On the 25th of May the horrific spectre of nuclear warfare reared its ugly head once more as North Korea announced that it had detonated a nuclear bomb comparable to the one that destroyed Hiroshima. The immediate reaction by the UN was to reach for the mighty sanction stick, the effect of the announcement on the rest of the world, however, was to put missile defence at the top of the agenda. 

Since the announcement South Korea has sent a warship to guard its northern border, US senators have redoubled their efforts to get missile defence back into the budget and Japan’s ruling party has placed high priority on being able to launch a pre-emptive strike. Another country to express outrage is India. Well within the range of the despot nation, India has for quite some time been working on a remarkable missile defence programme.

                           India's Missiles Fly up the Learning Curve

     Shortly after the first tests in 2006, the Indian Defence Research and Development Organisation publicly revealed a ballistic missile defence programme, which had been in the research phase for ‘years’. Recent tests have shown that the sub-continent, now an emerging world power, has come a long way. Sandwiched between successful 2009 trials of the BrahMos cruise missile on 5 March and the Prithvi II nuclear-capable SRBM in mid-April, the 7 March test of an indigenous ABM missile was equally successful in terms of test objectives.

The international context of these tests has also become more evident; the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai along with the growing Taliban threat in Pakistan and the strength of India’s main regional rival China are all good reasons for the emerging world power to look to increased border defence.