India Setting up Laser-Based Ballistic Missile Defense System

According to the newly-appointed Director General of India's Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO), V.K. Saraswat, India's new defense strategy priorities will be cutting-edge technologies that were denied to India by the West, and countering terrorism. The scientist, addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Feb. 20, said that in the next 10 to 15 years, laser technology would be introduced into all Indian weaponry, including tanks, airborne weaponry, and guns.

Last year, when he was still DRDO's Director for the Air Defense Program, Saraswat told reporters that India is working toward developing a laser-based ballistic missile defense system. He expected the system would be in operation within 15 years. He told reporters: "If you have a laser-based system on an airborne or seaborne platform, it can travel at the speed of light, and in a few seconds, we can kill a ballistic missile coming towards us." He said the laser-based interceptor will give "more time" to the BMD system to kill a ballistic missile launched from a distance of 2,000 km.

He pointed out that ballistic missile flight has three segments: At launch it is in the boost phase; in the midcourse phase it reaches the highest point of its trajectory; in the terminal phase, it is coming close to the target on ground. "Suppose a missile is being launched at an Indian target from 2,000 km. If I have to kill it there, I will have to travel that distance, which will require many minutes to be there. If you have a laser system travelling at the speed of light, it can kill that missile in its boost phase (just after launch) even before it has travelled a few hundred km."