US Approval of Integrated Air Defence System to India 'Disturbs' Regional Peace: Pakistan

Pakistan has expressed concern over the United States' recent approval to sell Integrated Air Defense Weapon System (IADWS) to India.

“The decision of US will have serious impact on the stability of the region,” Aisha Farooqui, Spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was quoted as saying by Associated Press of Pakistan on Thursday.

The $1.867 billion sale was greenlight by the US earlier this week. Also called National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), the system is built by Raytheon Corporation and Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace.

With the IADWS, India plans to fortify its capital city, New Delhi, by erecting a multi-layered missile shield. “The networked system, capable of even shooting around buildings, will take care of 9/11-like and other close-in threats,” sources from the defense ministry were quoted as saying by the Indian media in mid-2019.

As per the proposed air defense plan for Delhi, the outermost layer of the missile shield will consist of two-tier ballistic missile defence (BMD) system being developed by India's state-run DRDO, the second layer will be through S-400 systems, and the innermost layer of protection will be through the NASAMS.

The innermost layer will be a combination of different weapons like Stinger surface-to-air missiles, gun systems and AIM-120C-7 AMRAAMs (advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles), backed by three-dimensional Sentinel radars, fire-distribution centres and command-and-control units. 

The DRDO system’s AAD (advanced air defence) and PAD (Prithvi air defence) interceptor missiles are currently geared to intercept enemy missiles, in the 2,000-km class, at altitudes from 15-25 km to 80-100 km. The second layer consisting of S-400 systems will have missiles with interception ranges of 120, 200, 250 and 380 km, backed by their associated battle-management system of command posts and launchers, long-range acquisition and engagement radars. This is followed by Barak-8 medium-range surface-to-air missile systems with 70-100 km interception range, and the indigenous Akash area defence missile systems with a 25-km range.