RAS question
India's Ballistic Missile Defence system successfully intercepted a target missile for the first time in:
Correct answer: (A) 2006.
India's Ballistic Missile Defence system first successfully intercepted a target missile in 2006, when PAD intercepted a modified Prithvi missile.
Explanation
The year is 2006 because India's first successful ballistic missile defence interception took place on 27 November 2006. In that test, PAD, or Prithvi Air Defence, intercepted a modified Prithvi target missile at an altitude of 48 km. The cited DefenceTalk report, published in November 2006, describes the event as a significant missile-defence milestone: a modified Prithvi was launched from the Interim Test Range, Balasore, tracked by mission systems, and then successfully intercepted by the interceptor missile. This is why 2006 is the relevant exam answer, not a later year. The explanation also places the next major step separately: the endo-atmospheric AAD test was successfully conducted in December 2007.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) 2003 is too early; the BMD programme was still in its early stages, while the first successful interception came in 2006.
- (C) 2014 is too late because by then India had already conducted multiple BMD tests after the first successful interception in 2006.
- (D) 2010 refers to a later phase of testing, not the first successful interception, which had already occurred in 2006.
Concept
This tests defence technology chronology within Science and Technology, especially India's missile and strategic capability milestones. Such dates recur in RAS because they link institutional achievement, DRDO-led technology development, and national security readiness.