India testfired its indigenous interceptor missile off the coast of the eastern state of Orissa on Sunday, Indian highly placed sources said.

The missile, called Advanced Air Defence (AAD) missile and capable of destroying any incoming hostile ballistic missile, was testfired from Integrated Test Range at the Wheeler Island off Orissa coast. The testfiring achieved the desired result with precision, the sources said.

In the test, the hostile target ballistic missile was a modified surface-to-surface Prithvi missile that blasted off from a mobile launcher at 09:33 a.m. and the interceptor AAD missile sensed it and took off in four minutes flat to destroy it with precision over the Bay of Bengal, the sources said.

The test was part of India's plans to put in place the initial phase of robust Ballistic Missile Defence shield by 2012, the sources said.