If the American Patriot is the yardstick, then India’s BMD programme has a long way from liftoff. For, it is astonishing that the man who headed the Prithvi programme could be so wrong about the Patriot. Perhaps Saraswat got his information from former US president George H. Bush, who said the Patriot had a 95 per cent interception rate during the 1991 Gulf War.