Bhubaneswar, Mar 6 : India on Friday inched closer towards its endeavour to put in place its own home-grown Ballistic Missile Defence System as it successfully carried out the third Interceptor test of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheeler Island in Orissa.

The mission control room burst into raptures as the radar display indicated the interception and destruction of the decoy enemy missile by the interceptor. Friday''s test achieved all the mission objectives.

The two-stage Interceptor Missile fitted with advanced systems hit the target enemy missile at 75 kms altitude.

To mimic the incoming enemy''s ballistic missile trajectory, Dhanush missile went to an altitude of 120 Km and was launched from ship about 100 km away from the Orissa Coast.

The Interceptor missile was launched from a mobile launcher located on Wheeler Island Launch Complex.

The third consecutive interception of Ballistic Missiles once again demonstrated the robustness of the Indian Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system.

The Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) have already conducted two interception trials, first in Exo-atmospheric region at 48 Kms altitude on November 27, 2006 and second in endo-atmospheric region at 15 kms using Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile on December 7, 2006.

The missile interception trial was witnessed by the DRDO Chief M Natarajan, Air Defence Programme Director Dr VK Saraswat, senior Scientists from DRDO, senior officers from Armed Forces and Government officials. (ANI)