BHUBANESWAR: India successfully test-fired an anti-ballistic missile on Sunday capable of intercepting targets outside the planet’s atmosphere, a major step in development of a missile defence system available to only a handful of nations.

Sharing borders with nuclear-armed China and Pakistan, India is developing a two-tier missile defence system that aims to provide a multi-layered shield against ballistic missile attack.

“This (test) is part of the ballistic missile defence system which we are developing...,” said Ravi Kumar Gupta, spokesman for the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

“The mission has been com­pleted and the interception parameter has been achieved.” The system is intended to destroy an incoming missile at a higher altitude in the exo-atmosphere, and if that fails in the endo-atmosphere, within the Earth’s atmosphere.

Currently, only a small club of nations including the United States, Russia and Israel possess an anti-ballistic missile system.

In the light of changes in geo-political situation in its neighbourhood, many analysts have suggested revisiting India’s nuclear doctrine whose central principle is that New Delhi would not be the first to use atomic weapons in a conflict.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has promised to revise the doctrine if it comes to power, but has ruled out the first use of nuclear weapons.—Reuters

Opinion

Editorial

The Peca problem
Updated 15 Feb, 2025

The Peca problem

The fight for fundamental freedoms is not the media’s alone, but one that concerns every citizen.
Miners in danger
15 Feb, 2025

Miners in danger

YESTERDAY’S devastating terrorist attack in Harnai, which killed at least 11 coal miners and injured seven others,...
Solar panels scam
15 Feb, 2025

Solar panels scam

THE scam involving over-invoicing to the tune of more than Rs69bn in the import of solar panels raises many ...
Dangerous times
Updated 14 Feb, 2025

Dangerous times

Pakistan accounted for six journalist killings in 2024, of which three were deliberately murdered, according to the CPJ.
Difficult target
14 Feb, 2025

Difficult target

A ONE-two punch delivered by an unforeseen, sharp dip in inflation and an extremely slim base of taxpayers is...
Amazing show
14 Feb, 2025

Amazing show

PAKISTAN’S ability to turn it up at the flick of a switch remains uninhibited. The latest show came in...