scientist said on Wednesday. India is also designing Agni IV, a new version of its longest-range ballistic missile, which will be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and hit targets more than 5,000 km away, V.K. Saraswat said.
The announcement came days after defence scientists said they had conducted a successful second test of an interceptor missile that destroyed a supersonic missile at an altitude of 15 km on the country’s east coast. India needed a missile shield as it had a policy not to use nuclear weapons unless it became a victim of a nuclear attack, Saraswat said, adding that this made India the fourth country after the U.S., Russia and Israel with such a capability.
“Suppose tomorrow there is a missile taking off somewhere in our vicinity, I do not know whether it is coming with a nuclear tip or a conventional warhead,” he told a news conference. “If I keep quiet and wait for it to fall on my city and then start sending my own deterrent missile, by the time a lot of damage is done,” he said. “It is essential you have a system which will first take on that kind of a threat.
“Because we have a ballistic missile defence system ... a country which has a small arsenal will think twice before it ventures,” he said in an apparent reference to old rival Pakistan. India’s indigenous missile programme has built short- and long-range missiles, including one that can hit targets deep inside China.
It has fought three wars with Pakistan and was on the brink of a fourth in 2002, and also fought a brief border war with China in 1962. Both China and Pakistan have their own missile arsenals that are capable of reaching almost all of India.—Agencies