Sought A-Sat test nod during UPA: Ex-DRDO chief Saraswat counters ex-NSA

HYDERABAD: Former National security advisor (NSA) Shivshankar Menon's comments that permission was never sought during the UPA regime for testing anti-satellite (A-Sat) missile are 'erroneous', said former Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief Dr VK Saraswat on Sunday.

Dr Saraswat, also a Niti Aayog member, was referring to Menon's interview in which he claimed that Dr Saraswat "never asked me for permission for A-Sat test".

Saraswat said that he had made an "informal presentation" to Menon and as there was no response from the government and no necessary financial resources were provided, they did not go ahead with the programme.

"At that time, we had said that we are going to do two experiments, one with electronically simulated satellite trajectory and launching an interceptor against that to avoid debris in the environment. On the success of this, we had planned to do a test with the real satellite trajectory," he said.

"It was during the tenure of Manohar Parrikar as the defence minister that the proposal was put forth by Dr G Satheesh Reddy, current scientific advisor to defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman. National security advisor Ajit Doval shared the details with PM Narendra Modi. The PM showed the courage and vision to go ahead with the project," he said.