India's purchase of anti-missile system to counteract China's DF missiles ?

India's test fire of anti-missile interception

India, the regular customer in the world arms market, now plans to spend three billion US dollars to buy anti-missile systems.According to reports from US media, the Pentagon's report on the Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) deploys DF-21 medium-range ballistic missiles in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Therefore, India holds the opinion that the slow development of its home-made anti-missile systems cannot fulfill strategic needs and it thus seeks to purchase the most advantaged anti-missile systems globally to strengthen its defense capability. More after the break...

Reports say US Patriotic-3 and Israel's Iron Dome and David's Sling missile defense systems are all in India's favour. The contract of Patriotic-3 is likely to be announced before US President Barack Obama visits India in November. Meanwhile, India and Israel both show their willingness to make such a deal for anti-missile systems. However, India must first gain US permission before its purchase of Israel's anti-missile systems, because the development of these weapons relies on the funds and technology of US.

US Patriotic-3 missile system

Israel's Iron Dome missile defense systems

Israel's David's Sling missile defense systems

Analysis points out India's urgent purchase of anti-missile systems results from the pressure of Chinese missiles. Indian defense officials state China targets its hundreds of nuclear missiles at India.According to reports, US's recent report of Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China points out in order to enhance military deterrence, PLA deploys more advanced solid fueled CSS-5 (DF-21) nuclear missiles with better anti-destruction performance in the area nearer to the China-India border. India worries that its home-made anti-missile systems are still under development and cannot be put into real battles in a short time. Therefore, it's necessary to bring in the west's more advanced weapons.

China's DF missiles

Indian military experts have stressed many times that China has geological advantages over India when a battle breaks out between China and India. The China-India border is about 5,000 kilometers away from Beijing, while it's only more than 900 kilometers away from New Delhi, which means PLA could launch attack on India's main military targets in the north of India within more than ten seconds by deploying DF-11/15 strategic ballistic missiles. Furthermore, the more powerful DF-21 medium-range missiles have bigger military deterrence to India's military. Therefore, India urgently seeks to purchase advanced and reliable anti-missile systems.

According to Indian media, India's indigenous anti-missile weapons include Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missiles and surface-to-surface "Prithvi" missiles. It's reported that totally five test fires gained good results. An Indian defense expert states the Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile has better performance than Patriotic-3. He also says India is expected to become the fourth state capable of intercepting missiles with a range of 5,000 kilometers after US, Russia and Israel.

However, an Indian missile expert points out the fatal weakness of India's missile defense is the poor foundation of the national industry. Even though there are foreign technologies, some key parts related with interception missiles cannot be produced at home but can only rely on exports.