Highly placed sources in the Indian Defence Ministry said defence bureaucrats from the two countries are currently drafting a joint missile defence plan under which India will operate very sophisticated Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) Systems to counter ballistic missiles and nuclear threats.

The two countries are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding during the forthcoming Defence Policy Group (DPG) meeting. The schedule of the DPG meet is yet to be finalized, added the sources.

Unlike other missile shield programmes, India aims at seeking technical know-how from the United States on missile defence to enhance security in the country. India aims to acquire a state-of-art BMD system with a network of early warning sensors and anti-missile land/sea-based missile batteries. India has already witnessed simulations of U.S missile defence systems and the U.S. is keen to sell the Patriot Advanced Capability – 3 (PAC-3) system.

As of now, India is also going full-throttle on the development of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO)’s BMD system. The two-tier-BMD system by DRDO tracks and destroys incoming missiles both inside and outside earth’s atmosphere. In the first test in 2006, an exo-atmospheric interceptor missile successfully destroyed a hostile missile at an altitude of 50 kilomteres. In 2007, an endo-atmospheric interceptor destroyed a hostile missile at a 15 kilometer altitude. Currently, simulation tests are being carried out to test both the interceptor missiles (endo and exo) in an integrated mode.

According to sources, DRDO is embarking on developing a BMD system capable of taking on a missile with 2,000 kilometer range in the first phase and the second phase will deal with missile threats from missiles up to 5,000 kilometers.

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