NEW DELHI, March 6: India on Friday successfully tested its anti-missile interceptor for the third time in two years and a senior official called it a hat trick.

Ramping up its efforts to operationalise an indigenous Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield, India tested the ‘Prithvi’ Air Defence (PAD) missile from a test field in the Bay of Bengal.

“It is a hat trick,” the Press Trust of India quoted chief of the project Dr V. K. Saraswat as saying, seconds after the PAD hit the incoming target missile during the tests in the Bay of Bengal off the Orissa coast.

The interceptor PAD missile, which was launched from a mobile launcher placed in the Wheeler Island’s Integrated Test Range, destroyed the target missile — surface-to-surface ‘Dhanush’ in this case — at an altitude of 75km in the sky, Defence Ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar, who witnessed the test through a video conferencing facility in New Delhi, said.
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