The Test Range off the coast of Odisha is getting "overloaded" Indian Defence Update
India is planning to set up two more missile testing ranges with a number of missions coming up in the next few years.
Ranges overloaded
Top Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) officials said
that with the present Integrated Test Range off the coast of Odisha
getting “overloaded,” plans were on to establish similar facilities
along the East Coast.
Need to cover more area
“We need to extend and augment our range capabilities geographically. We need to cover more area,” one of the officials told The Hindu while declining to identify the places.
The works
The official said that each of the upcoming facilities would be a
full-fledged testing range to support both short-range and long-range
missions. It would have a launch control centre, a few launch pads, a
blockhouse and state-of-the-art communication network, besides permanent
monitoring stations such as telemetry and electro-optical tracking.
According to him, a number of tests would be coming up simultaneously in
future and there was a need to expand the activities to multiple places
so that more missions could be conducted at the same time.
Over two-three years
Initially to begin as an interim test range and later an integrated test
range, the new facilities, to be given shape within two to three years,
would enable DRDO missile technologists to have a nationwide range.
These ranges would be acting in tandem to track the performance of a
missile over long distances.
Pointing out that very few countries had missile testing ranges, flight
testing or land ranges for conducting trials, like India does, starting
from battle tanks to air defence, he said the country’s geography
permitted India to have them at multiple places.
Besides the two ranges along the East Coast, the DRDO was also planning
to establish a Floating Test Range, which would include radars and
launch facilities on a ship, another official said.
Problems relating to safety and other issues could be overcome through a
Floating Test Range, which could be used for testing missiles relating
to air defence or ship-based Dhanush missiles.
Asian Defence News
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