Explained-When a missile misfires 

What is the news?

Pakistan recently made the claim that an unarmed Indian missile landed 124 km inside its territory, which India has conformed and cited technical malfunction as the reason that led to the accidental firing of a missile. 

What are the protocols that countries need to follow before conducting tests? 

According to the ballistic missiles agreement signed in 2005,

– Each country must provide the other an advance notification on a flight test it intends to take for any land or sea launched, surface-to-surface ballistic missile.

– The pre-notification has to be “conveyed through the respective Foreign Offices and the High Commissions, as per the format annexed to this Agreement. 

However, regarding this incident, there was no prior contact between the two countries. 

One of the reasons for this may have been that for the kind of missile that was tested, there was no mandatory clause to pre inform. Both the countries has not disclosed the type of missile that was involved in the incident. 

What may be the probable reasons for the change of missile’s trajectory? 

This can happen due to various reasons like wrong target coordinates, target data fed into the missile gets corrupted. 

Source: This post is based on the article “Explained-When a missile misfires” published in Indian express on 12th March 2022.