Updated on Friday, March 06, 2009, 00:00 IST

New Delhi, March 06: After the "hat-trick" of successful trials in its effort to operationalise an indigenous Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) shield, the DRDO today said the system would be ready for deployment in the next three to four years.

"It will take us one or two more trials before our system is ready to be offered for deployment," DRDO Chief Controller and Distinguished Scientist W Selvamurthy told agencies here.

"Our last three tests have been quite successful. In the next trials, we will do a combined test of both the endo-atmospheric and exo-atmospheric test," he said.

India today successfully tested the 'Prithvi' Air Defence (PAD) missile for the third time in just over two years. The interceptor PAD missile, launched from a mobile launcher placed in the Wheeler Island's Integrated Test Range off Orissa coast, destroyed the target missile- surface-to-surface 'Dhanush' in this case- at an altitude of 75-km in the sky.

"This combined test will help us assess the joint functioning of the two-tiered BMD shield that is being developed," Selvamurthy said.

DRDO's BMD programme is a two-tier system consisting of two interceptor missiles, namely PAD missile for high altitude interception at altitudes between 50-80 Km, and the Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile for lower altitude interceptions between 15-30 Kms.

The DRDO had earlier successfully tested the BMD system in November 2006 outside the atmosphere mode at 48-km altitude and in December 2007 inside atmosphere at 15-km altitude.

Along with the interceptor missiles, DRDO has also developed the surveillance systems for the shield. The ground-based surveillance and tracking systems along with the command, control and communication systems, can be operated successfully in highly-dense electronic warfare environment.

Bureau Report