US briefs India on anti-missile system

US briefs India on anti-missile system

NEW DELHI: A US defence team gave a technical presentation of the upgraded Patriot anti-missile system to senior Indian defence scientists and missile experts on Tuesday.

Technical experts of the External Affairs Ministry’s International Security Division and senior army, air force and naval officers attended the presentation by the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) delegation, held at the army headquarters.

The four-member delegation headed by Edward Ross is in New Delhi on a three-day visit as part of periodical exchanges between the US and India to offer updates on the progress achieved in the anti-missile defence shield.

India is keen to go in for a quick reaction anti-missile system and has been evaluating systems from Russia, Israel and the US to blunt Pakistan’s missile edge. Recently, the US invited India to join the select group of nations to be observers in its anti-missile development programme. In this region neither China nor Pakistan have the anti-ballistic missile capability.

Indian Defence Secretary Ajai Vikram Singh said that as part of the search for an effective anti-missile shield, India was keen to know more about the different kinds of systems. He said India would go for a system that met its security requirements.

The Bush administration had recently given clearance for a classified technical presentation of the PAC-2 system as part of the Next Step in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) agreement signed with India last year. The agreement was signed to assuage India after it had protested at Pakistan being granted a major non-NATO ally.

Though, the US team gave a presentation of its PAC-2 version that it had used successfully against Iraq during the Gulf War, India has set its eyes on the latest PAC-3 variant. PAC-2 is a long-range all altitude, all weather air defence system to counter tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missile and advanced aircraft. The range of the missile is 70 kilometres and can climb to an altitude of 24 kilometres. iftikhar gilani