India to Deploy Missile Defense Systems Near Pakistan Border

India has decided to install its indigenous ballistic missile defense systems at two villages in the western state of Rajasthan. The villages in Alwar and Pali cities are both less than 800 kilometers from the Pakistani capital Islamabad. The counter attack missiles will be able to provide double-layered security with the capacity to shoot down enemy missiles both within the earth’s atmosphere (endo-atmospheric) and outside it (exo-atmospheric). State-owned Defense Research and Development Organization had conceived the program in 1999 and since then, the program has witnessed many trials and upgrades, Sputnik reported. Some more tests will be conducted in the coming months before the system is commissioned into the Indian armed forces. The latest successful tests of the endo-atmospheric as well as exo-atmospheric interceptor missiles were conducted in March this year. With this capability, India has now entered the elite league of nations having this capability. The other four countries are US, Russia, Israel and France. India’s decision to install the advance ballistic missile system near its border with Pakistan stems from the fact that the two nuclear-armed neighbors are engaged in a prolonged territorial dispute and have gone to war three times after their partition in 1947.